Baucham, a former pastor and dean of the school of divinity at African Christian University in Zambia, did not respond to a request for comment.
His critique of CRT has been controversial in part because Baucham is Black. That’s led to claims that his views are invalid, Baucham argued in a recent op-ed.
“As a Christian minister, I’m used to being stifled when I talk about my religion outside of church. If I bring up faith in Jesus Christ, the guardians of the secular public square are quick to inform me that my religion is strictly a private matter,” he wrote in the New York Post.
“But these days I’m stifled not because of the religion I practice but because of one I reject: the religion of antiracism, which is now the established church of academia, government, the media and business.”
His publisher said McDurmon’s accusations were more about style differences than plagiarism.
“The blogger’s claims of poor documentation and plagiarism in Fault Lines are not well-founded. McDurmon’s weak argument is based on his preference for quoting in an academic style of documentation and formatting, rather than the Chicago Manual of Style, which is the standard for popular-level works published not only by Salem Books but also for most of our peer publishers in the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association,” Peterson said in an email statement to Religion News Service.
“It is common for academics to write both popular-level works and academic works and use different documentation styles accordingly. It is unreasonable for McDurmon to demand academic documentation in a popular work and it undermines his overall critique of Baucham’s assessment of Critical Race Theory.”
Controversies over CRT and plagiarism have roiled the evangelical world in recent months. A number of megachurch pastors, including former Southern Baptist Convention President J.D. Greear and Virginia megachurch pastor David Platt, have been accused of being “woke” and promoting CRT. Critical race theory was also a topic of heated debate during the SBC’s annual meeting in June.
Meanwhile, Ed Litton, the current SBC president, has been accused of plagiarism, for using parts of sermons first preached by Greear without permission. Ironically, some of Litton’s fiercest critics have also enthusiastically promoted Baucham’s book.
Peterson left the door open for a future correction or clarification in “Fault Lines.”
“If we determine that there is a genuine need for correction or clarification we will do so in the next printing and issue an errata document accordingly,” he said in an email.
This article originally appeared here.
