News & Record editor responds to Pastor's plagiarism

News & Record editor Allen Johnson responds to the issue of the guest column with substantial plagiarized portions.

Johnson writes:

"We obviously would not have knowingly published such passages if we had known they were not properly credited. So we feel it is important to acknowldge that here and now."

Johnson also reports that Michael Usey, pastor of College Park Church, explained that he originally composed the guest column as a sermon and Usey says that explains why he did not identify the original sources of the paragraphs he copied word-for-word:

"When you give a sermon you’re not giving a lecture – saying, ‘as so and so said,’ but when you put it in print there are different standards and I should have remembered that."