They pretend that they have no control over their distribution, as though the books magically appear at Amazon under their name without their knowledge or consent.

Pull quote: “What might happen ultimately to the book still hasn’t been decided, he [Aaron Rench] added.” This means they still want to sell the book, at least to break even. It also means that they have not decided to destroy it.

Book co-written by Moscow minister Wilson pulled from store shelves

‘A Justice Primer’ contains multiple passages plagiarized or improperly sourced

By Terri Harber, Daily News staff writer

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A book released earlier this year by Canon Press co-authored by Christ Church Senior Minister Douglas Wilson and Texas pastor Randy Booth was pulled from shelves last week after it was determined multiple passages were plagiarized or the material sources were improperly identified.

“We’re grateful that it was caught,” said Aaron Rench, one of the owners of the publishing business based in Moscow. “We’re still investigating how it happened.”

While the company said it has asked retailers to stop selling the 300-page book, it’s still showing up for sale online. Rench said it is difficult to remove products from online sales sources, especially Amazon.com, but the title will be removed wherever possible.

“We never listed the book for sale on Amazon,” he said. “It could keep popping up for sale on that site for a long time.”

The company’s webpage featuring the book, http://canonpress.com/a-justice-primer/, notes the book was discontinued Thursday. Canon Press issued a statement and Wilson and Booth both issued personal statements. Booth has taken blame for the end product.

“The idea was to blend the writing, and I was in charge of accomplishing this. As best I can tell, all the problems are mine and not Doug’s,” he wrote. “. . . While this was not intentional plagiarism on my part, nevertheless I clearly did use their words without proper citation and for this I publicly confess.”

Wilson released a statement saying he was “disappointed to find out today that there are serious citation problems in ‘A Justice Primer’” and that he was supportive of the decision to remove the book from further circulation.

He didn’t admit fault but went further in a follow-up statement.

“I want to take full responsibility for having my name on the cover of a book containing plagiarized sections, and where the contributions from the authors were undifferentiated,” he wrote.

In a subsequent release, Canon Press said portions of the book were considered original after having been run through two separate software detection programs.

“It was careless? Yes. Sloppy? Yes. But we’re going to take care of it,” Rench said.

Rench said letters of apology would be sent out and returns from retailers and individual purchasers would be accepted. What might happen ultimately to the book still hasn’t been decided, he added.

A blogger named Rachel Miller posted her findings of plagiarism and highlighted sections that weren’t attributed properly to the original sources. Miller also pointed to Wilson having plagiarized material in another book, the controversial “Southern Slavery: As It Was.” The book was co-authored by Steve Wilkins, who took blame for the plagiarized portions.

Along with Rench and Wilson’s son, Nate, three more people own the publishing business, which has been around for more than 20 years. Wilson originally owned the company, which was part of the Christ Church, but he sold it in 2012, according to WNG.org.