FORT WORTH, Texas (ABP) — Paul Negrut, the president of the Romanian Baptist Union and a “hero” to Southern Baptist conservatives, is accused of plagiarizing a book by an American author — ironically, for use in a Romanian seminary class on Christian ethics.
Eight of the 13 chapters of the 1995 book Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics by California seminary professor Scott Rae appear word for word in the Romanian book Curs de Etica by Paul Negrut.
Negrut is president of Emanuel Baptist University and Seminary in Oradea, which he founded and where he serves as president. He also is pastor of Emanuel Baptist Church in Oradea, the leading conservative Baptist congregation in the 1,900-church Romanian Baptist Union.
There is no mention of author Scott Rae in the Romanian version of the book, but Negrut's name appears on every page. The Romanian book, published in 1999 by the Emanuel Bible Institute, was reportedly used in a seminary class for six years. The book was in the seminary's library for seven years but was recently removed, according to Romanian sources.
Plagiarism is against the law in Romania. Zondervan Publishing House, publisher of Moral Choices and holder of the copyright, said March 1 it is “investigating the situation.”
Negrut declined to answer specific questions about the alleged plagiarism.
“The allegation concerning the copying of Professor Dr. Scott B. Rae's book Moral Choices is part of a wider campaign intended to discredit Emanuel University and myself personally,” Negrut said in a March 1 e-mail to Associated Baptist Press. “The board of trustees of Emanuel University, which has authority over the entire institution including the rector [president], fully investigated the allegation and issued a formal decision. I would appreciate if you were willing to contact Dr. Paige Patterson and ask for the conclusion of the board of trustees.”
Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a personal friend of Negrut's since 1989, is one of two Southern Baptist seminary presidents who serve as American trustees of the Oradea schools.
The other seminary president on the Emanuel board — Phil Roberts of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo. — was acting dean of the Emmanuel Baptist Seminary and University from 1992 to 1994. He continues on there in an academic role.
At his installation at Midwestern in 2001, Roberts called Negrut one of his “heroes.” Roberts declined to talk about the plagiarism dispute, deferring any comment to Patterson.
Patterson is current chair of that board, which met in February and dealt with the issue.
“Following a thorough investigation, the board finds no evidence whatsoever of plagiarism,” according to a Feb. 12 statement released to ABP March 1. “Portions of the translation were made by several people, including Dr. Negrut. None of their resumes take credit for authorship, nor has any financial gain been sought by any. Rather, an effort was made, without appropriate attribution, to provide readings for Romanian students.
“We further express profound regret that some have apparently sought to discredit a godly man without the courage or Christian character to reveal their own identity,” the statement added. “While we regret the accusations, we find Dr. Negrut innocent of intent to deceive and further express our full confidence in the integrity of the leadership, the theology promoted, and the evangelistic and missionary mission of Emanuel University.”
According to documentation provided to ABP, the unapproved copying of Moral Choices was discovered by a former student of Emanuel Baptist University now in Belgium. The plagiarism charge became public in Romania in a Feb. 19 article by Sorin Cristescu in the newspaper Informatia de Vest. The newspaper said “a group of Baptist believers” brought the situation to its attention.
An American student who took Negrut's ethics course in 2004 discounted the plagiarism charge. “Those chapters from Moral Choices were translated in order that the Romanians would be able to have the material in their own language,” wrote Trevin Wax, now a student at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, on his blog.
“It's true that the printed course did not have footnotes,” Wax wrote. “Neither did it specify where the information came from. This should not have happened.”
Wax said Negrut was guilty of “unintentional negligence” but not plagiarism.
“The ethics course was never a book, in the proper sense, and was never published. It was a collection of materials placed into a notebook without a spine. This is not unusual in Romania. Most courses were done this way, since few of the books needed were translated into Romanian.”
Photocopies of the Romanian version of the book indicate the text was typeset, as if for printing, but it is unclear how the pages were bound. Negrut's name appears at the top of every page, and no mention of Rea's authorship appears on the pages. It is not known if copies of the Romanian book were ever sold.
Rae, a professor of the philosophy of religion and ethics at Biola University and its seminary, Talbot School of Theology, in La Mirada, Calif., said he has no reason to doubt Negrut's explanation that the unauthorized copying was an accident.
“I received a letter of apology from Paul, and I had a personal meeting with Paul two or three weeks ago, where he apologized profusely for the mistakes that were made,” Rae told ABP. “He has maintained all along that they were inadvertent, unintentional [mistakes]. He said it was a very regrettable error for which he deeply and fully apologized. And that was good enough for me.”
Negrut is a familiar figure in Southern Baptist circles and a frequent visitor to the United States, where he has raised financial support for his Oradea schools.
He was one of the few Baptists worldwide who supported the Southern Baptist Convention's withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance in 2004 — an effort led by Patterson. Negrut is also a leader of the movement to create a conservative worldwide Baptist fellowship. Many observers view it as an alternative to the BWA, which Negrut has accused of liberalism.
Negrut, who is encouraging the Romanian Baptist Union to leave the BWA, gained favor among SBC conservatives for establishing the Oradea schools — at first underground and then publicly after the fall of communism in 1989. Negrut's stories of government persecution and spiritual renewal in Romania offered many an encouraging alternative to Europe's reputation as a post-Christian region.
Negrut is completing his last term as president of the Romanian Baptist Union. An election will be held this year to replace him. The man Negrut has endorsed as his successor is expected to lead the union out of the BWA. He is running against Otniel Bunaciu, vice president of Bucharest Baptist Theological Seminary, a more moderate school that supports involvement with BWA and the European Baptist Federation.
A leading conservative among European Christians, Negrut was president of the Romanian Evangelical Fellowship, vice president of Christian Solidarity International in Romania, a member of the international committee of World Evangelical Fellowship, and a member of the international board of the European Missionary Alliance, according to Baptist Press. He was a plenary speaker at the “Amsterdam 2000” evangelism conference sponsored by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
Negrut has spoken at four SBC seminaries and the SBC Pastors' Conference. Faculty members from at least three Southern Baptist seminaries have served as visiting faculty of the Oradea school, which claims 800 students.
Patterson predicted the charges of plagiarism won't discredit the growing relationship between the SBC and conservative Romanians.
“Undoubtedly, there are those who would like to denigrate the reputation of Emanuel University and Oradea or harm its relationship with Southern Baptists,” he told ABP. “The relationship that it carries with Southern Baptists is purely a fraternal one but, in my estimation, those relationships will continue to be strong and productive for the Kingdom.
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