Pastor Accused of ‘Lifting’ Book Material

A minister-author has charged that the Rev. W.A. Criswell of Dallas, a leader in the fundamentalist rise to power in the Southern Baptist Convention, plagiarized material in his popular book, “Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True.”

As reported by Ed Briggs, religion writer for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Rev. Gordon James, a Dallas writer, cited 15 examples in which he claims Criswell lifted sections from Reuben Archer Torrey’s 1907 book, “Difficulties and Alleged Errors and Contradictions in the Bible.”

Criswell, 79, pastor of the 21,000-member First Baptist Church in Dallas and a former Southern Baptist president, was quoted as saying, “I’m not conscious of lifting anything out of anybody’s volumes, published or anything else, unless I said ‘so-and-so said so-and so’.”

He added, “Now what I did, of course, and still do, is read a great deal and some of those things I’m sure could have stayed in my mind.” However, he said later he did not recall reading Torrey’s book.