Wednesday, June 2, 2010

http://thelogicalchristian.blogspot.com

 城市丰收教会在今年首五个月，就有两起事件引起关注。

■2010年5月
康希新书被指抄袭
康希被指在新书里抄袭一名美国著名作家的作品，在网上引起争议。
网民Cheat Grace在博客上指出，康希牧师的一本新书《灵命更心第2本》（Renewing Your Spiritual Life）中，第99页的内容和美国著名传教士尼尔·安德森（Neil Anderson）的文章有很多相似之处。
该网民说，新书有许多段落与安德森的作品一模一样。他也声称，他怀疑康希是在抄袭，并说他不是第一次这么做。
负责出版此书的出版社总经理说，经调查后发现，这本书的350篇文章中，有约10篇的确与其他作家的文章有相似之处。但他说，康希都是在原作者的批准下，才引述他们的作品，不是抄袭。
他指出，他们的疏忽在于引用时没给予明确信息，让读者知道哪些部分是引用其他作家的。
 (source: http://news.omy.sg/News/Local%2BNews/Story/OMYStory201006010411-156278/3.html)
 (emphasis in red mine)

For those who have trouble understanding Chinese, the article says that anonymous blogger, Cheat Grace highlighted in his blog that the contents of page 99 of KH’s new book, “Renewing Your Spiritual Life Vol.2″, contains many similarities with an article by a famous American preacher, Neil Anderson, and Cheat Grace suspects that KH plagiarized and that it is not the first time he has done so.

The publisher of the book said that after investigation, they discovered that out of the 350 articles in the book, there were about 10 articles which contained similarities with other authors. However, the publisher asserted that KH had used their materials with the permission of the original authors, and therefore it is not a case of plagiarism. He also said that their oversight is in not clearly letting readers know which articles were written by other authors and reproduced with their permission.

Again, I may appear cynical here but the publisher’s “explanation” is full of loopholes:

1. The publisher said “经调查后发现”, ie. “he discovered after investigation” which means he DIDN’T KNOW AT FIRST that some of the articles were in fact works by other authors! He only discovered this AFTER investigating, and he investigated only AFTER allegations of plagiarism surfaced.

2. The publisher said KH received permission from the original authors to use those articles, yet he DIDN’T KNOW about those permissions BEFORE publishing the book! Didn’t KH tell him about those articles? In fact, he DIDN’T KNOW about those permissions even AFTER publishing the book! He only found out AFTER INVESTIGATION due to Cheat Grace’s allegation of plagiarism by KH!

3. BEFORE the book was put on sale, didn’t KH scan through a copy and realize that there wasn’t any acknowledgment made to the other authors? Ya, ya … he’s a busy man, I know but isn’t the publication of a book meant to inspire Christians important enough for him to pay some proper attention?

I guess many people probably feel that the alleged plagiarism issue is no big deal now compared to the CAD probe into CHC’s financial affairs.  But think a little bit deeper, it is often the little things that give us a clue to the bigger things.

A Cheat-Grace Megachurch Pastor’s good work – Plagiarizing