Isn´t it stealing?

 

Thou shall not steal. Exodus 20:15

The other day while was watching a video about a passage from the Bible, my jaw dropped as the Preacher was speaking. Those words sounded so familiar to my heart, not the passage itself because I had already read it, but the interpretation about it. I was appalled. Here you have a man who is supposed to be a vicar, whom many people follow and look to for a soothing word; who is always saying that we need to live free of sin; using someone else´s lecture word for word. He must have memorized the homily, not only that but he also used the same hand gestures and facial expressions.

 In my mind, I tried to find several excuses for why he had done that. Perhaps he was going through rough times not being able to come up with his own sermon. Maybe he had forgotten that he would be the one preaching that day. It could have been that it just slipped his mind. Or perchance he doesn´t realize that was he is doing is incorrect.  A true mind boggler.

I do realize that he is a human being and we do make mistakes; however, this act was just simply improper. It would have been more graceful if he had simply said in the beginning that he had watched this sermon; was overwhelmed by it and simply wanted to share it with the people listening so they could appreciate it as much as he had.

This reminds me of a friend who says he hates people who lie and that he always tells the truth. Ah-ha, the other day I caught him telling a lie. When I questioned him about it, he went on and on about that there was a difference between telling a white lie and lying. Not telling the truth is a lie. Simple as that. Using another person´s ideas as if they were yours is stealing not borrowing.

          Now, I do not trust the Pastor any longer and whenever I watch one of his sermons, I am inclined to think that it must be somebody else´s idea.  No sooner said than done, just ask Google and there it is.

 

Written: September 8, 2020

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