Abingdon Press announced that it was pulling a book of devotions written for Hillary Clinton during her Presidential campaign from the shelves and destroying all remaining copies because the author plagiarized sections of the book.
Rev. Bill Shillady, Clinton’s friend and spiritual advisor, sent her emails every morning during her campaign. She credited those devotions for her continued strength to face the pressures of the campaign trail. In particular, she said that the email he sent her the morning after she lost the election to Donald Trump helped over overcome the bitter disappointment she felt.
Shillady published these emails under the title Strong for a Moment Like This: The Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton, with Clinton writing the foreword. Weeks after its publication, Indiana pastor Matt Deuel told CNN that the devotion from the morning after Clinton’s defeat bore a striking resemblance to a blog post he wrote earlier in 2016.
Upon hearing that the devotion had been called into question, Abingdon Press further investigated the book. Their President, Rev. Brian K. Milford described the process and the results in a statement. “Abingdon Press initiated an extensive review of the book and was alarmed to discover other content unattributed by the author. Abingdon Press has zero tolerance for plagiarism. Consequently, we have discontinued sales, will remove existing copies from all sales outlets, and will have them destroyed along with our existing inventory.”
The announcement comes one week before Clinton’s book on the 2016 election, What Happened, releases.
Photo courtesy: Flickr.com
Publication date: September 6, 2017
