There is fresh drama brewing in conservative Baptist circles - and this time the controversy involves alleged sermon plagiarism, an anonymous letter, accusations of hypocrisy, and even claims that someone wore latex gloves while mailing the evidence.
Tom Buck, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lindale, Texas, has been accused of what an anonymous group described as "habitual and systemic" plagiarism in sermons preached over a period of years. According to The Roys Report, the letter documented 45 alleged instances of verbatim borrowing across 17 sermons selected from nine years of Buck's preaching.
And one allegation in particular is raising eyebrows.
According to the letter, Buck allegedly borrowed an entire marriage illustration from another source in a 2023 sermon - but substituted his own wife's name into the story.
The material allegedly came from the Preaching the Word commentary series edited by R. Kent Hughes. The anonymous authors claimed they examined only that one commentary collection, meaning their findings were not presented as a comprehensive review of everything Buck has preached.
That would already be enough to ignite a church-world controversy. But the story has an extra layer of awkwardness: Buck himself has previously spoken strongly about plagiarism.
During the 2021 controversy surrounding then-Southern Baptist Convention president Ed Litton and accusations that Litton repeated portions of J.D. Greear's sermons, Buck publicly called for seminaries to make clear that such behavior was wrong. He also described borrowing someone else's personal experiences as a serious matter of integrity.
Now that similar accusations are aimed in his direction, however, several prominent conservative Christian leaders have rushed to Buck's defense.
Phil Johnson, formerly executive director of John MacArthur's Grace to You ministry, acknowledged that using commentary wording without attribution is technically plagiarism but characterized the alleged offense as relatively minor - describing it as "traffic-ticket-level plagiarism" rather than something that should automatically disqualify a pastor.
Owen Strachan called the anonymous allegations an "ungodly attack," while Founders Ministries president Tom Ascol argued that anonymous accusations should simply be rejected. Ascol even speculated publicly that the letter came from "disgruntled women," a remark that generated criticism of its own.
But then the story took an almost spy-thriller turn.
Protestia reportedly traced the letter to Pray's Mill Baptist Church in Georgia, which has ties to G3 Ministries. According to Protestia, church elder and G3 board member Jon Norton allegedly mailed the letter during a trip to Texas, used Buck's own church as the return address, and even wore latex gloves while handling the package so he would not leave fingerprints. The Roys Report noted that Protestia did not cite a source for the latex-glove allegation.
That connection matters because G3 has already endured a bruising controversy of its own. Former G3 president Josh Buice resigned in 2025 after revelations that he had used fake social-media identities to criticize allies and had anonymously sent allegations concerning a ministry partner to The Roys Report.
The latest scandal has therefore become about far more than whether Buck properly attributed commentary material.
G3 pastor-theologian Ethan Jago announced that he was resigning, saying he believed the anonymous campaign was an effort to damage Buck's ministry. Ascol similarly argued that any plagiarism concerns should have remained between Buck and the elders of his local church rather than becoming a public spectacle.
Others are pushing back hard against that defense.
Former Christian radio host Janet Mefferd accused Buck's supporters of changing the subject and argued that failing to cite borrowed material is straightforward plagiarism. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Jared C. Wilson also condemned ministers who present other people's work as their own.
Buck himself has largely stayed out of the public brawl. According to The Roys Report, he had remained relatively quiet as of its August 20 report, apart from sharing or acknowledging statements supporting his character.
So now conservative Baptist social media appears divided over two scandals at once: Did a prominent pastor repeatedly preach other writers' material without adequate attribution - and did his opponents behave even worse in the way they tried to expose him?
For Christians, however, the deeper issue may be considerably less dramatic than the online feud.
Pastors routinely consult commentaries, borrow insights, and learn from other preachers. The controversy comes when inspiration becomes appropriation and listeners are given the impression that another person's words, experiences, or illustrations originated with the preacher standing in front of them.
Ironically, even Johnson - while defending Buck against calls for disqualification - ultimately arrived at a remarkably simple piece of advice for pastors: study the commentaries, close them, and then write the sermon yourself.
In other words, beneath all the anonymous letters, accusations, resignations and social-media warfare, this may ultimately come down to one very old-fashioned Christian virtue:
Tell the truth - even about where your sermon came from.
