Southern Baptists: The Caner Scandal is OURS, Not Just Ergun's

As the Caner scandal goes viral, and I predict will be on the national TV and cable news channels within a week, we Southern Baptist laypeople need to come to grips that this scandal of Ergun Caner is one that is not just about Ergun Caner and his "decade of deception" as I call it.

This is about us.

We can't just throw Caner under the bus and wash our hands of this whole mess.

This scandal is about what WE have helped to create in our own convention, yes, in our own churches over the past 30 years. The transformation of former-Jihadist "Ergun Mehmet Caner" from preacher "E. Michael Caner" after 9/11 reflects on US, and to some extent our leadership like Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson.

We lay folk have allowed ourselves to become a niche market to be tapped by marketing consultants that want to meet our "needs" and tap into our pocketbooks - our need for our own sub-culture complete with our own millionaire singers, artists, evangelists, comedians. We want entertainment. We want excitement and stories, and story-tellers. And we'll pay for it.

We have niche pastors now that are preaching to our felt needs, or they have a certain shtick that sells to their market. We don't just want a spirit-filled Homer Lindsay, Jr. who led a boring life preaching Jesus in his hometown. That's not good enough. We now want preachers who have EXCITING lives, heroes - guys who were former terrorists, or men that travel the world and lead believers on treks to the Holy Land and historical river cruises. We want best-selling authors that convert their sermon series into books, and have 501(c) ministries with TV programs on INSP and TBN. We want guys that are cool dudes, with hired personal brand-building marketing consultants, men who are jet-setters, who rub elbows with other celebrity preachers, millionaires that fly all over to speak to other pastors on how they TOO can be great - for a fee of $300 of course (paid by the lay folk, of course!).

Matt Chandler and Ed Stetzer have talked about this in the past year, as I blogged about here and here.

We have allowed our convention to become less about spreading the true message of Jesus Christ: one of repentence, forgiveness, sacrifice, humility, a life of service to others, working for justice of the oppressed, etc. - into a political machine, a profit-making enterprise, operated by celebrity speakers, that marketing consultants can help build - and sadly, a convention that requires strict adherence to an ever-narrowing band of tertiary doctrines.

So it's no wonder that after 9/11, what we wanted, we got.

We wanted a Christian who could speak with authority on terrorism and Jihad and Islam: and can you make sure that we get one that is a devout Christian - one that is conservative, a Republican, would be great. And please find one with a testimony catch-phrase like "From Jihad to Jesus", that would be wonderful, as we can buy his tapes - and best of all we can tell our friends that Jesus REALLY IS THE MESSIAH - after all, Jesus saved this former terrorist! Here, watch this DVD of his testimony that I bought for fifty bucks!

And we got just what we ordered, as our convention leaders know very well their "market". Caner was hand-picked and hand-delivered by Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson, straight to the folks at First Baptist Jacksonville and Prestonwood Baptist Church within weeks of 9/11.

His name was Ergun Mehmet Caner - born in Turkey and raised in Europe, and "trained to do that which was done on 11 September." But he was Mike Caner, from Columbus, Ohio, trained to be a regular American teenager of the 70s who became a Christian in high school.

E. Michael Caner's true testimony was good enough for Jesus. But sadly, it wasn't good enough for us. Not captivating enough.

Too bad that before they hand-picked E. Michael and vaulted him from virtual obscurity to instant SBC stardom - Vines and Patterson either failed to do their due diligence - or they looked the other way - or they allowed themselves to be duped. I'm not sure which is worse. Same story with Darrell Gilyard.

But now we are left with a mess.

We wanted "Ergun Mehmet" because "E. Michael" wasn't good enough. And we got him.

And now we have to face the music and come to grips with what this says about us and the SBC leaders that we so devoutly follow.

A Coherent Defense of Ergun Caner

I like Ergun Caner. I can say I love him as a Christian brother, even though I've never met him. I consider him a Christian, and believe he can be used by God to do great things. He is young, and has several decades left to be used by God for great things.

But, sadly, no one to this point has given a clear or compelling defense of Ergun Caner.

Not his best friends, not his coauthors, not those who helped vault him to national prominence. The elder statesmen like Vines and Patterson who promoted Caner after 9/11 to some degree I believe have failed Caner in not doing their due diligence on his true background. How hard would it have been back then to talk to his previous churches, or to grill Caner on the truthfulness of his testimony? I hope they did not encourage the embellishments, or that they chose to look the other way if they were presented with evidence early on. Those who have promoted his story as an ex-Jihadist, they are all strangely silent now, and have taken his tapes off their website. Even his brother, Emir Caner is silent up to this point. And his vocal supporters in the blogosphere still have not given a coherent defense of Ergun Caner, only attacks of Caner's critics and half-baked attempts to ignore and explain away the obvious lies and contradictions documented on the Internet.

But I'm going to offer up a defense of Caner. Funny how it takes a "recalcitrant" blogger who has been critical of Caner over his embellishments to be the one to actually attempt to offer up a valid defense. Caner's supporters have been so infatuated and "obsessed" with destroying his critics - which is no surprise really, it is a typical SBC defense tactic - that none of them have offered up a legitimate defense for their friend!

Yet there is a defense to be made. So I will attempt to articulate it here. I will say up front that I don't completely buy into this defense yet, but I'm trying to articulate it so that perhaps some of his critics (myself included) can think more deeply about the value of Caner to evangelical Christianity and how he can salvage his most important ministry - that to students at Liberty University.

Up to this point, the "supporters" of Caner have attempted to defend him using one of about 5 different tactics:

1. Saying he is basically a good man, who has done good for the gospel and is being unfairly "attacked" - one pastor even just saying basically he "likes" Caner and knows his brother, and therefore doesn't believe the allegations; or

2. Ad hominem attacks on bloggers who dared to point out the Caner deceptions - Dr. James White is wrongly accused of going after Caner because of their feud over reformed theology. Debbie Kaufman has been belittled and ridiculed by Caner supporters, as has her pastor Wade Burleson. And the most sickening attempt of all, to accuse people who point out the Caner deceptions as siding with Muslims in trying to destroy Christianity;

3. Trying to shift the issue from lies about his upbringing and his debates, to whether or not Caner was actually a Muslim (which I and most others believe he was raised to some degree in the Muslim faith); or

4. Saying Caner has already apologized, pointing to his pseudo-apology published at the SBC Today Bunch site in which he says he "never intentionally misled anyone", and his pseudo-apology to the students at "Campus Church" in February 2010; or

5. Saying nothing, stonewalling, until of course "real" media outlets start bringing pressure to bear on Liberty University. How strange that prominent SBC leaders (Vines, Brunson, Floyd, Merrit, and others) who were the biggest Caner promoters 5 years ago, are now strangely quiet).

But these are not valid defenses. None of these deal with admission of wrong-doing, apologizing and repenting of the lies, and thus I would say none of them is even a Christian response to the serious allegations against Caner. Neither do these tactics highlight the very real positive ministry Caner has at Liberty! Tactic #2 has been downright ugly and sinister, and serves to point out other serious issues we have in the SBC with some of our so-called pastors who can't stand valid criticism of their celebrity preachers and attack other Christians in the name of Jesus.

Over the past 3 months I have listened to no less than 20 of Caner's "circuit sermons" in which his embellishments occur - the first one being the November 20, 2001 sermon at my former church FBC Jax, and all the way through 2009. But I've also listened to samples of his Liberty "Campus Church" sermons which he delivers on a regular basis to the Liberty students in a weekly service held just for them. These are available on iTunes, archived all the way back to 2006.

After listening to some of Caner's Campus Church sermons, a couple of things are very apparent:

- he has a very powerful ministry to the youth at Liberty and elsewhere. He is a very clear, captivating speaker, he preaches the Word to the students at Liberty and elsewhere and is not afraid to deal with very sensitive issues that 99.9% of the SBC pastors would never dream of addressing - and he does it all in a scriptural context. I admire him very much for doing this;

- the guy is genuinely funny and appropriately irreverent at times, and I can see why young Christians at LU and elsewhere in Lynchburg would be drawn to the Campus Church ministry;

- he is not a "purpose driven" or "seeker friendly" kind of preacher. He really does deliver the Word of God to students using Caner's own unique style that appeals to young Christians. The students seem to love his frankness and his distaste for political correctness;

- in his Campus Church ministry he does reach out to the "outcasts" of society with the gospel, more so than probably 99% of conservative Baptist churches. He does share parts of his life in his sermons that DO seem to be based on truth and are not embellishments - stories about his grandmother, his friends in Ohio, life as a teenager, being born in Sweden, etc. He has embellished at times in "Campus Church", but not like he does on the "preaching circuit".

- he doesn't engage so much in the racial stereotypes at "Campus Church"- at least the sermons I've heard - probably because he has a very diverse group of Christians and non-Christians who might boo him off the stage if he did that sort of thing. As I've said before - the crowds on the preacher circuit guffawing over his racial stereotypes says more about THEM than it does about Caner;

And I could go on. I would say that I am impressed with this man as a preacher to the youth at Liberty. I do have some issues with some of what he has said (like his embarrassing defense of Ed Young in February 2010 and his pseudo-apology to the students that same month) in the Campus Church sermons, but overall I am impressed with him as a bible preacher.

My thesis: there seems to be two Ergun Caners. There is the "preaching-circuit Ergun", who at times embellishes his credentials in a huge way. And there is a "Campus Ergun". Ergun needs to admit that he has created this "preaching-circuit Ergun", explain how and why he came to be starting in 2001, then repent, and put this other Ergun away for good.

Preaching-Circuit Ergun
First, the "preaching circuit" Ergun: this Ergun is a performer. We now know he had an interest in theatre in high school, and may have been an actor in several plays, and perhaps some of this comes out on the "preacher circuit" in front of crowds. "Preacher Circuit" Ergun is a stand-up comedian. He is a master story teller and yarn spinner. He speaks without notes, and gets caught up in the emotion of the crowd, and loves to work the crowd like any good performer. But he then begins to embellish stories about himself.

He is a Jeff Foxworthy of sorts, a likeable, self-deprecating stand up comedian, a hired performer who comes in and gives the same routine (sermon), or small variations of the same routine fitted to his audience. I'm in no way defending this, or minimizing the seriousness of the lies he has told over and over again. Over the years he has told his embellishments so many times, that he probably views them as harmless "preacher speak" designed to captivate his audience to focus on his gospel message (I'm trying to be generous here). He might even over the years begun to believe some of the stories.

What are his motives? I don't know - it could be him wanting to build his "terrorist" and "Muslim expert" brand to help him sell books, or it could be that he just loves to feel the love and cheers of the crowd. Probably a little of both. No doubt, he views them as harmless (which they are not), and he probably figured no one would bother listening to these sermons or checking out his background. Certainly in 2001 when he first started spinning his yarns there were not Internet archives of sermons. He didn't envision the day that he would be held accountable by Internet bloggers who would put the pieces together.

Campus Ergun
The "Campus Ergun" is someone different: he is less of a performer. He seems to genuinely care for his students who will be the next generation of Christian leaders - his students seem to be his passion. He has admitted numerous times on the preaching circuit that he was a "lousy pastor" and that his true calling is with students at Liberty. I believe him.

I assume he respects his students enough that he won't tell outright lies to them about his past (although I did hear him refer in one of his sermons that he knows what it is to live under fascism). He has a fellow preacher (Johnnie Moore) that preaches at Campus Church with him that he undoubtedly is accountable to. He seems to be more restrained in his stories, perhaps because he is with people that know him and his past more intimately.

What Must Caner Do?
The "Campus Ergun" needs to repent of the sin of creating this "Preaching-Circuit" Egun, and put this Ergun away for good. If he does this, Campus Ergun, what I hope is the REAL Ergun, can continue to teach and minister to students at Liberty. We Baptists should WANT HIM to salvage this ministry at Liberty that he has!

Its so easy. He needs to come clean right now, before the TV news national media, and Jay Leno and the late night comedians get a hold of it. He needs to acknowledge to his students, and to the world, what he has done over the past 9 1/2 years on the preaching circuit. It is not just "misspeaking". He purposely has misled people about his past for 9 1/2 years - I say purposely because it is repeated over and over again. He needs to ask forgiveness of his students, and of the many churches at which he has embellished his stories. If he has gained financially from these speeches, he might want to make restitution in some manner. If he continues to preach around the world, over time he can visit churches again, and apologize to them in person for his embellishments. And he will get a standing ovation and people will forgive him. I know they will.

If he has embellished his past and his credentials as an apologist to his students in Campus Church, he needs to admit this and ask their forgiveness.

If he has misrepresented Muslims in some way - and I think his embellishments have served to do this - he can ask forgiveness of Muslims everywhere, and this can serve to help him reach out to them in genuine Christian love. This entire debacle has harmed our ability as evangelicals to witness our faith to practicing Muslims. He should specifically ask for forgiveness from Mohammad Khan, for the terrible things said about him by Caner's defenders, and Caner should acknowledge how wrong it was for his defenders to try to smear Khan and make HIM the issue, rather than Caner's deception.

What a powerful statement it would be for him to stand in front of his students to admit his deceit when on the preaching circuit, to repent of it. I am 100% confident they will forgive him, and cheer him. And I think he can use this experience to continue to minister. He has a self-deprecating style anyways, and his repentance and restoration would fit right in with that shtick.

Caner's Future at Liberty?
I don't see how at this point he can stay as president of the Liberty seminary even if he truly repents, if for no other reason than for the academic credibility of the university. But if he truly repents for the decade of deceit as the "Preaching-Circuit Ergun" and seeks forgiveness, my hope is that he will stay as a professor at Liberty, and even as a preacher at the Campus Church, and continue his ministry to students.

So that is my hope for Ergun. I will pray for him, that he will do the right thing.

I have no evidence to suggest he will repent - all evidence I have is that celebrity preacher's affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention never publicly apologizing for anything, so I have my doubts. All I see from SBC celebrity preachers is stonewalling, silence, and attacks against their critics and even their families.

But still, I think Ergun will genuinely repent. Afterall, he is unique, and he breaks the mold in so many ways as a gospel preacher, which is why I think so many people love him.

Let's pray that Ergun breaks another mold, and shows the Southern Baptist Convention how a Southern Baptist preacher can genuinely repent and be restored. Then perhaps we lay people can show that Southern Baptists are loving, forgiving people, as we forgive Ergun and he is allowed to continue his important ministry at Liberty.

That is my defense of Ergun Caner. Let us all pray that repentence and restoration will come about - for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the Southern Baptist Convention, and for the students at Liberty University.

Latest on Caner: Lynchburg Reporter Asks Questions, Caner HS Yearbook Info Surfaces

This morning, reporter Ray Reed of the Lynchburg News & Advance has published an article entitled "Dispute over theology, background led to Caner probe". Things are not going to get easier for Caner - this is just another step toward the main stream media taking interest in this story. And unrelated to Reed's story, yesterday a blogger posted pictures of Caner and excerpts about Caner's extracurricular activities from his high school yearbook that show perhaps he was more of a normal teenager growing up in Columbus, Ohio, than he was a devout Muslim with broken English who was "trained to do that which was done on 11 September".

Above is a picture, allegedly of Ergun Caner in a play at high school. He was an actor. Strange, since he testifies that as a senior when he accepted Christ his English was very poor, being a Turkish immigrant trained in Islamic Jihad. Ouch. But the "actor" - Caner playing roles, pretending to be someone else performing in front of a crowd...that is perhaps the first thing in this story that makes sense.

In his article, Reed presents a series of quotes from Caner, using mostly the FBC Jax sermon of November 20, 2001 and the Prestonwood Baptist Church sermon that same month (that was aired in April 2010 on the Focus on the Family radio broadcast). Reed also summarizes the questions about Caner's degrees and his claims to have engaged in apologetics all over the world through multiple debates of which there is no documentation. Reed is asking the right questions.

Caner still has time to diffuse some of the sensationalistic aspects of future reports if he comes out NOW, and gives a full explanation of what he has done, and repents. But when he instead makes himself to be the victim in all of this, and says that his role is one of being the FORGIVER of those who have "hated" him, it shows he has a long, long way to go. Here is Caner's explanation to his students at Liberty's "Campus Church" back in February 2010:

"I've been under attack for WEEKS, by groups that had nothing to do with each other than to join together to hate me together, you know? Could I have said things better? Sure. Could not have been as boisterous and loud? Yeah. Should have used notes instead of trying to be 'Mr. Fancy' and talk extemporaneously and mix up names? Sure. We may never agree on definitions, we may never agree on what constitutes, etc. etc. But I have to LEARN to forgive and move on. I hope you don't think less of me, but if you do: it must be nice to be perfect." Ergun Caner at Liberty Campus Church addressing Liberty students on February 17, 2010

I hope and pray Caner comes forward very soon to apologize and repent for his decade of deception, and begins to make things right.

First Baptist Dallas Falls Just Short of $130 Million, But Gets Enough to Proceed

It was announced this morning that the pledges for the First Baptist Dallas campus reconstruction capital campaign, "For Generations to Come", came in $15 million short of the $130 milllion goal. However, they will proceed with the project with a few relatively minor items taken out to lower the cost to be in line with the amount pledged.

According to Jeffress, the amount on May 2nd was $101 million, but several wealthy members ponied up an additional $15 million to get to the $115 million mark.

Congrats to the members of FBC Dallas and to Dr. Jeffress and his project leadership....however, if this project proceeds without a significant portion of the cash on hand, based on large pledges of a handful of wealthy members, this plan is fraught with financial risk for the church. But I hand it to Jeffress and his team - from what I can tell, they have been open and honest and transparent at every step of this process, and the people have willingly pledged $115 million, and Jeffress will give the church the chance to vote and approve the project in just a few weeks.

I hope and pray that if the project is approved by the congregation, that the pledges will materialize and the church is able to pay for the construction with cash flow from the pledges...else the church will be strapped with crippling debt from such a massive undertaking, "For Generations to Come".

"Jet Fuel for Jesus" - Other Churches Pay for Jet Fuel, Refers to Critics as "Haters"

In the video above, which is a portion of some sort of "interview" conducted by one of his staff members, Ed Young gives some additional information about the jet aircraft leased by Fellowship Church. At the bottom is the latest video from Brett Shipp that discusses Young's use of the jet that I blogged about here.

Good to know that Fellowship Church doesn't pay for Ed's jet fuel - but the OTHER churches he flies to and speaks at...they are ponying up the money: JET FUEL FOR JESUS!!

Some Ed Young quotes from the above video:

"I would not have been able to do what I have done over the last, whatever 5, 6, or 7 years had we not utilized private aircraft. I've had the opportunity to speak probably to over 200,000 pastors and leaders here in North America because of that."

Maybe so, but I find it hard to believe that if not for using a luxury jet he wouldn't have been able to do these events. The counter to that logic is: if you had traveled like the average American would travel, how much more money would you have saved that could have done more. I just reject this notion that Ed Young to accomplish his mighty deeds for Jesus has to do it in a private jet.

"We don't use any of the offerings or the tithes to pay for this aircraft. This aircraft is paid for by other resource streams. And usually when I go into a conference or a church to speak they usually pay for the fuel. And we don't own an airplane. We have a charter deal, and we have a lease situation with one."

I think its disingenous to say that a long-term lease means "we don't own an airplane". And I hope someday Young will open the books to show his church that their tithes and offerings are NOT going to pay for his luxury plane travel, and to explain what "other resource streams" ARE able to pay for the millions per year it costs to lease and operate a luxury private jet. If this is true, why didn't he tell his congregation this back when he had the dog and pony show with John Cross and Mac Richard (prounounced "re-SHARD")?

"Why do we have the ability to fly? Did God give us that ability just to share the gospel? I don't know - but again, what the media will say, or what the haters will say is, ok, a Christian, a pastor, whatever, a man or woman who teaches God's word and shares the gospel should not utilize private aircraft. But it's ok for an entertainer, a professional athlete, its ok for a CEO who is selling this widget or that widget...."

Yep, God had man create the French-made Falcon 50 8-million dollar jets for Ed and Bennie Hinn and Kenneth Copeland to "spread the gospel". I suppose according to Young that Brett Shipp, the WFAA reporter is one of those "haters" (this is typical celebrity-preacher speak - any critics are "haters"). Young is misrepresenting the questions asked by Brett Shipp. Shipp is not saying that a pastor should not ever utilize private aircrarft. Brett Shipp wants to know why the plane is being used for trips to exotic locations, and who pays for those; and Brett Shipp might like to know the lease arrangements and who pays for that.

And the more Young calls him a "hater" and doesn't answer any questions, I'm sure the more determined Brett will be to get answers. These reporters can be mighty determined and persistent.

Interesting that Young compares himself to entertainers, professional athletes, and CEOs and questions if private air travel is OK for them, then why not for him. I would counter that by saying the opposite: if even most entertainers and professional athletes and CEOs do NOT fly around on luxury 8-million dollar jets, why does HE, a "called" minister of Jesus Christ, think that HE needs to? Most millionaires utilize commerical flight. It's just too expensive to lease an 8-million dollar jet. But this goes to the mentality of Ed Young and how he views himself as the "franchise player" of the church, as I blogged about several years ago here.

I'm sure that Brett Shipp, the "hater", will stay on the case.

I'm sure that Brett Shipp still has questions. And when he doesn't get answers and only attacks from Ed Young as a "hater", that raises more questions. I hope he finds answers as to why the jet is used for travel to exotic locations, and who is paying for that.

And memo to Ed Young: according to Chris Rosebrough of the Pirate Christian Radio, Chris has spoken to Brett Shipp and knows Brett Shipp is a believer in Jesus Christ. He is a brother in Christ who has questions, he is not a "hater".

Brett, those of us regular lay people out here know you are not a hater. We love you as a brother in Christ, and appreciate the service you are doing by asking questions of Ed Young.

These CEO pastors don't like people who ask questions and call for accountability.

Bloggers and other lay people like me LOVE people like you, Brett, who ask questions, because CEO celebrity pastors ignore our questions and just tell us to leave the church if we don't like something. You, Brett, are a bit more difficult to ignore.

Thank God for freedom of the press. :)