Mark Driscoll and plagiarism – Seattle megachurch pastor Mark Driscoll was accused of plagiarism by Janet Mefferd on her November 21 broadcast. Initially, she questioned Driscoll about using concepts and terms without proper citation. Jonathan Merritt at Religion News Service covered the story the next day. Given the nature of the evidence, I thought the matter might drop at that point. However, Mefferd dug deeper and found instances where it appears Driscoll took passages nearly verbatim from a commentary written by D. A. Carson. Merritt also has that story.
Driscoll has his defenders but he also has some pretty persuasive critics, particularly this professor writing at First Things. I plan to look at this issue in more detail next week, but my initial thought is that the newer charges are more convincing and require some kind of response from Driscoll and his publisher.
David Barton’s Facebook Page – I already posted on this but either due to Thanksgiving or the lack of novelty, David Barton’s reposting of a urban myth as though it was a true story has gone without much comment. It still remains on his Facebook page, having been shared over 1,000 times, even though many commenters pointed out that the story is false. It is encouraging that some commenters expressed negative reactions. For instance, this one:
I’m surprised to see this known-to-be-false story posted here. It would be one thing to post it for the moral lesson aspect and say so in your comments, but it’s another to pass it along as if it were a true story without any such commentary. If you don’t realize that this story is just social media rumor, then how many other stories have you passed along that were also false? Consider this my goodbye notice.
The response to the allegations against Driscoll remind me a bit of the uproar over Thomas Nelson pulling Barton’s book in August of 2012. Barton’s defenders came out in force to attack those who raised concerns. Some of that has happened already with Meffferd being the focus of attacks from those who support Driscoll.
Michael Peroutka in Spanish River High School – I think this matter may get some attention next week. Michael Peroutka is a board member of the League of the South who spoke at a FL public high school on Tuesday. When his dba name Institute on the Constitution came to a school district in Springboro, OH, there was a major negative reaction among parents. I wonder if the same will occur in Boca Raton.
Is the knockout game a myth? – Alan Noble at Christ and Pop Culture makes a pretty compelling case that the hysteria over an upsurge in racially motivated attacks by black mobs is unwarranted.
In other news, ministers may not be able to take a housing allowance if a new court ruling holds up.
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