Ergun Caner and the integrity of Baptist institutions

In December 2013, Brewton-Parker College, a Southern Baptist institution in Georgia, hired Ergun Caner as president. They said they called Caner “because of the attacks” on him. That should be the siren signal awakening us all to a crisis in our institutions.

Brewton-Parker trustees have one thing right: You don’t need to listen to Caner’s critics. Only listen to his own words, available on the Internet. Hear him claim that he was born in Istanbul, Turkey; that as a boy growing up there he only knew American culture through what he had seen on TV; that he hated Americans; that he was educated in a madrasah (an Islamic religious school) in Beirut, Lebanon; that he was trained to be a terrorist; that he came to the United States in 1979 at age 14, when his father immigrated with his several wives; that they came here to be Islamic missionaries to America, taking his prayer rug to school and praying toward Mecca in his high school bathroom.

Hear with amazement his testimony of conversion when he says he came into a Baptist church in full Islamic garb, carrying a Koran; listen carefully to his Arabic, as he recounts what Islamic hecklers were shouting at him during his various debates.

Then read Brewton-Parker University’s press release. Interesting that it doesn’t contain any of those claims. Look at public school yearbook photos of Caner as a student. He appears a normal American kid of the 1970s and 1980s. Ask a real Arabic speaker to make heads-or-tails out of Caner’s quotes. Ask for proof of Caner engaging in a real debate with a Muslim. Then ask yourself — what’s the truth?

We should have all hoped that that would have brought Caner to repentance. Instead, he went on the rampage, suing Christians who had posted videos of his speeches. He may be the only Christian speaker in the world desperately trying to suppress his sermons and lectures. We can understand why. If his own words are suppressed, all that you’ll have to know about the claims that rocketed him to prominence in the evangelical world will be through his critics.

The problem goes beyond Caner. The question is whether our Baptist institutions operate with any integrity. Can one lie his way into the presidency of a Baptist college? Certainly we can expect that a man who treated his autobiography as a work of fiction is particularly good at ingratiating himself with the right movers and shakers. Already, inexplicably, Caner was invited to be on the platform for the inauguration of Richard Land as president of Southern Evangelical Seminary in Matthews, N.C.

The question now is whether we will love the truth or love what we want to hear.

The truth is that “Butch Caner,” as he was commonly known prior to 9/11, wove a tangled web, exposed while he was at Liberty Baptist Seminary. A seminary investigative committee concluded that Caner was guilty of “factual statements that are self-contradictory.”
We should have all hoped that that would have brought Caner to repentance. Instead, he went on the rampage, suing Christians who had posted videos of his speeches. He may be the only Christian speaker in the world desperately trying to suppress his sermons and lectures. We can understand why. If his own words are suppressed, all that you’ll have to know about the claims that rocketed him to prominence in the evangelical world will be through his critics.

The real tragedy is that many Christian lap this stuff up. As if true repentance from the clutches of sin and death and becoming a New Creature in Christ isn’t exciting enough, many people love to hear sordid stories of a particularly EVIL past before conversion. People who fabricate these stories (I was a mafia warlock muslim drag queen drug addict communist alcoholic serial killer before i got saved) do more harm than good even if someone might actually come to Christ because of their stories.

I guess it just isn’t as exciting to say:

“I once was lost but now I’m found.”

This is very sad, and yet it reflects a common trend in the Evangelical world. There are a number of people who have falsified their pasts in order to make their conversion more “Dramatic”. (Mike Warnke comes to mind).
The real tragedy is that many Christian lap this stuff up. As if true repentance from the clutches of sin and death and becoming a New Creature in Christ isn’t exciting enough, many people love to hear sordid stories of a particularly EVIL past before conversion. People who fabricate these stories (I was a mafia warlock muslim drag queen drug addict communist alcoholic serial killer before i got saved) do more harm than good even if someone might actually come to Christ because of their stories.

I guess it just isn’t as exciting to say: “I once was lost but now I’m found.”

Sometimes I wish I had a better...Do you ever do that? Do you ever wish you had a better testimony in your life? You're sitting there in church, listening to a guy on stage, thinking "Man, he has an awesome testimony! I have a horrible one. I wish I was addicted to crack! (Kicks foot against ground, grumbles sarcastically) Thanks, God!"
-- Tim Hawkins, from the DVD I'm No Rockstar

LOL.

I suppose there is the idea that “If god can save THAT evil SOB, I guess he can save me too”, but it doesn’t always work that way.

I remember a drug dealer who got saved, and in his “testimony” said how much income he gave up by not dealing drugs anymore. Yet, all that wealth wasn’t evident in his giving, and many of us wondered where it all WENT! LOL!

The problem goes beyond Caner. The question is whether our Baptist institutions operate with any integrity.

IMHO, the problem is broader than just "Baptist". It sounds like a good old boys network, covering for one if their own.

Only listen to his own words, available on the Internet.
...
He may be the only Christian speaker in the world desperately trying to suppress his sermons and lectures.

I wonder how much the "repairer of reputations" is costing, and who's paying.

I wrote that article. If you’re interested in more evidence see Caner himself on video:
Caner has claimed BOTH to have come to the USA in 1969 and 1978. Which was it? Listen to this video at 1:56 and again at about 4:00: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcXXq6n28-k).
He claims to both be born in Stockholm, Sweden and Istanbul, Turkey: listen to him yourself at the above video.
Caner’s mother Monica successfully fought against the provision in the divorce decree that the children be raised Muslim by making an appeal to the court on June 8th 1978. The court overturned the former condition of April 14th 1978, by allowing religious instruction “according to the desires of each parent” while in their custody. See the court order here: http://www.fakeexmuslims.com/caner-religion-web.pdf. Now, if Monica Caner was really a Muslim, why did she appeal to the court to let her instruct her children in religion other than Islam? This goes against Caner’s insistence that he was raised in a devoutly Muslim home and that his mother was Muslim.

Caner came to the USA in 1969, at the age of 2 and attended public school. How could he, then, have only learned about American culture by what he saw on TV as a child growing up in Turkey as he claims? Here’s Caner’s father’s immigration record, showing him coming in 1969: http://www.witnessesuntome.com/caner/Acar_Caner_Naturalization_duplicate-compressed.PDF
There are also serious questions as to his basic knowledge of Islam and about whether he publicly pretended to speak Arabic. Here’s an example of Caner’s “Arabic”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwdITMs6VDY. And another: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYSLJ2oeebY
Here’s Caner making a false claim about Muslim’s dating non-Muslims: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Il5PG0jcVM8
More Caner vs. Caner: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVEClc1b8K0&list=PLC_INr9C02AER0U42bgNFrf-SnCluJuhi
Finally, here is a Southern Baptist pastor with some kind of program lamenting this scandal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUm8Tz-WhaU.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.