Thursday, May 03, 2007

Gimme My Props!!!

I was talking with Monkey briefly about the idea of citing sources in talks. It's kind of a dilemma, because if these words are truly for God should they even be cited? I have heard quite a few talks where I know that they were given by somebody else. For Example, I heard a talk down at Mars Hill Seattle and came to bellingham and heard it at another church - almost word for word at points. And it makes me wonder (sure does) if we should be citing our sources. Should the church be giving the places where they recieve their talks from? If it is truly for the kingdom, should the author care when they find out that they were not cited? The same goes for worship music. We pay copyright fees and acknowledge writers, but if the song was written for God's glory, do they really need acknowledgment?

I understand the thought that we needs to get paid. I totally agree with this thought. Artists need to get paid for their art; this is why we have copyrights in the first place. I guess what I am trying to say is that if we are willing to acknowledge musical artists, shouldn't we acknowledge the spoken arts as well? Shouldn't the person using somebody else's words acknowledge the source it came from. My humanity wants it props - why should the other guy be termed a genius and I am not even seen - but my spirituality says, "to God be the Glory". It just sucks that my humanity is bigger than my spirituality sometimes.

3 comments:

The Huckaby Family said...

very interesting! if you "borrowed" some great ides from someones sermon and turned them into a paper for school - what would happen? being a future history teacher i gotta say - always cite your sources! look at all the (racist) backlash against mlk because a lot of his famous speeches/sermons were plagaerized. it gives nutjobs the ammunition to devalue mlk's rep. (that and the philandering - don't do that either and you'll be alright).

Kurt Ingram said...

this is hard, but does giving props to someone steel the glory from God? Is is just a pride thing, or is it our way of honoring one another. God gifts certain people to think certain ways and uniquely express it, so citing them is pointing to how God has uniquely made them. For me, the big deal is that we don't want to spoon feed people, and citing stuff gives them the tools to go find where that was written or said and go deeper. It is not for our glory but for the building up of each other, but who the frick knows

Anonymous said...

Doesn't Rick Warren write all of Bob's sermons? Or is it Bill Hybels? hahaha, oh I'm hilarious... Anyways, the thought of a speaker or pastor doing someone else's sermon word for word turns my stomach. I think its okay to borrow analogies or anectdotes to make a point (and i don't think that person would neccessarily have to cite the source), but I don't think you should ever just take a whole sermon. To me, that is the complete opposite of being Spirit-led. And hearing a speaker say, "yeah, I got this sermon from another guy across town", wouldn't make me feel better.