Category: Professional issues

Writing Recycling: A New Wrinkle in the Mark Driscoll Plagiarism Controversy?

In 2012, journalist Jonah Lehrer came under fire for self-plagiarism.* Lehrer eventually lost his job due to recycling and inventing material, notably attributing false quotes to Bob Dylan. While writing for the New Yorker, Lehrer posted a column which began in nearly the same manner as a column published by the Wall Street Journal during the previous year. Jim Romenesko first reported Lehrer’s recycled material. To see how similar they are (nearly identical), you can go to Romenesko’s blog and/or compare the Wall Street Journal article with the New Yorker version. A lengthy description of recycling is provided by the Reluctant Habits blog.
Once the New Yorker learned of the reuse of material, the editor posted the following statement:

Editors’ Note: The introductory paragraphs of this post appeared in similar form in an October, 2011, column by Jonah Lehrer for the Wall Street Journal. We regret the duplication of material.

Eventually, it was learned that Lehrer had double dipped on other occasions. Although some complained about the term, “self-plagiarism,” his conduct was of intense interest to his peers. Lehrer eventually said about his actions, “It was a stupid thing to do and incredibly lazy and absolutely wrong.”
In summary, the publishers involved took the recycling seriously, they made readers aware of the duplication, and Lehrer said what he did was stupid, lazy and wrong.
It is unclear to me how the Christian publishing world regards recycling material when multiple publishers are involved. In this post, I am simply going to point out an occasion of recycling in Mark Driscoll’s books. I have been reading several of them, and I can tell you there are more instances. For now, I will stick with the case of Driscoll recycling material from Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions published by Crossway Books in 2009 into Real Marriage published by Thomas Nelson in 2012.
First, both books contain a description of pornography. They are nearly identical.**

In both books following the description of porn, Driscoll provides a summary of the aspects of pornography.  In Real Marriage, it comes on page 143.

As an aside, no experts are cited and I haven’t figured out where he got that list.
Now, here is the same material from Religion Saves published earlier by Crossway Books.

The passages are identical. Perhaps there is some undisclosed arrangement between the publishers, but I can’t find any permission or acknowledgment in Real Marriage that this material comes from a book published by Crossway.
In Real Marriage on page 113, Driscoll writes:

The life of a prostitute is incredibly dark: 62 percent report having been raped in prostitution. In one study, 75 percent of women in escort prostitution had attempted suicide; prostituted women comprised 15 percent of all completed suicides reported by hospitals.

On page 140 in Religion Saves, the same opening sentence is written (“The life of a prostitute is incredibly dark”) with the same statistics, albeit with a few additional stats.
On page 112 of Real Marriage, Driscoll writes:

The sexual revolution of the 1960s and ’70s radically altered the sexual landscape of our nation, so that today sex before marriage and viewing pornography are the culturally accepted norm.

The identical sentence can be found on page 130 of Religion Saves.
Much of chapter 5 in Religion Saves is recycled in Real Marriage. In both, Driscoll cites Jim Dobson on the story of Ted Bundy, and Patrick Carnes on sexual addiction. He recycles the material on sexual addiction with the same sexual addition criteria list from Carnes. He has identical statements about pornography and lust. Much of the same ground is covered in both books with no mention in Real Marriage of the exact same material being first published by Crossway in 2009.
Jonah Lehrer found that recycling material (and other misdeeds) caused quite a stir among journalists and led to publishers pursuing vigorous public actions to protect their interests and reputations.  To me, the situations seem quite similar. It remains to be seen how Christian publishers will view extensive recycling of material from one publisher’s book to another by the same author.
 
*I first learned of the Lehrer story from Jake Dockter at The Great White Whale. In his piece Dockter asked many pointed questions based on what was known at the time. Many of those questions remain unanswered.
**I added this image as an update to the original article.

Mark and Grace Driscoll's Real Marriage Compared to Justin and Lindsey Holcomb's Rid of My Disgrace

Near the end of December, Becky Garrison wrote a piece in Religion Dispatches about the Mark Driscoll plagiarism controversy. In her piece, she referred to a book by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb titled Rid of My Disgrace:

And again, portions of Rid of My Disgrace (2011, Re:Lit), penned by Justin and Lindsey Holcomb, can be found in this book. (Chapter 7 of Real Marriage, contains unattributed passages from pages 16-17 and 27 of Rid of My Disgrace). In an ironic twist, the Resurgence store still sells this book even though Driscoll tried to blame Holcomb for the plagiarism found in the Trial book.

Yesterday, I noted that the Kindle version of Real Marriage has been slightly (but insufficiently) modified to mention the Driscoll’s use of Dan Allender’s work in The Wounded Heart. I wonder if the next Kindle correction will be a more adequate reflection of the debt the Driscolls owe to the Holcombs.
This case is an interesting one in that Real Marriage mentions the Holcombs many times. The Holcombs are mentioned in the Acknowledgments and their book is cited in the end notes. However, this situation demonstrates how an author can cite a source and still not give adequate credit. As I will show, Real Marriage needs to be corrected to properly and completely cite Rid of My Disgrace.
Probably the best way to do this is to provide a passage from Real Marriage followed by the source material from Rid of My Disgrace.
From page 125 in Real Marriage:
Page 27 in Rid of My Disgrace:

Here the Driscolls quote the Holcombs after they reword the section from the Holcomb’s book on definition of sexual assault. Note that the Holcombs footnote this section since they are reporting information and facts they gleaned elsewhere. The Driscolls simply rework material from the Holcomb’s book without attribution.
On page 126 of Real Marriage, the Driscolls cite Martin Luther:
The footnote #6 in the text does not go to the Holcomb’s book but instead to the original Martin Luther source, implying that the Driscolls located the quote.
The source of the Luther quote appears to be from page 17 of Rid of My Disgrace:

This is the same quote and it is hard to escape the suspicion that the Driscolls did not find the Luther quote independently but rather lifted it from Rid of My Disgrace. One can see from the footnotes that the source is the same. Note that the Holcombs appropriately cite the source where they found the quote.

Let me hasten to add that it is clear that the Driscolls appreciate the Holcomb’s work. The Holcombs are thanked in the Acknowledgments and they are quoted with appropriate citations in the same chapter where they are not cited adequately.  Given that the Holcomb’s book is sold by Mars Hill, they probably want people to buy it. Nonetheless, even though this may not have been intentional plagiarism, it is a matter that should be corrected by the publisher.
Given the scope of the issues I’ve reported here and in other posts, I think it is time for a more robust statement from Driscoll, Mars Hill and, in this case, Thomas Nelson. There appears to be a pattern. It may not be intentional. Not having Driscoll’s purported “gift of discernment,” I have no way to divine his motives. However, passing off other’s people work as your own is a serious matter and should be more seriously addressed.
For all posts on Driscoll and Mars Hill, click here.

Kindle Edition of Mark Driscoll’s Real Marriage Adds Dan Allender to Acknowledgments

In mid-December, I wrote about Mark Driscoll’s use of Dan Allender’s material in Driscoll’s book Death By Love. Others have written about the lack of citation of Dan Allender’s work in Mark and Grace Driscoll’s book Real Marriage.  In short, Allender refers to styles of relating often used by women who have suffered abuse — tough girl, party girl, good girl — in his book The Wounded Heart. The Driscoll’s use the same scheme to describe abuse victims in their book Real Marriage, but without attributing the terms or concepts to Allender. Wenatchee the Hatchet established that Grace Driscoll, at least, was familiar with Allender’s work prior to writing Real Marriage. However, in the print book, no reference to Allender can be found.
In contrast, the Kindle version being sold now does mention Allender. The Kindle edition adds Allender’s name and book title to the Acknowledgments section of the Kindle edition of the book:

We want to thank Dan Allender, whose book, The Wounded Heart, has helped shape our thinking about the effects of abuse.*

Here is an image of the print edition from Google books:

There is no mention of Allender on pages 221-222, and if you search the book, Allender does not turn up in the search results.
Now on the same page in the Acknowledgments section in the Kindle edition*, it looks like this:

Now Allender is mentioned between the Driscoll kids and the church planters.
I purchased Real Marriage on January 3, 2014, long after the lack of citation had been publicly discussed. Ebooks are very easy to change. However, making changes in the print edition is another matter. We may never know if this change was the result of conversations between NavPress and Mark Driscoll but the alteration does seem to be tacit acknowledgment that Allender’s work should have been cited. In any case, the gesture is nice, but insufficient. Allender’s book should be cited with a footnote where the material is used.
Given what I have found thus far, I suspect there will be more Kindle corrections.
*Driscoll, Mark; Driscoll, Grace (2012-01-03). Real Marriage: The Truth About Sex, Friendship, and Life Together (p. 221). Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition.
For all posts on Driscoll and Mars Hill, click here.

Mark Driscoll Plagiarism Controversy Rated #3 Plagiarism Scandal of 2013

According to plagiarism software maker Ithenticate, the Driscoll controversy ranks at #3 of the top five stories in 2013. Here is the list:

#5 – German Bundestag President Norbert Lammert and Taiwanese National Defense Minister Andrew Yang
#4 – Jane Goodall
#3 – Marc Driscoll
#2 – Shia LaBeouf
#1 – Rand Paul

Go read the article to learn more about each story. About the Driscoll scandal, the post author Jonathan Bailey writes:

Takeaway: The actual allegations against Driscoll were not particularly spectacular, just a few passages in a book and a few ideas in another. However, the fallout was very large, in particular in the religious community, partly because of Driscoll’s position as a polarizing religious and political thinker, but also because of the allegations he worked to silence the criticism against him. True or not, the scandal raised serious questions about journalism in matters of religion and those questions will not likely die away any time soon.\

I agree that the story raised serious questions about religious journalism, but I would not stipulate that the allegations were not “spectacular.” There are more than a few passages and ideas involved. In any event, the story made an impression on people in this community which accounts for its inclusion in this post.
For all stories on this topic, click here.

Another Publisher in Conversation With Mars Hill and Mark Driscoll

Now NavPress is getting involved.
This update was posted yesterday on Becky Garrison’s article published by Religion Dispatches:

We [NavPress] have chosen to respond to Mark Driscoll and Mars Hill Church directly and will keep the conversation private among both parties.

There is no indication what the conversation is about but I can guess that it involves the use of Dan Allender’s work from The Wounded Heart (published by NavPress)  in two of Driscoll’s books, Real Marriage and Death By Love.
Recently, Crossway indicated that they were investigating their books written by Driscoll to ensure proper citation and documentation.
Elsewhere, according to Seattle’s The Stranger Blog (SLOG), Driscoll put out a private statement to Mars Hill members about two weeks ago with what appears to be a vague reference to the plagiarism/ghostwriting controversy. However, there is no apology for any wrongdoing, rather the apology is for “concern” caused to congregation.  This statement to Mars Hill references the Tyndale press release where Driscoll said, “mistakes were made.”
For all posts on this topic, click here.