Plagiarizing Might Make for an Awkward Conversation with God

What kind of conversations is Neale Donald Walsch having with God these days? Let's hope it has something to do with not plagiarizing. According to today's Shelf Awareness, the Conversations With God author admitted that his December 28 Belief.net post was not his own work.

[image via Walk with God]

The New York Times reported that Walsch had changed the first paragraph of Candy Chand's "Christmas Love," but that apart from that slight change it was almost word-for-word her story. In the NYT article, Walsch, a public speaker, says he'd been retelling the story with his own voice for so long that he actually began to believe it was his own story. However, as the article points out, "Christmas Love" is very clearly the work of Chand. It was attributed to her in 2000 when it appeared in Chicken Soup for the Christian Family Soul.

She told the NYT:

“Has the man who writes best-selling books about his ‘Conversations With God’
also heard God’s commandments? ‘Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not lie, and
thou shalt not covet another author’s property’?”

Chand also said this isn't the first time a Christian has plagiarized her work.