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City Harvest's Kong Hee alleged to have committed plagiarism

SNAblog

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http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/05/did-kong-hee-plagiarise/

Did Kong Hee plagiarise?

University students know the seriousness of it. So do journalists, whose reputation stand on their ability to tell the truth. Even literary writers, whose job is to craft fiction, understand the need to be original.

So I was surprised to learn that large swaths of Kong Hee’s daily devotionals are lifted from other sources — without attribution. This unexpected revelation was brought to light by an anonymous blogger who devoted an entire blog called ‘Cheat Grace’ to exposing Kong Hee’s alleged plagiarism of other authors.

I’ve learnt about this blog a couple of months ago, but as it began to uncover more of Kong Hee’s allegedly plagiarised articles, I began to feel a little disturbed. Underestand that I am not talking about copyright infringement, which is an entirely different issue.

While copyright infringement is illegal under all circumstances, plagiarism is not. But plagiarism is still unethical, which is why academics, journalists, and literary writers treat it seriously. Even as a blogger, I do not want to be caught stealing passages from other writers without giving them a nod.

Plagiarism is simply a breach of integrity. Writers who plagiarise are claiming the work of others as their own. It is a form of thievery and deception.

I am disturbed, therefore, that someone would accuse Kong Hee of plagiarism. But read the blog and its allegations for yourself — which are backed up with solid documentation. The person behind the blog apparently has plenty of time and a deep well to draw motivation from.

The blogger, lets call him Cheat Grace, even muscled in the effort to pour through Kong Hee’s devotional book “Renewing Your Spiritual Life Vol 2″ — which is sold for $14 — to find that it contains the allegedly plagiarised devotionals. Cheat Grace even pointed out that Kong Hee claimed at the back of his book that he is “sharing his insights from the Bible”.

The church has been silent on the matter, perhaps because it hasn’t generated much online attention — yet. Church members seemed to have glossed over it, maybe because it is deemed an insignificant and minor offence. But let me proffer another reason: Since everyone is from the Body of Christ, Christians see no need to be uptight about such regulations. After all, if the truth is preached, does it matter where it came from?

The answer, it turns out, is yes. The problem with this reasoning is that even if the other party doesn’t mind that his article is plagiarised, the plagiariser is still presenting a false image of himself. It is taking a shortcut to create a good impression. It is still deception.

But I’ve realised that plagiarism is quite rampant among some pastors anyway, except that their followers don’t call it plagiarism. Pastors have been known for preaching each other’s sermons as if it is their own. But while some pastors don’t see it as an issue, others do. My personal stand is that even insights preached in sermons should be credited. I do not want to receive praise for a sermon I did not craft.

There appears to be a clash of cultures. On one hand, the principle of intellectual integrity demands that the work of others must be credited. On the other hand, church leaders are lax when it comes to intellectual property. Good things, they’d say, are meant to be shared after all. Or perhaps it was never implicit that sermons must be original.

But for reasons that I’ve mentioned above, I think there should be a sea change in the culture of the church. It is a misguided form of generousity that breeds laziness in sermon preparation. The pastor is in fact killing his own creativity and creating a false impression of himself. It deprives church members of original insights. Intellectual integrity, therefore, should be a prized value in church too.

I don’t think ripping sermons is a problem if 99 percent of pastors are okay with it. Ethics and morality are after all community-based. But as above article shows, some pastors do see it as an issue. And even if every pastor in the world is okay with the practice, the context of delivering a sermon is different from authoring a piece of literary work.

Anyway, now that Cheat Grace has so painstakingly brought the truth into public space, it is time the church reveal its side of the story publicly. Since Kong Hee has published the devotional online and sold them in bookstores, this incident cannot be considered internal anymore. Does City Harvest Church believe that there is nothing wrong with such practices? If the church believes so, then declare it out loud.

But if the church acknowledges the folly of such practices, rectifications can still be made before the situation goes out of hand. My sincere hope is that this slight can be resolved quickly, and everyone can learn a lesson and move on.

I don’t want a private explanation. This time, the larger Christian community needs to know.
 

Alamaking

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He's been doing it all along mah :confused::confused: Putting God's words into his mouth to con silly Christians $$$. :p:p:biggrin::biggrin:
 

elephanto

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The first article in this thread is from the blog of Terence Lee, a CHC member who resigned from his cell-group leader position. Terence is a Mass-Comm undergrad from NTU & wrote this in his 'Irreligious' Blog. Incidentally, he still is a long-time CHC member who has graduated with a Theology Diploma from CHC School.

I have been following the plagiarism issue for a while in asiaone forum.

Seems KH plagiarises a certain author's daily devotionals not only in his blog but subsequently, published them in book form selling for $14.

When people highlighted this, his books are all withdrawn from sale & an added line appeared in his daily devotionals online claiming : for self-edification only.

His supporters came into the forum to suggest KH too busy to include footnotes of his sources meaning he 'forgot' to credit his sources & said since the authors didn't sue & all was done for the body of Christ, so no issue what more he has withdrawn his books & can't be accused of profiteering from plagiarism. What is absurd is his supporters start to get mechanistic & legalistic about what constitute copyright infringement & what is permissable under MBA supervision norms etc !

Some critic argued matter not over since to date, he has NOT credited the original author. But KH supporters warned don't be troublemaker .....

I thought matters have come to a rest.

It seems recently again, he started his plagiarism AGAIN - copy&paste large tracts without the common courtesy of acknowledgement or crediting of sources ....

The ARROGANCE & HUBRIS of the man & his church supporters ....

Even common man know plagiarism is contemptible.
What more a SELF-PROCLAIMED SPIRITUAL LEADER ! PUI !

Details please visit Cheatgrace's blog.
 

SneeringTree

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wah like that every pastors would be doing the same thing..including me...

they lift from the bible all the time...:biggrin:

Quoting from the bible is different from drawing inspiration/lessons from the bible. The former does not involve plagiarism, the latter does.
 

jw5

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Quoting is different from plagiarising.
If pastors are really doing what they are supposed to do, they should only be quoting from one source and that's the bible.
Even more importantly, their actions and lives should also be based on Jesus' example.
 

Queen Seok Duk

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Even more importantly, their actions and lives should also be based on Jesus' example.

Like that nobody wants to be a Christian, especially the males. Don't believe ask the Christian men in this forum, how many of them DID NOT engage in pre-marital sex ?
 

jw5

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Like that nobody wants to be a Christian, especially the males. Don't believe ask the Christian men in this forum, how many of them DID NOT engage in pre-marital sex ?
They will claim that they are human, they sin, they ask forgiveness for their sins, they will be forgiven.
 

Queen Seok Duk

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They will claim that they are human, they sin, they ask forgiveness for their sins, they will be forgiven.

I don't have a problem if they can come up with excuses. However, they will only give excuses when they're confronted. If unchallenged, they will always behave in a manner as if they're as holy as Jesus.
 

SneeringTree

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aiyah you are too hard on the Pastors, they are humans as well...i mean if they are spreading God's words, i really have no problem with that..:biggrin:

other than bible, where other sources do they quote from? :biggrin:

Are you an idiot? We are not saying quoting from the bible. We are talking about someone passing off other peoples' interpretations of the bible as their own.

To take an analogy, I can quote Shakespeare all I want (for example, the phrase "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet") but once I copy some other people's EXPLANATION or INTERPRETATION of what that phrase tells us, that's plagiarism.

That's lying and cheating. I suppose you are going to say it's ok to lie and cheat as long as one is spreading god's word?
 

SneeringTree

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aiyah what he is quoting is not from man, like Shakepseare, and all the inspirations came from God, if God has no problem with that, why do you?

who invented the English alphabet? if you construct sentences using every single letters from the inventor of the English alphabet, should you be charged for pliagiarism?

how can you say a person is lying or cheating if he is spreading the Gospel truth? :biggrin:

You are a complete moron. You mean all pastors draw exactly the same lessons from the same biblical verses in the same sentence structure? Stealing another pastors sermons to pass off as one's own is stealing and lying.
 

SneeringTree

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i disagree, the ultimate copyright owner of every written piece of works in the world should be God.....

why? because man gets inspiration from God..:biggrin:

You disagree because you are a complete imbecile. That the bible is supposedly the word of god has nothing to do with the issue at hand. The issue is Kong Hee copying other pastor's sermons/lessons and passing off as his own. God might be the copyright owner but it still does not make Kong Hee less of a cheat, liar and plagiarizer.
 

SneeringTree

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are you sure he really said that? do you have evidence him saying that?

pray tell where did other pastors get their inspiration from? and every sermon do they dedicate to God or themselves?

God of course....and methinks it is okay with God that his Gospel is spread as much as possible...without this senseless copyright litigations...

sekali God wants the part of the payment from the litigation then you know....because every pastor quotes from the bible...which is the word of God by the way.

why would gentile like you be so interested over this non-issue?

do you have some other agendas which you prefer not to disclose? :biggrin:

Imbecile. Why do pastors go to bible college? So that they know how to teach the bible to congregations, amongst other things. The guidance of pastors in approaching the bible is imperative in building a strong church. Stealing someone's sermons and worse, selling them in book form is something only disgraceful Christians like you see bo problem with.

If the bible is a scientific equation, there wouldnt be so many splinter grouns of Christianity. It is precisely the bible can be interpretative that the issue of integrity of teaching the bible comes in. By all means, share amongst fellow pastors and borrown from one another but never pass of what is not yours as yours.

And I don't even need a bible to teach me this.
 
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