David Ashcraft's Plagiarism Dilemma

This next segment is entitled David Ashcraft's Plagiarism Dilemma. David Ashcraft's Plagiarism Dilemma. Now, just so you know that I serve here at Fighting for the Faith in an official capacity as the sole judge of which sermons make the cut for our annual Worst Easter Sermon of the Year contest, and I have been receiving multiple emails from people questioning whether or not David Ashcraft's sermon, you know, Enter the Ring, which was preached on Easter Sunday, which won yesterday with 41 of the total votes for the contest.

It has been officially kicked to me to render a judgment whether or not David Ashcraft's sermon should be disqualified from this year's contest. Now, before I give you my judgment, I've spent some time today comparing David Ashcraft's sermon, Enter the Ring, How to Pick a Fight, with a sermon preached by Andy Stanley a couple of years ago entitled The Juno Dilemma.

Now, we've actually reviewed The Juno Dilemma here at Fighting for the Faith during a full-blown sermon review, so just keep that in mind, but it's been a while since we've done so. But what I thought I would do is put, in fact, what I did is I put together different segments that are really kind of at the same time stamp mark from David Ashcraft's sermon and Andy Stanley's sermon so that you can hear for yourself that it's absolutely, unmistakably clear that David Ashcraft, for this year's sermon, engaged in full-blown plagiarism.

He lifted the sermon straight up, word for word, point for point. And so, let me play this for you. It's a few minutes long, but I think you'll get the idea. We'll start off with David Ashcraft and then do some comparative work along the way by switching back and forth between David.

Comparing David Ashcraft and Andy Stanley on the Juno Dilemma

Ashcraft and Andy Stanley. Here we go. Well, a few years back, there was actually a movie made about a teenage girl who became pregnant, and then she had to decide what she was going to do. So, she actually visits a clinic, decides abortion is not the route that she wants to go.

Instead, she decides to have the baby, give it up for adoption. And so, she meets with a couple who've been chosen to adopt her baby, and before long, she realizes that things aren't going well.

Okay, and here's Andy Stanley. About a teenage girl who gets pregnant, then she has to decide what to do. So, she goes to an abortion clinic, and that's our family planning or whatever they call it, and that's not the route she wants to go.

She lives with her father and her stepmother. Her parents are divorced. She decides to keep the baby. I mean, she decides to have the baby and to give it up for adoption. And then, so she meets this couple, and then the couple, she finds out that they're having trouble.

Okay, now back to David Ashcraft.

Which is really nothing new for this girl because every relationship she's ever known has actually struggled. I mean, she was in a relationship with the father of her baby, but he wasn't even her boyfriend, and that relationship ended up in disaster, and her parents' marriage ended up in disaster, and now she lives with her dad and her stepmom, and their relationship is a disaster, and then she meets the couple that's about to adopt her baby and finds out their marriage is kind of a disaster.

Okay, now back to Andy Stanley.

So, her relationship with this guy who wasn't really a boyfriend is kind of a disaster. Her parents' marriage, we don't know much about. It's kind of been a disaster. Now, there's this couple who's going to adopt her baby, and their marriage or relationship is kind of a disaster.

Yeah, kind.

Of like how this sermon both times is a disaster, but isn't it weird? They're making the exact same point, saying the exact same thing. Now, back when I was a student in college, I was told very clearly that if I ever stole somebody else's work and didn't attribute it to them in a footnote or whatever, that I would be guilty of plagiarism, and that whatever I turned in as my work, which was somebody else's work, well, then I would be flunked and maybe even disciplined.

But isn't it weird here? I mean, how much time do you think David Ashcraft really spent preparing this Easter sermon when it's clear he just, you know, studied Andy Stanley's version of it and, you know, kind of word for word and delivered the same points, word for word and point for point.

There's more.

Let's continue. The girl's name is Juno, and about two-thirds of the way through this movie, Juno ends up having this tender, tender conversation with her dad. And in this conversation, she asks a question that's really profound.

I mean, it's a great question. It's a question that most of us have asked at one time or another, and every single one of us have either asked this question or we will ask this question someday. And we may not ask it in the same way that she asked the question, but most of us ask it just the same.

Okay, back to Andy Stanley. Notice the.

Same words. And so there's this tender, tender conversation about two-thirds of the way through the movie with her dad. And in the conversation, she asks a question that I think is so profound that it just, you know, I just stopped.

I thought, that is a great question. And the context from which she asks it makes it a great question. But I think it's a question every single adult or every single college student and probably not high school student from college on, all of us have either asked this question, or we're going to ask this question.

And you may not ask it the way that Juno asked it, but I just think this is a profoundly important question that sort of sits on the surface of our culture every single day for most of us. And here's the question.

She asked it in two different ways, and we're going to put this up on the screen. Here's what she said. Okay,.

Notice. Andy Stanley said that she asked it in two different ways. Ashcraft's going to make the same.

Point. Watch. And here's the question that she asked. And actually, she asked it in two different ways. I mean, she's talking to her dad. It's just the two of them. And she says, look, I guess I wonder sometimes if people ever stay together for good.

I mean, like people in love, do they ever stay together? And then she asked it again, and she asked it this way. And she's talking to her dad. And she says, dad, do people ever stay together? Dad, I just need to know.

Is it possible for two people to stay happy together forever? She's talking to her dad. It's just the two of them.

She says, I guess I wonder sometimes if people ever stay together for good. Like people in love. Did she ask it this way? Dad, I just need to know that it's possible for two people to stay happy.

Together forever. Weird, same points at the same spots in both sermons. This is clearly plagiarism.

Is it possible for two people to stay happy together forever? And really what she's saying is, look, dad, I've watched relationships. I watched you and mom, and things didn't go so well between you and mom.

And I've had this relationship with this guy, and it hasn't gone so well. And now I've got this couple that's about to take my baby, and things aren't going so well with them. And I've watched you, and now my stepmom.

And dad, I'm just wondering. Is this really something that I should shoot for? And my goals, are they set too high to hope that there would be a relationship that's gonna last forever, that's gonna not just last, but actually be happy forever?

And so she says, dad, I just need to know. Is it possible? Is it really possible for two people to stay happy together forever? And I think all of us, at some point, have kind of.

Asked that questions. I just need to know. Is it possible for two people to stay happy together forever? In other words, dad, I'm looking around, and it didn't work out for you and mom. Dad, I'm looking around, and here's this couple.

It ain't working for them. It's not working for me. I look around, and I'm just wondering, am I kidding myself? Am I shooting for something that no one ever reaches? Is it even possible? Should I even set my mind to finding someone and being in love and staying happy together forever, dad?

Is it even possible? I think for all of us at.

Some juncture in our lives, we ask that question. That kind of question in our lives, and it's such.

Fascinating question. And it's such a fascinating question because... It's such a fascinating.

Question. They both pointed out that it's a fascinating question. Fascinating that they're both... It's like they were tag team preaching, but they weren't. These were years apart.

In spite of what you've seen, and probably most of what you've seen relationally would lead you to.

Say, I don't know if it's possible. Because of what you've seen, maybe because what you've experienced in your life relationally, it kind of leads you to say, I don't know. I don't know.

If it really is possible or not. But in spite of the state of your current marriage, in spite of what you experienced in your previous marriage, in spite of what you saw happen with your parents' marriage, in spite of what you see in culture, in spite of the divorce rate, all the stuff that would make us say, I don't think it's possible.

I don't think it's possible. I don't see it happening. I don't know any good examples of that or very many good examples in our generation. In spite of that, there's something in you and there's something in me.

That would still say it's possible. In spite of all that we've seen and what we've experienced, somehow there's something inside of us. There's something inside of me and there's something inside of you where we think it's possible.

And not only do we think it's possible for others, but you think it's possible for you and I think it's possible for me. And so we still hold onto this glimmer of hope where we say, yeah, maybe someday, maybe some way, and it may not be in my current relationship, but somehow in some future relationship, I'm going to meet somebody and we're going to kind of fall in love and we're going to stay in love.

And we're going to go all the way to the end together in our last days. I mean, maybe we're on walkers as we kind of go down the hallway to wherever they eat at the retirement home. And we're holding hands with our walkers and they may be shaky, but we're together and people are going to look at us and they're going.

To say, you know what, look at them. And not only do we think it's possible, you think, and I think it's possible for us. We think it's possible that in spite of how bad things have been for you or in spite of what you see happening in culture, you still hold out a glimmer of hope that, yeah, maybe someday, some way in my current relationship or a future relationship, I'm going to meet somebody and we're going to fall in love and we're going to stay in love and we're going to go out together.

I mean, our last dates, we're going to may both be on walkers and we may be going down the hall to the, you know, the place where everybody eats at the nursing home, but baby, we're sitting next to each other and we're holding hands.

They may be shaking, but we are holding hands and people are going to look at us and go, wow, look how old they are. And they're still in.

Love. Same sermon illustrations, same words, same points at the same point in the sermon. Clearly what we're dealing with here is a full-blown example of plagiarism. That's right. David Ashcraft for his award-winning worst Easter sermon of the year, you know, won by 41%.

Not only was it a stinker of an Easter sermon, it was flat out plagiarized almost word for word, point for point from Andy Stanley's sermon of a few years ago, the Juno Dilemma. Now, I have to do something very important here.

And that is, is that it is, I have been asked to render a ruling and to make a decision. And the decision has to be whether or not I will disqualify David Ashcraft for plagiarizing this award-winning sermon because he's now won our prestigious Fighting for the Faith Worst Easter Sermon of the Year award.

And after spending some time really thinking long and hard about it, I have come to the conclusion and made the decision that I will not be disqualifying David Ashcraft, that because of the fact that he plagiarized this awful sermon, that it just makes it even more qualified to be the worst Easter sermon of 2013.

In fact, I would consider it to be doubly so. And I am considering elevating this sermon to the status of worst Easter sermon ever preached in the history of Christianity. But, you know, we'll have to make a decision on that later.

So if you'd like to email me regarding anything you've heard on this edition or any previous editions of Fighting for the Faith, you could do so at my email address, talkbackatfightingforthefaith .com, or you can subscribe on Facebook, facebook .com forward slash pirate Christian, or you can follow me on Twitter, my name there, at pirate Christian.

Quick break. When we come back, we have a Heath Mooneyhan update as he unveils some of the details regarding their new mission statement out there at.

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