Wow, plagiarism is more pervasive than I thought

Plagiarism in Christian Circles and the Ed Litton Docent Controversy

Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. I want to bring you a quick episode. It might be kind of a depressing episode, but very eye-opening, on plagiarism in Christian circles. We know this happens in the world.

We know if you've been in any academic setting, plagiarism is a problem. In fact, when I was doing online teaching for a university, we had software that would try to detect plagiarism, and then I would have to confront it.

I did have many cases of it. I'm well aware of what it is, how it works. In general, the definition that most would agree on when it comes to plagiarism is it is using other people's material without attribution.

By material, that's the specific wording that they use. It could, in some ways, if you use bullet points, let's say, and you're organizing information, use their exact same bullet points to organize information.

That could be considered that in some ways as well. Again, it's using the same categories, words. That's what plagiarism is. We've talked about this with the docent stuff. We've talked about how J .D. Greer has used docent, and Tim Keller, and a number of other famous preachers have used docent.

This created a problem for the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Ed Litton, when he started preaching sermons, and I think there's been over 10 now, that are eerily similar, in fact, because they're verbatim, just about sermons from J .D. Greer.

He's just preaching them. He also preached one from Tim Keller, him and his wife, Tim Keller's sermon, and acted like it was his. That's an issue that got exposed, and I think many people thought, well, this is a problem, but maybe it's a fluke.

This can't be pervasive, right? I know I was thinking like this, please, please. I don't want to think about the possibility that this is happening all over the place, but we were all open to that, I think.

We all knew that maybe this is happening a lot more than we think. On that note, I need to share with you something. Someone sent this to me, actually, months ago, and there have been so many other things I haven't gotten to, and I'm kind of regretting that I didn't sooner, but I am now.

Just to show you something, someone heard what I was talking about with Ed Litton and Docent, and they said, there's this really weird thing that I just got to show you. It's just really strange. I'm not even sure how they happened upon it, but this individual, Jason Fisher, has a website that he writes for.

I guess a blog on a website, but it's ferver .net. He wrote an article, and there's actually three of them we're going to look at, but let's look at this one first. It's Jason Fisher, How to Develop an Attitude of Gratitude No Matter What Life Throws at You.

Jason Fisher’s “Attitude of Gratitude” Article and Its Reuse Online

I want to read this. It's pretty short. He quotes 1 Thessalonians 5 .18, Give thanks in everything, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. And he asks, Did you thank God today? For what, you may ask?

For anything other than your last meal? Sometimes I can go an entire day without remembering God even once, much less thanking Him for His many gifts. It is so easy to forget, in the relatively safety of the Western church, just how dependent on God we really are.

No one is trying to kill or imprison us for our faith. Comfort can breed complacency. We need to combat this potential with the truth of God's Word. The Right Perspective. One of my favorite verses for when thinking about being thankful to God is the first part of Acts 17, 28.

For in Him we live, move, and exist. You are alive today by the power of God. You got out of bed today, perhaps took a shower, got dressed for school or work, and ate breakfast, all because God is actively sustaining you.

You exist because He continues to will that you exist. Realizing this gives a completely new perspective to Jesus. Words apart from me, you can do nothing. When you remind yourself just how much God has given you and just how much you need Him for everything, you can't help but thank Him.

An Attitude of Gratitude. I want you to try something for a minute. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and take five deep breaths. With each breath, I want you to simply pray, Thank you, Jesus.

Go ahead, do it now. Seriously, stop reading and do it. I can wait. For most of us, being able to breathe is probably at the top of the list of things we take for granted. However, each breath you take is a gift from God.

Taking time to thank God for His most fundamental necessity of life can help remind us to have a heart of thankfulness. Whether it is the air you breathe, the new day's sunrise, or embrace of a friend or loved one, thank God today for something you normally take for granted.

When times are tough. It's easy to thank God when everything is as it should be. But chances are, some of you reading this are going through some dark days right now. What do you do when you just don't feel like saying thank you for what's going on in your life?

Here's two things to think about. God not only said to give thanks in everything, He said in Ephesians 5 .20 to give thanks for everything. James 1 .2 -4 tells us that we should consider it a great joy when we face hard times because God uses those hard times to strengthen our faith.

For reasons we will not always understand, God uses difficult circumstances to make us more like Jesus. As Paul said in Romans 5, hard times redefine our faith to produce endurance, proven character, and hope.

We should thank Him that He cares for us enough to grow us in our faith and not leave us as we are. Remember the example of David. In Psalm 116, David is praising God for rescuing him from death. In verse 17, David tells God he will offer him a sacrifice at Thanksgiving.

Sometimes saying thank you to God in hard times is really difficult. Acknowledging this difficulty to God and then thank Him anyway. Remember a sacrifice. When all else fails, there is always one thing you can thank God for, the sacrifice of Jesus for your sins.

You were once God's enemy, but now you are His friend. You were once a child of wrath, but now you are a child of righteousness. You were once destined for eternal death, but now you have eternal life.

Even in your darkest hour, you can thank God. You don't have to face that dark hour alone. Praise God and thank you, Jesus. Psalm 50 of 23. He who offers a sacrifice at Thanksgiving honors me. All right, so a good blog.

Jason Fisher, guy's name. And he sent me this. So this is the blog he wrote. And you can see the date on it is October 24, 2014. Now, check this out. This is another blog, Joy Digital Christian Portal.

Now there's nothing about Jason Fisher here. Not one thing. It says the only thing you have is please visit ferver .net, and it's just the general link for more fantastic resources. So, I mean, that's something.

That's something, but it's not great. That wouldn't fly in a college class. But there's sort of an attempt at the end, but it's the same article. Then you have this. This is a bulletin from Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church in Jefferson, North Carolina.

That's Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church, Jefferson, North Carolina. And you go down. It says from the youth pastor, Pastor Corey. Well, that's not the same person, right? Let me start reading it. Give thanks in everything for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus.

1 Thessalonians 5 .18. Did you thank God today? For what, you may ask. For anything other than your life. Okay, and it goes on. And it cuts out some parts, but it's mostly, it's the article. It's a chopped up version of it that we just read from Jason Fisher here from 2014.

This bulletin is, let's see if there's a date on it, December 2018. So it's four years later, and it's being passed off as Pastor Corey. Pastor Corey didn't write this. Jason Fletcher wrote this. But the people at Fletcher Memorial Baptist Church probably don't know that.

Here's another one. This is Sarah Dickerson blog. Sarah Dickerson. And she's got a blog. And so she posts aspects of this article. Now, she makes some of it, I think, her own a little bit. But there, you can tell she's pulling some of this from Jason Fletcher's article as well.

So there's, this isn't, again, this isn't Sarah Dickerson. This is Jason Fletcher's work being passed off as if it's Sarah Dickerson for her blog. Here is another bulletin insert from a 2021 trustee meeting.

What church is this? I don't know if it says. St. Peter's, let's see. St. Peter's Lutheran Church. And that is in Marion, Wisconsin. So you scroll down and find a message from Pastor K. Yes, Pastor K has given everyone a message.

And the message is, Did you thank God today? For what, you may ask. For anything. Sometimes I can go an entire day without remembering God. It's the article. Yeah, that's not Pastor K. So, I mean, this wouldn't have been acceptable, I wouldn't think, when Pastor K was going to seminary or wherever she went.

But it's acceptable, apparently, while you're on the job. Here's another one. Let's see. This is RCCG Hall of Praise, Teens Corner. I'm assuming this is a church of some kind, I think. And, yeah. Did you thank God today?

For what, you may ask. For anything other than your last meal. Sometimes I can go. It's the same thing. It's the same article. And there is no attribution given. Here we have Refined D. Vessel. Refined Vessel.

Refined D. Vessel. Refined Vessel. That's the name of it. And Give Thanks and Everything, November 22, 2014. Now, Jason's article is October 2014, right? So this is just after that. And did you thank God today?

For what, you may ask. It's the same thing. It's the same article. And it's posted by Unknown. I don't know who it is. They posted it very late at 2 .26 a .m. But that's where we got there. Now, Refined Vessel.

I mean, I don't know whose blog this is. But it doesn't give credit. Then we have the J-Stone Singers. And that's a blue checkmark, by the way. The J-Stone Singers. What is this? A southern gospel band?

I don't know what this is. The J-Stone Singers have 6 ,000 people following them. And I don't know what kind of gospel music. Okay. So it's a gospel band. And they post on September 4th, 2021. Did you thank God today?

For what, you may ask. One of my favorite. Okay. So they rip a part of this from Jason Fletcher without any entry. They probably don't even know. Some of these people probably are finding this on general websites.

And who knows who actually put it out there. But, you know, you got to be careful with this stuff. You're passing it off, these people, as if they came up with this. And they're using the exact words from Jason Fletcher.

Now, here's another one. If it will pull up. This is the Grace Lutheran Church Youth. Grace Lutheran Church Youth. Now, it doesn't start the same way. But it sort of goes for the middle of Jason Fletcher's article.

For most of my life, I have struggled with anxiety. And when I say most of my life, that's the anxiety talking. Anxiety isn't always rational. Intellectually, I understand that for most of my life, I've been fine.

So it talks about this anxiety struggle. And then it talks about seeking peace, trusting God, and practicing thankfulness. Now, I want you to notice here, under three, when it says practice thankfulness.

That's what we're going to focus on here. It says, it has the same thing that Jason Fletcher talked about. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and take five deep breaths. With each breath, I want you to simply say, thank you, Jesus.

Go ahead, do it now. Seriously, stop reading and do it. I can wait. For most of us, being able to breathe, it's the same thing. It's from Jason Fletcher. Now, this is March 4th, 2020. So again, this is years after this was already written.

Sorry, Jason Fisher. I said Fletcher. Jason Fisher. All right, so here's another one. Believers Impact Ministry, March 1st, 2020. And it's smaller, but it's the same thing. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and take five deep breaths.

With each breath, it's the same thing. And then you have this. This is Harvest Time, Attitudes of Gratitude at Harvest Time. Now, that must be a church, I'm assuming. Yeah, it looks like it's a church, perhaps.

Yep, Harvest Time. And I don't know where this would be. Maybe it tells us. It doesn't really say much. Oh, yeah, it says Tupelo, Mississippi. All right. Church in Tupelo, Mississippi. Now then, let's see.

Let's just start here and see what it says here.

But I want everybody to close their eyes. And I want you to focus on your breathing. Each time you take a breath, I want you to simply say thank you.

All right, we're going to stop there. I don't know how he found this, to be honest with you. But you have someone else that's using some of his material. Youth Impact Ministry on Facebook. Plagiarizes the blog again.

Here's another, GNSM, Generation Now Student Ministry. Let's hear what Generation Now Student Ministry has to say.

You got out of bed today, perhaps took a shower, got dressed for school or work, and ate breakfast, all because of God actively sustaining you. You exist because he continues to will that you exist, realizing this gives you a completely new perspective to Jesus' word.

Apart from me, you can do nothing. When you remind yourself just how much God has given you and just how much you need him, you can't help but to thank him. I want you to try something. Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, and just take five deep breaths.

With each breath, I want you to simply pray, thank you, Jesus.

I hope this message has blessed you. All right, well, there's someone else who's using it. Let's go to the next one. This is, I don't even, Bali Nahinch Congregational Girls Brigade. That must be a youth ministry.

Close your eyes, focus on your breathing, take five breaths, and simply say, thank you, Jesus. Okay, so same thing. Then we have Coolum Beach Baptist Church all the way in Australia. And you can see Spirit-filled Thanksgiving from Pastor John.

God bless Pastor John. And it takes, let's see, is that, yeah, that's the one. It takes some from the article that we just read from Jason Fisher. It says, it uses the Acts 17 passage. And the reality is, you are alive today by the power of God.

You got out of bed today, perhaps took a shower, got dressed and ate breakfast, all because God is actively sustaining you. You exist because he continues to. So he starts off with an illustration that's not from Jason Fisher.

And then he inserts verbatim Jason Fisher stuff. So he's taking, he's taking from others. And by the way, I mean, I saw that all the time in grad school when I was doing the teaching. You'd have students who would try to find a source online and then kind of couch it in their own words.

So it's not quite, it's not totally what someone else said, but they're definitely taking from what someone else said. And using those exact words in part of their own paper. So here's another one, sermons .faithlife .com.

So you can search sermons here. Give thanks in everything. Thanksgiving devotional. And it's the whole thing. I believe, yep. Now this says, this is the right way to do it. Discover more about Jason Fisher at his blog.

At the end. Which I think it's .com. But this is, this is better. This is at least, they're attributing it to Jason Fisher. Okay. So that's an example of how one blog can get around quite a bit. Now here's another, the thankful you.

The thankful you. What is this for? This is for a church. I think this is an elevation. Is this elevate? This isn't the elevation church. Erie, Pennsylvania. Elevate church. Okay. Well, the thankful you.

And there's no attribution here. And of course they use the Acts 17 passage. You are alive today by the power and grace of God. Today you got out of bed, hopefully took a shot. It's the same thing. So they're taking from Jason Fisher.

Here's another blog from Jason Fisher. Should I go to church if my parents don't want me to? Now then you have, after he wrote this, what do you do when your parents don't want you to go to church? And taking from him.

On the blog talk radio, apparently. Then you have another blog here from Jason Fisher. God hates gossip. Gossip damages people. Avoid it at all costs. And then, and I, is this, yeah, this is the same.

So, and why God hates gossip. September 29th, 2014. So here's an article or a blog. Nick Solomon blog. Nick Solomon. Events, fashion, lifestyle, entertainment. Why God does not like gossip. And taking from Jason Fisher.

And there's no attribution given. I mean, someone should call out, you know, Nick Solomon. If you know who Nick Solomon is or any of these churches. You know, let's see. He hasn't said much in a while.

But, I mean, it's someone who's ripping Jason Fisher off. And so Jason told me that this, he used this website. I can't see how he would have found all of this stuff on this website. But it's called plagiarismdetector .net.

And some of this came up. And I'm very apprehensive to see if any of the things I've written in the past have made it to other places. They probably have. But if you write something as general as Jason did, that has a broad appeal like that, then, hey, it may be going places.

And I'll be honest. That was a little surprising to me. That, you know, someone like that with, you know, kind of a, he doesn't have like a big platform or anything. But he's writing about some basic stuff and putting some good words out there.

And it's being picked up by this many churches and people preaching and by blogs and with no attribution to him. And it's just eye-opening. This kind of stuff happens. And we should expect that, I guess, to some extent.

But I thought I'd share that with you, pass it on. And just to kind of sound the alarm bell for some that, you know, look, you may want to, if you suspect this kind of thing, here's a tool you can use.

Go to plagiarismdetector .net. And if you're concerned that maybe you have a pastor, a youth pastor, someone who, you know, and again, I'm not bringing this up in a spirit of go check your pastor out.

I need to make that very clear. This isn't, you know, we should have great respect for our leaders. But the last two years have shown us that there's a lot of leaders passing themselves off as things they aren't.

And if you suspect this kind of thing, check it out. Put some of the sermon text, perhaps, into Plagiarism Detector. And that might, that stealing is what it is. I mean, that's the root of it. And perhaps that's going on.

It's certainly more, it's a wider issue than I thought it was, more pervasive. So anyways, I hope that helps someone out there to give them this tool and to show maybe, hey, you're not crazy. This actually is happening.

And maybe you'll dig up some stuff and find out about some things that reveal some character traits that maybe you needed to know about and maybe your church did. So that is the thanks to, and I need to give full attribution and full credit.

This podcast is solely the work of Jason Fisher. All the links I sent to you, I didn't pull up anything. He gave me this, and this is kind of a made-to-order podcast. So I'm passing it on to you, and I appreciate you listening.

God bless. More coming. Bye.