Mark Driscoll, a right-wing megachurch pastor best known for his chauvinistic, bullying, anti-gay and domineering preaching style, is facing charges of plagiarism from his fellow conservatives. When talk show host Janet Mefferd confronted him about the plagiarism claims in an interview last week, Driscoll was offended that Mefferd dared to ask him such questions and told her that she was “grumpy,” “rude” and “not very Christ-like.”
He patted himself on the back for being “gracious and humble” through it all, adding that he couldn’t appropriately answer Mefferd’s questions because he had a cold and was doing her a favor by appearing on her show. Driscoll’s publisher similarly claimed that it was not Driscoll who was at fault but Mefferd for taking a “belligerent tone” with him, and supporters eagerly piled on.
Christian blogs have noted that Driscoll himself preached against plagiarism as a “Satanic issue.”
Mefferd responded to the criticism yesterday on her show and posted material [PDF] from two Driscoll publications that clearly lift from other books.
She writes on her blog:
On Nov. 21, I conducted an interview with Mars Hill Church Pastor Mark Driscoll. During the course of the interview, I questioned Pastor Driscoll about two sections of his book, “A Call to Resurgence,” which neglected to contain any quotes, detailed footnotes or attribution for his reproduction of another scholar’s thoughts and insights. The passages in question are on pages 38-47 and pages 185-189 of Pastor Driscoll’s book. Those pages of material all borrow from the original material of Dr. Peter Jones, cited here in his books, “Gospel Truth and Pagan Lies” and “One or Two: Seeing a World of Difference.”
Today, we also revealed that Pastor Driscoll has lifted material from another source — word for word — in another of his books, “Trial: 8 Witnesses From 1&2 Peter.” This was a book published in 2009 by Mars Hill Church. On pages 7 and 8, Driscoll lifts and publishes, under his own name, an entire section from “1 Peter,” New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, Ed. D. A. Carson, 4th ed. (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994),p. 1370.
…
Since many listeners have asked for the evidence of our claims, we have compiled 27 pages of material for public investigation. It is our hope that people will examine the evidence and determine whether or not these charges of plagiarism are true.
