Apparently, a Southern Baptist minister got busy quoting someone else's work without proper citation. I wrote him the following letter:

Dr. Krause-
It has come to my attention that some of your recent publications lack citations. While I am pleased to see proper citation of Biblical passages, I am distressed by your oversight in the case of more contemporary authors. I trust that you will correct this mistake immediately so as to not associate Rev. Mohler's words with any moral lapse on your part.

Sincerely,
Heather

And he sent me the following response:


A New Atheism?, Part 2

by Dr. Samuel Krouse

Last week I quoted Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, from his new book Atheism Remix: A Christian Confronts the New Athiests without giving him credit, which amounts to plagiarism. For that I am sorry. Yes, sorry that I got caught and sorry that I did it in the first place. Like all thieves and other assorted sinners, I have lots of excuses. I might even think of them as good reasons, but they are not. I thought, first that I was under the gun to get an article in by Wednesday morning, that as a full-time school teacher getting ready for the new year and the rush of that, the fact that the Colusa paper has a small readership comparatively speaking, and finally because Mohler said it better than I could have and I fully agreed with him and thought others would find it helpful. But alas, it got picked up on the internet and went national!

It was my intention to continue this week with actual names of people and books to further the opportunity for people to read both sides of the issue. I will continue that task now, having been thoroughly chastised by nine emails (as of Tuesday night, Aug. 19). I also received several other emails from atheist who did not know that I had plagiarized Mohler.

It is an amazing thing! FriendlyAtheist.com picked it up and there is no telling how many more I will receive.

On the atheists’ side are these recent books. "God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything,” by Christopher Hitchens. The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason, by Sam Harris. Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, by Daniel C. Dennett. The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins.

On the Christian side are the following. www.apologetics.org. www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/apologet.html.

www.christianapologetic.org. www.albertmohler.com. www.conservapedia.com/Atheism.

A Skeptic's Search for God: Convincing Evidence for His Existence, by Ralph O. Muncaster. The Norman L. Geisler Apologetics Library. The New Evidence That Demands a Verdict: Fully Updated to Answer the Questions Challenging Christians Today, by Josh McDowell.

The Dawkins Delusion, Friday, October 26, 2007, from www.AlbertMohler.com.

Atheism Remix: A Christian Confronts the New Athiests, by Albert Mohler , Jr.

Both lists barely scratch the surface of what is available. Now let me turn to one of the emails I received. This from David Tamayo, who lives in Northern Virginia. “As you probably know, discussion of beliefs often bring out passions which may turn into insults and rudeness. Most atheists are very well versed on the Bible and other dogma books and often know more about Christianity and its beliefs than do Christians. I suggest that your flock should be better prepared for the atheists arguments by being familiar with the books atheists read such as Dawkins, Harris, Dennett and Hitchens. Of course that might mean that anyone who is currently having doubts might leave your church altogether, but those that don’t would be much stronger in their faith and would be much better at taking on discussions with atheists. The better informed we all are about the arguments, the more productive those discussions can be. What do you think?” I asked him if I might quote some of what he wrote, and his response was: “Thank you for asking. Yes, you may quote me and use my real name. I trust you will not quote me out of context. As far as strong apologetics I recommend the India born Catholic Dinesh D'Souza who loves to debate atheists in the public forum. The challenge of a Christian convincing an atheist that he is right is greater because he/she first must convince that there is a God and then go further to convince that there is Jesus and Christianity are the right flavor of that Deity. So the better prepared everyone is in understanding not just the opponents arguments, but their own, the better and more interesting the conversation (and respect) will be for one another.”

And the debate goes on!