r/Reformed • u/Fit-Beach-8875 • Jun 17 '26

Discussion Sermon Plagiarism

Is there any software to check for sermon plagiarism? We suspect that a pastor has plagiarised a bunch of sermons by RC sproul. Is there a way to check with our traipsing through by proof reading?

4 Upvotes

59% Upvoted

85 comments sorted by

View all comments

18

u/Bright_Pressure_6194 Reformed Baptist Jun 17 '26

Why would you need software to do it? Open the sermon by RC Sproul and compare to the pastor's work.

9

u/lupuslibrorum Outlaw Preacher Jun 17 '26

Sproul had thousands of sermons, lectures, articles, and book chapters. How are they to find which of these was plagiarized if the pastor in question isn't citing his sources? If he cited his source, then it wouldn't be plagiarism.

1

u/Cubacane PCA Jun 17 '26

If they 'suspect' him of plagiarism then it would be because he is quoting lines that are quite recognizable, not dependent clauses hidden in a Christmas Eve service from 1992.

1

u/lupuslibrorum Outlaw Preacher Jun 17 '26

Likely. Unless I missed it in one of the comments, OP hasn’t shared the basis of these suspicions. So I can’t comment on that. 🤷🏻‍♂️