Compromised Penmanship

It seems social media has opened up a platform for copycats to come forth at an alarming rate. I’ve witnessed over the past few months individuals literally swiping post, removing copyright info and posting on their timeline as their own. It’s gotten to the point that  well known ministries, pastors and evangelist are having to warn their followers that accounts have been created in their names with folks requesting money and other foolishness.

I’ve personally been the recipient of this horrible epidemic as someone created a twitter account with my name, adjusted the user name by one character and literally copied my business name, bio and work info. I have no idea who this person is and contacting twitter proved to be pointless so I was forced to change all my info. Crazy. At the end of the day, it all boils down to integrity  when it comes to the written word. I had the opportunity to read, The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism by Theresa Harvard Johnson earlier this year and it totally blessed me and confirmed just how serious God feels about plagiarism. Sadly, at some point we’ve all been guilty (unknowingly) of it to some degree and there are those who intentionally do it with little hesitation. It’s time for us to repent and make sure that we are not compromising our pens before the Lord.

We live in a society that has become morally corrupt and sadly many things that we once shunned as profane has become accepted. If someone breaks into your home, car or business it is seen as a violation and rightfully so. Once you realize a stranger has been rummaging through your personal belongings you feel vulnerable. One area of theft that is often overlooked is that of the arts, particularly in literature.

In the book, “The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism”, author Theresa Harvard Johnson deals with it from a spiritual perspective that lends more credence to the magnitude of stealing the works of other writers. Basically, she deals with the levels of deceit it involves to steal the writings of another individual from the written word to arts, drawing, music and ideas. She goes into great depth and shares incidents of where entire sermons and books have been copied without permission and authors have added their name to them as the originator of the work.

Harvard delves deeply in the scriptures to give examples to support her claims in hopes that our eyes may be open to the devastation attached to the crime. As in the natural, so it is in the spiritual. There is a penalty involved for plagiarism to include, monetary compensation and damage to your credibility. If there are damages that must be recompensed in the natural those same laws apply spiritually.

I applaud her ability to deal with such a sensitive issue that continues to be overlooked. She calls you on the rug and it makes you really question your own works. As someone who’s had work, words and ideas stolen by others I know what it feels like to be violated. Harvard also addresses how it can take years to heal from the wounds of this type of violation.

The written word is the most sacred thing we’ve been given and it’s been deduced to nothing more than fluff in the eyes of so many. While we know that God can reveal the same thing spiritually to thousands, this book addresses those who maliciously plagiarize. The individuals who listen to your conversations, read your blog post and books to regurgitate your words as their own.

Again, The Sin of Spiritual Plagiarism is an eye-opener for anyone serious about the consequences associated with the GIFT of writing. I think not only is it a great book for writer’s but should be considered mandatory reading in school. I’ll conclude this review with this quote from Apostle Theresa Harvard Johnson, “There are thieves in the temple – many of whom are leading, teaching and training others with stolen goods and out of evil intent.”