I don’t have much to say about this story but I want to link to it.
Dale Partridge, Christian ‘influencer’ and church planter, haunted by plagiarism claims
Dale Partridge is a hip social media influencer, pastor type who has been lifting other people’s words and using them to make himself look good. Cue Bob Smietana:
Discouragement, he said in a now deleted Instagram post, is a temptation that needs toughness and tenderness to overcome.
“But in any case, discouragement is not to be tolerated or wallowed in,” his post read. “It’s to be fought.”
This spiritual advice, typical of Partridge, can stand with the words of the best religious thinkers.
Perhaps because, it turns out, his advice came from two top religious thinkers.
The above sentiment about discouragement was borrowed nearly word-for-word from DesiringGod.org, a website founded by the widely read evangelical author and preacher John Piper. The “not guilty” line comes from the late author and theologian A.W. Tozer. (A post on the Relearn Church website was later updated to include the correct attribution and link to Piper’s site.)
A review of Partridge’s writings shows that the plagiarism in these posts is not a one-time mistake. According to critics who have tracked his tweets and Instagram posts, Partridge has commonly passed off quotes from celebrities, musicians, fellow entrepreneurs, authors and public figures including Ricky Martin, John Wooden, Ron Finley and Martin Luther King Jr. as his own. Partridge’s habit of plagiarizing quotes even inspired a “Fake Dale Partridge” Twitter account, which reposted Partridge’s tweets from October 2014, along with the correct attribution.
Go read the rest if you want to learn more about how hip influencing is done. I just can’t see how this stuff appeals to people but since I warn folks about this kind of thing, I thought I should post it.