What Is a Plagiarist?

By Rick Pearcey

What is a plagiarist?

"First-class intellectual fraud" is how one newspaper describes a now-fired professor.

It seems rather odd, but there really are people who have no compunction about allowing their names to be slapped onto work done by others.

Sometimes it seems the bigger the name, the easier the slap.

It seems rather odd, but there really are people who knowingly and repeatedly allow themselves to be praised for work they did not do. And not just professors at universities.

"I love your commentary!"

"What a magnificent book on Christian worldview!"

"God has really used it."

"Thank you," says the ever-so-humble con artist.

But why the counterfeits? Perhaps money is to be made, reputations to be shaped, images to be projected, downfalls to be rehabilitated, legacies to protected, embarrassment to be covered.

But we can do better. Most people know this intuitively. It's the way we teach our kids: "Honesty is the best policy" and "tell the truth, even if it hurts you."

Some people are on a learning curve. Many simply haven't yet seen through illusion to the darkness and complicity. In certain respects, we've all been there. Sometimes we are not able to see the darkness until we are so far in that it seems almost impossible to escape.

What counts is what we do when we discover the emperor is rather naked indeed. Some turn around and move toward the light. Others move deeper into darkness. This can be a process that takes a moment -- or weeks, months, and years. By it, cultures are won or lost, lives lived fully or in vain.

When you move into the light, you get Reformation and renewal and humanity. When you persist in enablement, you get the status quo, enslaving praise, and mission failure.

Thus we witness intellectually and spiritually fraudulent books, articles, columns, film reviews, book reviews, blogs, blurbs, letters, and sermons.

Colluding in this con are the ghostwriters, who are paid to allow someone else to be credited with work that is not the putative "author's." Allowing someone to take your work and pretend it is theirs is just as much a form of plagiarism as when the other person steals it outright.

What the ghostwriter does is to join the fake "author" in defrauding the public. Both are stealing from the storehouse of the public trust. A contract simply legalizes the immorality and digs the hole of corruption that much deeper.

Thereby millions of unsuspecting people are involved in this deception. Publishers thereby sell more books, organizations thereby raise more funds. With particular callousness, an "author" might even boast of how royalties are donated to this or that ministry.

Should we ever be too important, too "Big," or too busy to tell the truth? Of course not.

We can do better. We can encourage authenticity in our own lives and elevate the individual and his creative gift instead of smashing him or her.

This is part of the high calling of "loving thy neighbor," of practising the truth that there are "no little people" and of doing "the Lord's work the Lord's way," as Francis Schaeffer so often emphasized.

It can be done with one word, a single phone call can get the ball rolling. Mere seconds can help change the culture and reform manners.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Plagiarism: Pretend People, Fake Work

By Rick Pearcey

White House aide Timothy Goeglein has resigned over admitted plagiarism.

The links below contain facts and may suggest a few whys and wherefores:

* White House Aide Resigns Over Plagiarism
* Blogger Spots "Copycat" Goeglein
* Goeglein Column: "... Honesty of Reflective Thought"
* Goeglein: "I Am Entirely at Fault"
* WPost: 20 Out of 38 Columns Tainted
* NYT: "Familiar Figure" to "Evangelical Christians"

Meanwhile, a passage from this February 28 tribute to William F. Buckley seems apropos. Regarding Buckley:

"In several respects one is reminded of Francis Schaeffer and C.S. Lewis -- deep, quick, sharp, but also humane in their brilliance, also caring for the human being next door, also real people doing real work. The contrast with the opportunistic 'mover and shaker' of Big Government, Big Celebrity, or, sadly, Big Christianity, encourages us to push forward to a higher calling,
a nobler practice, a loving dream awalk in the world."

Here are two dreams -- doable, humane, inspired by God: 1) Real work by real people, 2) Market the truth truthfully. Trot them out at the next big meeting of marketers, publishers, ghosters, blurbers, fundraisers, and other affiliates of Big Name, Inc. Then duck.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (articles).

Groothuis Reviews "Crazy for God" at The Pearcey Report

By Rick Pearcey

"Those of us deeply touched by the life and writings of Francis and Edith Schaeffer may be interested in Crazy for God, a memoir by their son and youngest child, Frank (formerly Franky), who is now in his mid-fifties," writes Douglas Groothuis in a review of the new book. Groothuis is professor of philosophy at Denver Seminary.

"Given my interest in all things Schaeffer," Groothuis continues, "I found the book in turn fascinating and infuriating. I first learned of it by reading a cynical and sneering review in The Nation, a secular leftwing publication. The reviewer took the book to be a repudiation of evangelical faith, the Christian Right, and an expose of the hypocrisy of many Christian leaders, most notably, Francis and Edith Schaeffer.

"That review outraged me, but also piqued my curiosity. What had become of Franky Schaeffer, the producer of two significant film series featuring the ideas of his father -- How Should We Then Live? and Whatever Happened to the Human Race? -- and a man whose own books I had read in the early 1980s? Could Frank offer some insights into the life of his family and about the evangelical world he left behind?"

To see how Groothuis answers these questions, read the entire review of Crazy for God here.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (archives).

Guinness Blasts "Crazy" Journalism in "New Statesman" Schaeffer Article

By Rick Pearcey

In "Holy Fools," New Statesman writer Jeff Sharlet describes Francis Schaeffer and L'Abri Fellowship in ways that are perhaps unrecognizable to many. You might even say "crazy," to borrow a word from the title of a new book, Crazy for God, by Schaeffer's son, Frank (aka Franky).

"I lived with Francis and Edith Schaeffer in their home for five years, and with Frank too for much of that time," says author and lecturer Os Guinness in a reader comment at the end of the article.

"What you have written is a tissue of falseness, distortion, and unchecked allegations -- in short of shoddy journalism. Write if you want a more accurate account."

The New Statesman article is here. It contains vulgar language. Also, don't miss the reader comments by "JimBerkley" and "mmarc."


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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (archives).

Humane Truth: Trinity as Model for Human Social Life

By Rick Pearcey

A blog entry over at "Hanz" is titled "Christian Social Theory: The Trinity as a Model for Human Social Life."

First sentence: "Nancy Pearcey's Total Truth is to today as Francis Schaeffer's books were to 20 years ago."

What follows at "Hanz" is a brief excerpt from Total Truth, here.

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (archives).

Nancy Pearcey Accepts Scholar for Worldview Studies Position at PBU

By Rick Pearcey

We thought you might enjoy hearing about the latest in Nancy's work. What follows is from the press statement, released today, on her new position as "Scholar for Worldview Studies":

Sept. 5, 2007 -- The Pearcey Report is pleased to announce that editor-at-large Dr. Nancy R. Pearcey has accepted a position as Scholar for Worldview Studies with the rank of professor at the Center for University Studies at Philadelphia Biblical University (PBU), based in Langhorne, Pa.

Dr. Pearcey is the “first-ever faculty scholar to be appointed to the Center for University Studies, which PBU established to advance scholarship and cultural engagement,” says a soon-to-be-released press statement by the university. She will teach, speak, and write on the relevance of the Judeo-Christian worldview as a humane and verifiably true alternative to secular, pagan, and humanistic philosophies set forth in the academy, politics, society, and popular culture of today.

“Her distinguished education – which includes studying under the late Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer of L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland – and her extensive work in bringing Christian worldview perspective to important issues of the day make Dr. Pearcey uniquely qualified for this position,” says PBU Provost Todd Williams.

The entire press release appears here. PBU's website is here.

Updates:

* "Dr. Nancy Pearcey Named Worldview Scholar at PBU's Center for University Studies" (PBU)
* "Hats Off to Nancy Pearcey" (Alex Chediak)

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Rick Pearcey is editor and publisher of The Pearcey Report (archives).

British Airways: Secularism Takes Hit in England

By Rick Pearcey

Secularists tell us that God and religion relate to private matters that have no place in public life or polite society. This is not a convincing view, but it is a commonly held view, so much so that many bright people may affirm it without really having thought it through.

It's not at all difficult to imagine the head-shaking that might be going on in some circles upon hearing that British Airways is backing down on its policy of banning employees, such as Nadia Eweida, from wearing a Christian necklace or other symbol at work, in full view of staff and customers.

But no one should be shocked. Not really. If you understand the concept of "worldview," you shouldn't be shocked. And if you understand Christianity, you shouldn't be shocked.

This suggests two sets of comments.

1. Everyone has a worldview (some have elements of many). A "worldview" is your "view" of the "world," that is, your basic philosophy of life, the set of principles and assumptions about reality that you rely on to navigate existence in all its wonder and all its challenge.

In this sense, Nadia Eweida has a worldview and so does the CEO of British Airways. As does every customer and baggage-handler. Even the scientist in the lab has a worldview and so does the village pragmatist. Having a worldview is part of what it means to be a human being.

Worldviews will not be denied. This is because people seek to externalize these their most deeply held convictions (even if they are not aware of them). People regard these convictions as reliable guides to life, as truths and principles to live by. Over time they become "common sense."

People try to live consistently with their worldview. This is understandably an attempt to avoid a schizophrenic way of life. You don't have to a saint to prefer unity and integrity in behavior instead of a kind of hypocrisy (or harm) that results when one's worldview is denied an honest expression.

2. Some religious worldviews are private, but Christianity is not one of them. It's personal, yes, but not private.

It's personal because it involves the whole person. It treats human beings holistically and does not burden individuals with one set of ideals for public life and then a different set of ideals for private life.

The God of the Bible is a public figure. The truth-claims regarding his character and existence can be rationally discussed and empirically investigated. This is the emphasis in the history of Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and then of Jesus engaging his disciples in discussion, and so on.

Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem are points on the globe. Enemies or honest doubters could examine the empty tomb to corroborate (or try to destroy) eye-witness claims about a resurrection. Miracles can be observed by the same kinds of eyes that behold a Manhattan sunset.

Faith in this setting is primarily a matter of trust. It is the trust of the whole person on the basis of what Francis Schaeffer would call "good and sufficient reasons."

"Faith" can disclose new horizons of knowledge, "the evidence of things not see" (Heb. 11). But that faith is first grounded in knowledge. "Faith" is not an epistemological magic wand that turns something false into something true. "Faith" does not transmogrify an idol into God no matter how passionate the "believer" or how deep the "spirituality."

Given the modern defition of "faith" as belief in something for which one lacks evidence, Christianity may not even qualify as a religion.

The Christian worldview is reality-oriented. This means if the Christian truth-claims are false, they should not be believed. Thus, if Jesus of Nazareth did not really rise from the dead, says Paul in 1 Cor.15, "your faith is in vain."

But if the Christian propositions are true, they can be relied upon, and acted upon, as a solid foundation for life and culture, not only in the old days of ancient paganism but also in the flashy twilight of modern secularism.

So, you see, the surprize, the shock even, should go in the other direction. Because of the nature of Christianity as a humane worldview, our expection should be that healthy-functioning human beings will behave as though its information and principles apply beyond the closet door into the entirety of their lives.

The truncated "believer" singing hymns while sitting in a closet nailed shut should be the surprize. A secularist may be in the way. Someone needs to open that door.