Bestselling writer Neale Donald Walsch, the author of the Conversations With God series admitted to copying a story from another author. The story, posted on Beliefnet.com, was about his son’s kindergarten winter show where a bunch of kids were holding up signs with letters on them to spell “Christmas Love” but one child’s sign was upside down so it looked like “Christ Was Love.”
But that wasn’t his son, and it wasn’t his story. He wrote it, verbatim, from a story that someone else wrote and published.
Walsch now claims that he read the story and his mind came to accept that it was something from his own personal experiences.
Yeah. The original author, Candy Chand, whose story was published online and in Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul doesn’t believe that either. “Quite frankly, I’m not buying it.” she says. Her real fear is that so many people have heard of and read Neale Walsch, they’re going to think that the story is his.
The real question
Why was the retarded kid allowed to hold a sign?
wouldn’t it read, “Christ Was Evol”???
oh, you just mean one letter was upside down, oh, that’s completely different (he! he!).
also, how can anyone claim a public event as their story? if several people saw the sign, then they can all claim the story, just not a guy who was never there and lied that he saw it.
oh, look, I just wrote those letters on a piece of paper and flipped the “m” upside down so it looks like a “w”… cool, now it’s my story, too! and I can use it whenever I want!!!
Well…
Sure, many people saw the public event and maybe even more than one person wrote about it.
But when another person, whether they were there or not, reads one writer’s work and then tries to pass it off as their own… that’s plagiarism.
From what I can tell, Chand was writing about her child and their participation in the pageant. So with that participatory angle, it really does make it their story.
Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes. Tycho (Jerry Holkins) @ Penny Arcade
Plagiarizing drivel?
Ever read that chicken soup crap? I think the real crime is the choice of work to plagiarize. Talk about taste in your ass.