plagiarize – Protestia

Kathy and Ed Litton Plagiarized a Tim Keller Sermon in 2012

Apparently J.D. Greear isn’t the only muse that Ed and Kathy Litton have garnered ‘inspiration’ from, as a new compilation video shows the Litton’s plagiarizing a 1991 Tim Keller sermon, making one wonder what his 8-member preaching team actually does all day, or whether or they were so arrogant to surmise that as long as he stole from a sermon that is 20 years removed from his, he would not get caught.

Keller has not yet indicated whether he gave them permission to preach it unattributed.

Previously Litton only admitted to the barest of borrowing from Greear for his Romans series, until it was revealed that far from mere borrowing he practically preached the same sermon. And not just the Romans one, but other sermons as well, going back years. Even another one of his church pastors got in on the action, himself preaching his own plagiarized sermon.

Now, Kathy Litton has joined the ranks of preachers from Redemption Church who has been caught plagiarizing during one of their tag-team preaching jams. While she may not have said the words in question, if she shares in the praise she shares in the pain. If she’s going to preach a sermon with her husband, we’re going to assume she also did sermon prep and wrote the sermon with her husband, making them both culpable for any sermonic shenanigans that may arise.

Capstone Report, who broke the story, explains that comparing sermons “reveals many areas of similarity in the sermons. Too many to be coincidental. Large sections of Tim Keller’s sermon were quoted without attribution by Ed Litton….the sermon utilized many similar points including Keller’s definition of marriage, advice on how to use Jesus to overcome criticism and even Keller’s definition of what shows a servant’s heart.”

Two of several such examples provided by CR show what’s going on.

Tim Keller: “You will start to fall out of like with that person in most cases before you marry them. In the courtship or in the engagement that’s where most people say I guess I shouldn’t marry this person I fall out of like with them.”
Ed Litton: “You are going to fall out of like for one another. As a matter of fact, it is going to happen before you get married just in the process and the minutiae of trying to get ready for a wedding.

and

Tim Keller: “The essence of marriage is a covenant a legal, a legal commitment.”
Ed Litton: “The essence of marriage, we said last week, is a legal commitment, a binding covenant.”
Tim Keller: “What makes a marriage a marriage?”
Ed Litton: “What makes a marriage a marriage?”
Tim Keller: “A priest can marry. A minister can marry. A justice of the peace. Marriage is marriage. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a captain on a ship. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a justice of the peace marriage is marriage.”
Ed Litton: “Some people say, well, I got married by a priest, do I get married by a pastor, a justice of the peace, a judge or a sea captain? I mean does it matter where I get married? I don’t think that it matters who performs the ceremony.”
Tim Keller: “When marriage pops up, originally was given to Adam and Eve. It wasn’t given to only Christians it was given to human beings as human beings.”
Ed Litton: “God created marriage and gave it to mankind. The first man and first woman were the only man and only woman. And God said, ‘Here, I give you marriage.’ So, marriage is for all groups, all races, all nationalities, all nations and frankly all religions.”
Tim Keller: “What is it that makes you married? What makes you married is this: a permanent and exclusive public legal commitment to share your lives together—all aspects of it. It’s got a permanent. It’s got to be exclusive.”
Ed Litton: “What is marriage? It is a permanent, exclusive legal relationship.

See Them Here! A Smorgasborg of Plagiarized Sermons from SBC President Ed Litton

It’s never just one. Days after taking over 140 videos and sermons private amid allegations that he plagiarized a sermon from J.D Greear, newly elected Southern Baptist President has been exposed at having plagiarized at least three more sermons that we know of, with more being unearthed every day

Reformation Charlotte, a sister site to Protestia, broke the original plagiarized story, and since then has unearthed and collated at least two more sermons that Litton has plagiarized and passed off has his own, sermons from Romans 13 and 14. One anonymous uploader also joined the fray and created one on that he did on Romans 8 and Romans 1, showing that this is not just a few snippets of ideas here and there, but rather a purposeful, sustained practice of stealing J.D Greear’s stuff and passing it off as his own. He even plagiarized the prayers!

JD Greear “Now this is sort of a little uncouth, maybe spontaneous but if you right now, listening at one of our campuses in our church here, if you are employed by the government in any way, and I would include in that first-responders, law enforcement, of course, military, social workers, teachers, a representative, elected representative of some kind, or if you work for one of those people, if you work for the government, receive your paycheck from them, would you do us the honor at all of our campuses of just standing up right now? Just stand to your feet right now, wherever you are, if you work for the government. Right, remain standing put your hands together I wanted you to stand there. Stay standing okay? Stay remain standing.
Litton: If you’re at home, please, I understand you don’t have to stand up but at our west campus, if you serve the government, if you receive a paycheck from the government. Maybe you’re a public school teacher. Maybe you’re a police officer. Maybe you work in the tax department, the revenue department. Maybe you’re an agent of one of our law enforcement organizations, and so if you are, would you just stand up for a moment?

Greear: You think that many of our leaders are batty, and for good cause I might add, but Caligula who was Caesar around this time.

Litton: It was a roman emperor by the name of Caligula.

Greear: Caligula was unfit to keep a pet, let alone run an empire.

Litton: Now let me just say upfront he wasn’t worthy of having a pet, much less being an emperor.

Greear: let me just run you through a quick laundry list of Caligula’s greatest accomplishments. First thing he does when he’s in office when he becomes Caesar, he has his mom and brother killed to make sure that they don’t challenge his right to the throne. He openly committed incest with three of his sisters. He frequently would crossdress and go out in public. He installed his favorite horse Incitatus as a senator and then later promoted him to Proconsul.

Litton: He killed his mother and brother to gain his power. He openly lived in an incestuous relationship with his multiple sisters. He was a cross-dresser. He made, he literally made his horse a Roman senator.

Greear: I have to ask- what had the horse done as senator that earned him a promotion to Proconsul, right? I mean how do you even vote when you’re a horse in the senate? All in favor say “Aye”. Opposed? Wait for it- “Neeeigh”.

Litton: Can you imagine that? A horse? Every time the senate gathered a horse would walk in, it was the Emperor’s horse. When they voted he would say “neeeigh!”

And then more videos.

And a social media user, Jacob, created this video after the original Romans 1 news story was published.

Neither Greear not Litton have responded to this latest round of published sermon comparisons.