When Religious Leaders Plagiarize Wingnut Pundits
The problem with the Trayvon Martin / Zimmerman case is the insane ALEC gun law, not racism. While there’s potentially some institutional racism involved, it’s more likely that the poorly written stand your ground statute or just plain slow incompetent bureaucracy is at fault.
In late March, Land called President Obama and the Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “racial demagogues” for their public statements about the Trayvon Martin ruling.
“Instead of letting the legal process take its independent course, race mongers are anointing themselves judge, jury and executioners,” Land said. “The rule of law is being assaulted by racial demagogues, and it’s disgusting, and it should stop.” He accused Obama and black leaders of trying to “gin up the black vote.”
The discovery of the plagiarism was made by Aaron Weaver, a doctoral candidate in religion and politics at Baylor University, and revealed on his blog The Big Daddy Weave.
Weaver first published his discovery on April 14. In that post, “Richard Land The Plagiarist: Top SBC Ethicist Stirs Up Controversy With Someone Else’s Rant,” he detailed how Land read liberally from a Washington Times column by Jeffrey Kuhner and an Investors’ Business Daily editorial about the Martin case without attribution. Some of the verbatim, unattributed quotes from the Kuhner column included:
[H]e [Obama] said, If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon Martin. The president’s aides claim he was showing compassion for the victim’s family. In reality, he poured gasoline on the racialist fires. Under pressure from the Congressional Black Caucus, Mr. Obama gave them what they wanted: He put the presidential spotlight on Trayvon Martin’s death - and thereby bolstered the burgeoning protests.
and
Here’s what makes this case so different. The answer is simple. The victim’s skin color and the perpetrator. Race hustlers such as Mr. Jackson, Mr. Sharpton, Mr. Farrakhan have made their careers and lucrative fortunes by fomenting racial grievance and demonizing the ‘white power structure.’ In their eyes segregation has never been truly repealed it has just become invisible.
Two days later, Weaver discovered that Land had also plagiarized conservative opinion writing on other topics. During a radio program entitled, “Religious Freedom Under Attack,” wrote Weaver, documenting the plagiarism, “Land passes off as his own commentary a Washington Examiner editorial titled ‘Obamacare regulation tramples on religious freedom,’” referring to the contraception coverage requirement.