Thou Shalt Not Steal (Sermons)

Thomas Long, a professor at Emory University, wrote an interesting piece in the Christian Century highlighting the problem of pastor’s plagiarizing sermons from other reverends.

An excerpt:

A couple of years ago, a student in one of my preaching courses was struggling terribly . . . But then, in his final opportunity to redeem himself in the course, he surprised us all by preaching a stunning sermon, both profound and lyrical. It was unexpectedly excellent.

Too good, in fact. Sadly suspicious, I plugged one of his more delicious phrases into Google. Alas, up came the whole sermon on a church’s Web site, preached by the pastor of that church many months before. It was an unfortunate but clear case of plagiarism. That was not, however, the whole story. My search actually produced dozens of hits, disclosing that, evidently, my student was not the only preacher to find this particular sermon compelling. A number of others, all with their sermons posted online, had lifted paragraphs and pages from the original sermon, mostly without credit. In a last and unexpected twist, this much-copied sermon itself turned out to contain a long section cribbed without attribution from a Living by the Word column in this very journal. With a few clicks of the mouse, I had uncovered a crime wave of homiletical petty larceny.

How often do you think pastor’s plagiarize another’s work? Have you ever heard a pastor preach a sermon you had heard before?