Latest Caner Clip: "I Was Held Back a Year" as I Learned English as an Adult

Above is the latest installment of the "Dr. Ergun Caner" YouTube channel. The video image is of our friend, the Ergun Caner impersonator, who is lip-synching words spoken by Ergun Caner at the 2009 "Xtreme Winter Festival" in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He does a great impersonation of Caner, but the protruding gut is a little on the small side.

While the video impersonation is humorous, the actual words of Ergun Caner are not. He calls illegal immigrants "illegal criminals", but as he has done so many times while out on the preaching circuit he mischaracterizes his own upbringing and experience to give him the platform from which to harshly criticize minorities.

"Let me be very clear. They are not undocumented aliens. They are illegal criminals. I came into this country legally. I stood in the line. And so I say to all the immigrants who come in - I get a lot of immigrant who are, who are uh, students in the seminary, I go "God bless you." I just want to tell you three things: pay ya taxes, learn English, and shut up and quit whining - because - everytime you come here - everytime you come to this country and you say [mocking a foreign accent] "Um, we like America we want to come to this country, let us speak our language" - you are ruining it for the rest of us!

I had to stay out of school for one year, to learn English. I got held back a year, because my English was so poor. I could learn it, and I'm an adult, anybody can learn it."

So Ergun was held back a year, and learned English as an adult, and therefore these lousy no-good immigrants who aren't speaking the language should do what Ergun the Immigrant did as an adult: learn English, and don't "complain" - and immigrants whatever you do, do NOT criticize mega church pastors or you'll be on the first boat back to wherever you came from. Amen? Amen!

But what year was Ergun held back in school? Was it nursery school, or maybe pre-K? All documents we've seen indicate he "stood in line" to get into this country when he was 3 or 4.

I think there is a cowardice element to Caner's words: if Caner truly feels this strongly about illegal immigration, just say it. Why the need to create a cover for himself as having justification for his strong views because he supposedly walked the path of an immigrant not speaking the language who himself overcame these challenges? Man up and say it, don't hide behind a false personna of having walked that same path. In fact, anyone who has truly walked the path of an immigrant to this country who doesn't know the English language would not be so judgmental toward other immigrants as Caner seems to be. I know that for a fact.

This need of Caner's to embellish his own experiences in front of strangers to give him more credibility reminds me of the character "Penelope" played by Kristen Wiig on Saturday Night Live who is obsessed with continually trying to one-up whoever she meets. Enjoy.