Friday, May 07, 2010
Kong Hee & co. are into plagiarism?
The blogger of Cheat Grace alerted me to his blog two months ago.
He/she has been compiling plagiarism evidences committed by Kong
Hee, the founder and senior pastor of City Harvest Church, a
mega-church with a congregation of over 30,000 members.
(Disclaimer: I don’t have the published materials mentioned below,
so I am depending on the blogger’s reports. For this reason, I was
hesitant to blog about this initially. However, what my clustermate
told me yesterday motivates me to blog as a way to seek
verification from those who have access to these materials.)
Most of the evidences are those from Kong Hee’s web-based daily
devotion. There are a few examples (post one, post two) taken from
the Leadership Study Bible edited by Kenneth Boa, Sid Buzzell and
Bill Perkins.
The blogger also reported that Kong Hee has plagiarized not only
for his website but also in his own hard-copy publication: Renewing
your Spiritual Life in 90 Days, Vol. 1. It appears that Kong Hee
copied the devotional material for day 61 and day 89 from other
sources without acknowledgment. What is irony is this printed
statement on Kong Hee’s book: “All rights reserved. No portion of
this book may be reproduced in any form without the written
permission, with the exception of brief excerpts in magazine
reviews.” Since I don’t have a copy of this book, I hope my readers
who have access to it able to verify the cited pages.
In our first semester at Trinity Theological College, we are
required to attend a class titled ‘Theological Study Skills’.
Throughout the class, the lecturer, Andrew Peh, keep reiterating
the severity of plagiarism. Taking another person’s work and
claiming it as your own is equivalent to stealing, coveting,
bearing false witness, etc. Kong Hee who has a Doctorate in
Theology from New Covenant International Theological Seminary
should know this. Or perhaps that seminary, unlike Trinity
Theological College, allows plagiarism.
Last night, one of my clustermates told us about a conference which
he has attended. One of the speakers of the conference was the
Caucasian pastor from City Harvest Church pastoral team. At the
beginning of the speech, the Caucasian pastor told the attendees
that what he was about to say on that day was revealed to him by
God. Guess what? My clustermate recognize that his speech
was copied entirely from one of Willow Creek Church’s
resources. As he was speaking on the stage, my
clustermates was telling his fellow attendees seated besides him
the subsequent points the Caucasian pastor was going to make. And
my clustermate got them all right.
Is plagiarism a trend in City Harvest Church’s pastorate?