Hillary Clinton's pastor admits that portions of his new book of devotions were plagiarized

Reuters/Brendan McDermid

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes part in the Women for Women International Luncheon in New York City, New York, U.S., May 2, 2017.

Rev. Dr. William S. Shillady, the longtime pastor of Hillary Clinton, has admitted that he inadvertently plagiarized portions of his newly released book that contains more than 365 devotions he wrote for the failed 2016 Democratic presidential candidate.

The book, titled "Strong for a Moment Like This: The Daily Devotions of Hillary Rodham Clinton," reportedly contains some similarities with a blog post written by The Rev. Matthew Deuel, a pastor at Mission Point Community Church in Warsaw, Indiana.

Shillady, who currently serves as executive director of the United Methodist City Society in New York, has been promoting the book in the media over the past few weeks, but he told CNN that he was not aware that he had committed a cardinal sin in writing.

Deuel said that Shillady borrowed from a blog post he wrote in 2016 and did not include proper attribution.

"For the disciples and Christ followers in the first century, Good Friday represented the day that everything fell apart. All was lost. The momentum and hope of a man, claiming to be the Son of God, the Messiah who was supposed to change everything, had been executed," Deuel wrote in his blog post, according to The Christian Post.

The exact same phrases appeared in Shillady's published email to Clinton, and the book reportedly has several other quotes of a similar nature.

When asked about the similarities, Shillady explained that the devotions he sent to Clinton were composed of his old sermons and mixed material he found on the internet.

"In preparing the devotional on the morning of November 9, I was determined to provide comfort with the familiar adage that 'It's Friday but Sunday is coming.' I searched for passages that offered perspective of this theme. I am now stunned to realize the similarity between Matt Deuel's blog sermon and my own. Clearly, portions of my devotional that day incorporate his exact words. I apologize to Matt for not giving him the credit he deserves," Shillady said.

Mary Catherine Dean, editor-in-chief of Abingdon Press, which released Shillady's book, accepted the pastor's explanation that it was an honest oversight.

She noted that Shillady had credited more than 200 sources, and said that his failure to attribute portions of the book does not change the fact that the devotionals were sent to Clinton.

Shillady began sending devotionals to Clinton via email in April 2015, when Clinton announced her candidacy for president. The digital devotions were mentioned by the Democratic presidential candidate during her campaign, saying they helped keep her "centered."