I didn’t mention it directly in the “Writing for others” post below, but I linked to a Patheos.com post on plagiarism and personality-based leadership. In that post, Miles Mullin linked out to this week’s context: Janet Mefferd accusing Pastor Mark Driscoll of plagiarism in his most recent book and later, other publications. He links out to evidence of this charge, which allows you to judge some of the material for yourself.

Now, Mefferd has retracted her accusation and removed her blog with the evidence and the interview in which she made the accusation entirely. You can read her apology here.

Update: In her apology, Mefferd did not “evangelical industrial complex,” but her producer, who just resigned over all of this, did. Ex-producer Ingrid Schlueter wrote, among other things: “I hosted a radio show for 23 years and know from experience how Big Publishing protects its celebrities. Anything but fawning adulation for those who come on your show (a gift of free air time for the author/publisher by the way) is not taken well. Like Dr. Carl Trueman so aptly asked yesterday in his column at Reformation 21 [sic], does honest journalism have any role to play in evangelicalism now? (It was rhetorical.) My own take on that question is, no, it does not.”

All of this is ugly, but since it’s public, I’d like a clearer explanation than what has been given at this point. Some commenters are saying the silence of certain writers and leaders is telling, but I don’t think it’s telling what they think it’s telling. I suggest it’s telling that these leaders don’t want to assume guilt and start shooting.