Free Republic

A Brewton-Parker College vice president fired Feb. 2 after refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement about Ergun Caner’s Jan. 20 resignation has been reinstated. Iowa pastor Dave Miller, editor of SBC Voices, a group blog devoted to news and commentary about the Southern Baptist Convention, reported Feb. 18 that he had confirmed rumors circulating the day before that C.B. Scott was reinstated as vice president of alumni, advancement and church relations at the Baptist-affiliated school in Mount Vernon, Ga., by interim president Charlie Bass.Peter Lumpkins, vice president for communications, confirmed the information to Baptist News Global Feb. 19. Scott, a...

A Baptist preacher with an extensive history of attacking Brewton-Parker College President Ergun Caner, expressed regret for engaging Caner's 15-year-old son, Braxton, in a heated and viral Twitter conflict over Braxton's character and its reflection on his family just weeks before he committed suicide last Tuesday. J.D. Hall, the Baptist preacher and radio host who clashed with the Caners, also admitted that it was a "sinful" decision to spread a rumor that Ergun Caner and his wife are separated during the Twitter conflagration. "As I said on Friday's [radio] program, I regret pointing people to the material or behavior exhibited...

After losing a copyright infringement lawsuit to prevent the posting of videos alleging contradictions in different versions of his once famous “Jihad to Jesus” testimony, a Georgia Baptist college president now must pay more than $34,000 in attorney fees, a federal judge ruled July 1. U.S. District Judge Norman Moon in Lynchburg, Va., said he believes Brewton-Parker College President Ergun Caner’s lawsuit filed against two bloggers in 2013 was intended to silence critics and not a legitimate copyright claim. Caner filed a lawsuit in Texas in June 2013 followed by an amended complaint four months later seeking a permanent injunction...

Link only to a news story at Inside Higher Ed: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/06/20/southern-accreditor-drops-one-college-puts-four-probation#sthash.fzTxelHk.dpbs

An attorney representing a Southern Baptist college president labeled individuals posting online videos undermining his client’s famous “Jihad to Jesus” ex-Muslim testimony as “cyber-terrorists” in oral arguments April 30. Jonathan Autry — sued for copyright infringement after posting videos online showing discrepancies in different presentations by Brewton-Parker College President Ergun Caner claiming he was trained overseas to be a Muslim terrorist before coming the United States and converting to Christianity as a teen — repeated the lawyer’s comment in a legal document filed May 1 in U.S. District Court for Western Virginia.Autry said Caner’s counsel also falsely told the court that Caner...

Judge dismisses Caner suit against blogger. A federal judge has dismissed a Georgia Baptist college president’s lawsuit against a blogger who posted video to support allegations that a famous “Jihad to Jesus” testimony is bogus. A U.S. district judge in Fort Worth ruled Jason Smathers, a Southern Baptist pastor in Arizona who blogs at Witnesses Unto Me, was entitled to post government videos he obtained through the jason smathersJason SmathersFreedom of Information Act under the “fair use” doctrine of copyright law. Ergun Caner, president of Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga., filed a lawsuit last summer claiming ownership of two...

A federal judge has dismissed a Georgia Baptist college president’s lawsuit against a blogger who posted video to support allegations that a famous “Jihad to Jesus” testimony is bogus. A U.S. district judge in Fort Worth, Texas, ruled April 17 that Jason Smathers, a Southern Baptist pastor in Arizona who blogs at Witnesses Unto Me, was entitled to post government videos he obtained through the Freedom of Information Act under the “fair use” doctrine of copyright law. Ergun Caner, president of Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga., filed a lawsuit last summer claiming ownership of two videos that Smathers posted...

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...

Ergun Caner, former head of Liberty University’s seminary found guilty three years ago of “factual statements that are self-contradictory” in a popular testimony claiming he received terrorist training before converting from Islam to Christianity, has been named president of Brewton-Parker College, one of three colleges affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention. Ergun Caner, 48, comes to the post in Mount Vernon, Ga., from Arlington Baptist College in Texas, where he served as provost and academic dean since 2011. Before that Caner was the dean of the Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Va., named by the school’s founder, Jerry Falwell,...

One of my favorite stories about former Louisiana Gov. Huey Long involves one of his early political campaigns in the 1920s. While stumping in the northern part of the state, he would tell a story about waking at 6 o'clock every Sunday morning, hitching his family's old horse to a buggy, and bringing his Baptist grandparents to church. When addressing audiences in south Louisiana, he would tell the same story, only this time his grandparents were Catholic. It was an effective speech that played well to Louisiana's geographic religious divide. Once, after a rally, a local politician remarked, "Why Huey,...

A Baptist blogger has appealed for donations to aid a nonprofit group that is defending him against a lawsuit filed after he posted online video to expose allegedly fraudulent claims about a once-popular evangelist’s supposed conversion from a Muslim terrorist to a born-again Christian. Jason Smathers, pastor of Golden Shores Baptist Church in Topock, Ariz., blogged June 22 that several people have already offered their support to fight a June 18 lawsuit claiming copyright infringement brought by Ergun Caner, a former Liberty Theological Seminary dean removed in 2010. Caner was accused of fabricating details in a testimony shared widely in...

Ergun Caner, now provost and vice president of academic affairs at Arlington Baptist College, in Arlington, Texas, filed a lawsuit June 18 in U.S. District Court North Texas District in Fort Worth claiming copyright infringement for reproducing, uploading and maintaining his videos without permission. The complaint filed by Bartonville, Texas, attorney David Gibbs cites Jonathan Autry of Lynchburg, Va., who posted 34 videos of Caner on his YouTube account. YouTube removed the videos after Caner filed a takedown notice pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.Signed into law by President Clinton in 1998, the act made certain technical amendments to...

A Christian blogger has reportedly filed an ethics complaint against a lawyer for claiming ownership of online video he says was obtained legally from the federal government. Jason Smathers, who began the Witnesses Unto Me blog in the Spring of 2009, posted a series of blogs in 2010 unquestioning claim by popular evangelical speaker Ergun Caner that he grew up overseas and was trained to be an Islamic terrorist before accepting Christ at age 18. Smathers tracked down legal documents showing that Caner, author of books including Unveiling Islam who told the conversion story in numerous venues including the Southern Baptist Convention, emigrated to the United States with his family...

In a statement issued by Liberty University Friday, a panel of four trustees announced they had found that Ergun Caner, dean of the seminary at the Lynchburg, Virginia, school, had made "self-contradictory" statements about "dates, names and places of residence" in his public talks following the events of September 11, 2001. However, the trustees found no evidence to question Caner's basic claim that he was "a Muslim who converted to Christianity as a teenager."

This evening, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia released by email this updated statement about Dr. Ergun Caner, president of the university seminary: Liberty University Provost Dr. Ron Godwin is forming a committee to investigate a series of accusations against Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. The Internet allegations have questioned public statements Caner has made regarding the details of his personal life story. Godwin is forming a committee to conduct an official inquiry with a goal of issuing its conclusions by the end of June. Following inquiries from several members of the mainstream media, Liberty decided to initiate...

Back in the late 70s and early 80s before I was genuinely saved, I was a church attending kid who merely enjoyed running around the game circle and drinking red punch. I had a low interest in anything Christian at all. Later when I reached my teens and entered the high school and college youth groups, my church interests turned from game circles to the Christian "sisters" if you know what I mean. I might have had a wider interest in Christian related issues by that time, but still, it was marginal at best. I did however begin to take...

LYNCHBURG, Va. (ABP) -- Liberty University will investigate reports that its seminary president has misled the public in his testimony about converting from militant Islam to Christianity, officials of the school in Lynchburg, Va., announced May 10. Liberty Provost Ron Godwin is reportedly forming a committee to conduct a formal inquiry into questions surrounding Ergun Caner, president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary, that have circulated on blogs and more recently in media outlets including Christianity Today and Associated Baptist Press. "Liberty does not initiate personnel evaluations based upon accusations from Internet blogs," said Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., breaking weeks of...

Liberty University's board of directors has declined to take public action against Ergun Caner, president of the university seminary, as bloggers raise doubts about Caner's account of his childhood as a Muslim. ... Foes want Caner to admit to what they label as exaggerations and lies, including claims such as: Growing up in Turkey, when he actually grew up in Ohio. Being raised in a devout Muslim home, rather than a nominal one. Having been involved in Islamic jihad. Having debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith, although there is no video or audio evidence.

On December 21, 2007 Ergun Caner sent me an announcement about the name change of Liberty Theological Seminary to Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary. I gave it only passing notice. From all that I know, Liberty may be the finest Fundamentalist seminary around and I don't care how many times they extract and reinsert the name "Baptist" on their letterhead. When Caner became dean of the seminary in 2004 he took the name "Baptist" out. The rationale given for reinserting it I found mildly amusing, but again, not worth much more than a raised eyebrow. He wrote, [S]ince 2004, much...

This is the first episode of Radio Free Geneva that has been put on Youtube. The purpose of RFG is to dispel the many caricatures, straw men, and misrepresentations that those who are opposed to Reformed Theology (ie. Calvinism) normally make when critiquing the other side. Lord willing, there will be more in the future that deal with different subjects. Ergun Caner delivered a sermon a few years ago called "Why I am Predestined Not to be a Hyper-Calvinist." However, many Reformed folk thought the sermon would have been more aptly titled "Why I am Not Predestined to Represent the...