Steve Wilkins of the Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Monroe, La., is being dogged by plagiarism charges for the second time in two years. In April 2005, WORLD covered the initial plagiarism charges against Wilkins, which related to a pamphlet co-authored with Doug Wilson, “Southern Slavery: As It Was.” Wilkins took responsibility, claiming an editing error. A WorldMagBlog post on that WORLD article drew 380 comments–one of the most discussed articles in this site’s history.

The new charges against Wilkins pertain to one of his other books, “Call of Duty: The Sterling Nobility of Robert E. Lee,” in which material seems to have been lifted from several well-known biographies, including one Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Douglas Freeman. A website, which has thus far examined the prologue and initial chapter of Wilkins’ book, compares his book with source texts that were apparently used without citation. (more…)

The Presbyterian Church in America, as many of you know, is the conservative, Reformed denomination of the 500-year old Presbyterian tradition.  Historically, it’s a denomination known for its intellectual and theological rigor, its embracing of the historic creeds of the church, its passion for scripture, and more.  In short, the PCA often seems to offer the best of both worlds: the passion of Evangelicalism and the sound rigor of the classical and creedal (and sometimes high-church) Reformed tradition. 

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