WD Presents "Ballad of Ergun Caner"....as Ergun Leaves SBC and Liberty for WBF Seminary

Ergun Caner finally is saying goodbye to the Southern Baptist Convention. He was saved, educated, employed by, and most importantly for him: he was enriched with money made off of Southern Baptists who were duped by his stories told to our churches over a nine-year period since 9/11.

Ergun reports on his website that he is moving on to be the Provost at Arlington Baptist College, a seminary funded by the "World Baptist Fellowship", a group of fundamentalist baptist churches having no connection to the SBC. Perhaps Ergun was confused, and when he heard that the WBF wanted to hire him, he thought it was the WWF.

Good for us SBC'ers. Good for Ergun. No more of our church or state dollars are going to support Ergun at Liberty University. And no more of our SBC students will be taught in Ergun Caner classrooms.

Ergun is smart. Like any good traveling medicine man selling his magical elixirs and tonics, he knows when it is time to fold the show, load up the stagecoach, and head to the next town to a fresh market who needs a cure for what ails 'em. So Ergun is now moving on to Arlington, Texas and the WBF..and presumably a brand new market of churches and students who come from those churches who haven't heard the yarns and tales of being raised in Europe, terrorist training, and the jokes about mutant grandaughters and ugly women and satellite dish hats.

In honor of Ergun finally leaving the SBC almost exactly 10 years after he shot to stardom in 2001 within the SBC, I present the "Ballad of Ergun Caner", to be sung to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies:

Come listen to a story about a man named Mike,
A poor preacher man, couldn't find a church he liked,
Then one day, early 11 September morn,
Ergun Mehmet Gioviani Janel Caner was born.
[Muslim that is, shaved head, goatee.]

Well the first thing you know ol' Ergun's a rock star
Jerry Vines said, "Ergun You're Gonna Go Far!"
They said, "Liberty Mountain is the place you oughta be"
So, he loaded up the truck and moved to Virginny.
[Falwell, that is, book deals, preaching gigs.]

Well, the next thing ya know, ole Ergun is found out,
Even Peter Lump and Norm can't erase all the doubt,
Falwell's son says "your time here at Liberty is done",
So he loaded up the truck and moved to Arlington.
[Texas that is, fundamentalist baptist, KJV.]

Well now its time to say goodbye to Caner 'cept Emir his kin.
He would like to thank you SBC dupes fer kindly droppin' in.
You're all invited back to hear his next WBF preaching gig,
To have some cherry Kool Aid and take a heapin' swig.
[Muslim, that is. Trained terrorist. Ex-SBC'er]

Y'all come back now, ya hear?
[banjo solo]

So long, Ergun.

Emir Caner Equates Evangelical Mission Organization with Pornography Found at Bin Laden's Hideout

Emir Caner, brother of famed ex-ex-terrorist and ex-European-raised Ergun Caner, started a bit of a firestorm amongst some bloggers when he posted the following Tweet:

Yes, Emir is equating the "Acts 29 Network" - a missions network funded by more Calvinistic churches - with pornography found at Bin Laden's lair.

Imagine that. Emir Caner, president of a seminary (Truett-McConnell College) that exists for the furtherance of the gospel, referring to the efforts of a competing evangelical mission as being filthy sexual pornography.

Interesting how ugly these "men of God" can be when they are in competition with each other for dollars to fund missions. You see, the Acts 29 Network is funded by churches who might otherwise funnel their money to the SBC "Cooperative Program"...so to fund Acts 29 Network is to fund pornography to Emir and friends.

Another example of how the Caner brothers are a colossal disaster. They were vaulted to stardom after 9/11 based on Ergun Caner's phony-baloney story of being raised in Europe and trained in terrorism....when both Emir and Ergun actually were raised in Columbus, Ohio.

The more we hear of the Caner's the more we realize the joke that Vines and Patterson and Brunson pulled on the evangelical world after 9/11 by giving these guys credibility they never earned.

And I might add, some of Emir Caner's brother's worst sermons filled with his lies are much closer to being spiritual pornography than anything I can think of.

"Don't Think for Yourselves", Warns FBC Jax Pastor

Says FBC Jax Associate Pastor Rush Whitt, on his blog last week:

"While everyone is responsible for his own thoughts and beliefs, the word of God does not teach us to think for ourselves or independently develop our own ideas....Instead, the biblical approach to thinking is to inherit godly ideas and beliefs from the godly ones who have gone before. Likewise, these godly men inherited the same from those who went before them, and so on."

Wow. Don't think for yourselves, that is what the bible says according to Rush. Instead, let "godly men" tell you what to think.

He says "the biblical approach to thinking"...he is telling people who are Christians how they should "think"...and you must "inherit" your ideas from others more godly than you.

He continues:

"Wisdom belongs to the Lord and cannot be devised through any independent exercise in human thinking. Therefore, every person must receive wisdom from others, who have ultimately received it from God."

So according to Rush, the bible is to be interpreted to mean there is no wisdom to be gained except those who have received it from someone else, who received it from God. Dangerous thinking, especially when considering Al Mohler's statement that pastors are "God-appointed agents to save His people from ignorance", and considering Mac Brunson's statement on 5/1/11 that "not having a pastor is dangerous". These men truly want us to think we cannot survive without full-time, professional religious seminarians in our lives telling us what to think, how to interpret the Bible, and how we are to live, who we are to listen to and not listen to....almost forgot...and we must also give 10% of our gross income to the institutions they work for, else we can't receive the full blessings of God for following their teachings. Can you spell r-a-c-k-e-t?

We've gone all the way from "On Christ the Solid Rock I Stand" to "Without My Pastor I Cannot Stand".

The reformation started over professional religious men telling the plebe they can't think for themselves. Really, this is the stuff that cults are made of. A cult must condition people that they are stupid, way too stupid to think for themselves, and that they can't possibly exist without their spiritual gurus telling them what God says.

Brunson Brings Mike Hogan to the Front, "Ordains" Him as Mayor in Morning Service

At left you see a picture of Mike Hogan and his wife kneeling at the altar Sunday as their pastor, Mac Brunson, lays hands on him and prays.

SEE COMPLETE VIDEO BELOW

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One of the benefits of being a politician at a mega church is you pick up the endorsement of the mega church pastor and the other influential heavies in the church. The mega church pastor, if he so chooses, can use his church and his clout and influence with the brethren to endorse you as the candidate that good Christians will vote for.

Homer Lindsay, Jr. did it back in 1988 when he sent a letter to the congregation to let everyone know that a member, John Lewis was running, and that he was God's man for mayor. Lewis lost to Democrat Tommy Hazzouri.

As far as I know, Mac didn't send out any letters endorsing Hogan, but he did one better...he called Mike Hogan and his wife to the front of the auditorium Sunday, had them kneel at the altar, and then laid hands on them as he prayed a lengthy prayer.

The kneeling symbol was very interesting....the only time that we have someone kneel in a baptist church and lay hands on them is at deacon ordination service, or when a minister is being ordained in the gospel ministry. So that is why I say that Mac is "ordaining" Mike as mayor. Very strange.

At the end of the prayer, Mac summarized it up like this by telling God what he wants:

"God, give us Godly leadership. And so Lord, we pray that you hear our prayer, and we're convinced that you do. And we pray this in accordance to your will, and for your glory. In Jesus name, Amen."

The Lord has heard their prayers and given FBC Jax a couple of judges, the tax collector, multiple city councilmen, and a sheriff's detective with subpoena power on their discipline committee...so no wonder Mac says he's convinced that they will get their Godly leadership Tuesday...when FBC Jax speaks, God listens.

Now Mike goes forth with the blessing of his pastor, and the Lord. Look out Alvin Brown, God's ordained man is heading toward a victory this Tuesday.

Here is the video of the portions of the service where Hogan was recognized and prayed for.

Mike Hogan, Mayor Candidate and FBC Jax Leader, Should be Grateful His Opponent is Playing Nice

This coming Tuesday is an important election in Jacksonville. It is the mayoral run-off election between Republican Mike Hogan, and Democrat Alvin Brown.

Hogan is a longtime member of FBC Jax, and Deacon and Church Officer. At left is a photo from the Times Union, showing Hogan (right) having a conversation with FBC Jax executive pastor John Blount before a recent church service (Blount is the executive pastor who hand delivered our list of 16 sins and filed a trespass warning against my wife, wrongly accusing her of "church misconduct"; he also was the witness in the JSO lawsuit that confirmed that JSO detective Hinson was not merely a security guard at the church, but was a Deacon and Discipline Committee member).

Hogan will likely win, although the race has tightened in recent days.

The campaigns on both sides have been relatively cordial, although recently Hogan has gone quite a bit more negative, accusing Brown of being a "tax and spend liberal" (when his policies are absolutely not liberal), trying to connect Brown to Obama, saying Brown will raise taxes (Brown, like Hogan, has promised not to)...and Hogan has even said the "media elite" is supporting Brown. By "media elite" he must be referring to the conservative Florida Times Union that has endorsed Brown - the paper that our FBC Jax pastors have always been friendly toward until they printed the front page story "First Baptist, Cop, Team Up to Out Blogger". Hogan has followed his pastor's lead in expressing disdain for our local paper.

But Hogan should be very grateful that Brown's campaign, or friends of Brown, or the "media elite" Times Union have not gone after Hogan as hard as they could have. So far Hogan's close affiliation with FBC Jax, the concentration of political power at the church, and the statements by the pastors and other FBC Jax politicians has NOT been a campaign issue.

As I blogged about in September 2009, it would only be a matter of time before an opponent of an FBC Jax member and politician runs TV commercials asking the FBC candidate why he remains a member of and financially supports a church that:

- has an executive pastor on staff who unashamedly has declared in writing and in a sermon from the pulpit, the Catholic Church to be a "cult", and has referred to a Catholic priest as a "cult leader", and who has declared that voting for Obama is a sin that a Christian must repent of;

- has a Senior Pastor who has declared that if a hurricane hits Jacksonville, he hopes and prays FEMA does NOT come and help us;

- has a Senior Pastor that has declared multiple times (here and here) that our economic recession is the result of the judgment of God, for the failure of Christians in this country to practice tithing - giving 10% or more of their money to the church;

- has declared that 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, rising gas prices, and the stock market crash and resulting economic recession to be the direct result of God "working behind the scenes" to see how he can punish Americans;

- is a member of church that appointed a JSO detective to a position of Deacon and Discipline Committee member who then used his police investigatory power to subpoena information about three bloggers critical of FBC Jax and two other Baptist pastors.

- has a pastor who has attacked a former church member and blogger publicly, call him a "sociopath", and issuing trespass papers against his wife for the sin of "associating" with her blogging husband;

- passed a "Deacon's Resolution" read by judge A.C. Soud telling church members that they will be "aggressively confronted" if they are divisive in the church.

- has a pastor who "praises God" that his parishioners didn't get a raise during the tough economic times of 2008, while he himself lives high on the hog and takes expensive trips around the world and even accepted a six-figure gift from a wealthy donor.

- has an executive pastor who believes Muslims must be converted in our city else our grandchildren will come under Muslim law.

Perhaps if Mike Hogan were asked about any of these, he would distance himself from the views and actions of his church leaders.

But really, shouldn't Hogan tell voters whether he believes and supports the above? Why not? Let's face it - Obama was never in any sort of leadership position in Jeremiah Wright's church, yet his pastor's views were a major political issue in the 2008 presidential campaign. Hogan on the other hand describes himself as an accomplished FBC Jax leader when listing his civic and community involvement. Shouldn't citizens be concerned that we might elect a man to lead our city who is a leader in a church that teaches the solution to our economic crisis lies in having more people donate to mega churches, and believes 9/11 and in Hurricane Katrina God is God's punishment on America?

I for one am troubled that FBC Jax didn't see the potential conflict of interest in appointing Detective Hinson to be on their newly formed discipline committee that was charged with disciplining church members like myself. I am troubled that him being on the committee was not immediately disclosed by Hinson or the church when the story broke. That John Blount and Robert Hinson didn't see the potential problem with Hinson doing an investigation into the FBC Jax blogger, AFTER they had elevated him to deacon and discipline committee member, causes me to not want to have any closer connection between our city government and FBC Jax than already exists. And people of Jax, all you have to do is watch A.C. Soud read his edict telling FBC Jax members that what they did to me, they would do to other troublemakers, tells you they didn't see anything wrong with what they did, and that they intended to do it again if necessary. Keep in mind, A.C. Soud's pronouncement was BEFORE they knew that the subpoenas would be found by me and the local media. I would not vote to give that church any more political power than they already have.

So far Hogan has avoided virtually any questions regarding his connections to FBC Jax. Brown might have had a chance if these issues were raised and if he were to hit Hogan back in the campaign like Hogan has Brown.

Hogan should be grateful that neither Brown, nor the conservative paper that he calls "media elite", has raised FBC Jax as a campaign issue. It likely will ensure his victory on Tuesday, and more concentration of political power at First Baptist Jacksonville.