"President Caner" Makes First "Cabinet Appointment": Peter Lumpkins, the New BP "Baghdad Bob"

Brewton-Parker College announced yesterday that "President Ergun Caner", made his first "Cabinet Appointment": Peter Lumpkins. Peter is now the new "Vice President of Communications".

Of course, it makes sense, Caner is now in a position of power, being the head cheese of a small college, and it is time for him to begin paying back those who have ardently supported him and defended him over the last 4 years since his decade of deceit was exposed by bloggers.

And no doubt, Lumpkins along with Tim Rogers have been the two men who have been most vocal to defend Caner and to viciously attack those who dared to point out Caner's lies.

I get that. Good for Caner. It is payback time. He has the power and now he will use it.

But the language of the hire is what is so ridiculous! First of all, a "Press Release" over the hiring of a "VP of Communications" at a tiny Baptist school in the swamps of southeast Georgia? Come on!!

And the President of said school has a "Cabinet"?  What is that? A "Cabinet"? The first I've heard of any college president having a "cabinet". Does Ergun Caner have a "War Room"? Where is his "Oval Office"?

It gets better. The Brewton Parker Press Release quotes "President Caner":

"One of the most important roles of a college is consistently ‘tell its story,’ to alumni, churches and constituents"

Huh? A college needs to "consistently 'tell its story'"?  Why does a college need to "tell its story"? Sure, it needs to "market" itself, and it needs someone to coordinate all of its communication efforts. But using the phrase "consistently tell its story" - well, it is just ironic given Caner's own failure to consistently tell his true story.

When I heard Caner refer to this as a "Cabinet appointment", and Lumpkins being the "VP of Communications" hired by Caner "tell its story"....it immediately brought to my mind the "Iraqi Information Minister", otherwise known as "Baghdad Bob" who was Sadham Hussein's guy who would "tell the story" of the Americans being crushed during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Perhaps what Caner means is he needs someone like Peter Lumpkins to help him "make up a new story" about Brewton Parker, because it doesn't have a very good story to tell of late. They are on probation with their accreditation (SACS), and they just hired a man as their president who rose to prominence in the SBC after he told fib after fib after fib to Southern Baptist congregations about his past as being raised as a Jihadist after 9/11. So Caner knows all about having to "tell stories", and Lumpkins is the perfect fit to help him tell more stories.

Caner also cited one of the qualifications of Lumpkins is his blog popularity, that Lumpkins blog, SBC Tomorrow, "..averages over 64,000 hits a month". Man, if I knew blog popularity was one of the measures for this important Cabinet post, I would have applied for the job. My blog is averaging around 35,000 hits a month, Mr. President!

But Brewton Parker definitely need help in editing their communications, so a new Cabinet appointee and "Secretary of Story Telling" is much needed...as of this morning, the Brewton Parker Press release announcing the Lumpkins hire still has an unedited, stray partial paragraph at the end:

Peter - I mean "Secretary of Story Telling Lumpkins" - you have very important work to do, to begin "telling the story" of Brewton Parker, and to continue helping Ergun Caner - excuse me, I mean "President Caner" - tell his stories and defend him against the Calvinists who falsely accuse him. But first, you have to clean up this press release. Get busy, Peter!!

But seriously, I think this quote from the Pulpit and Pen blog sums up how those outside of BP and the staunch Caner defenders view the Lumpkins hire:

"Peter Lumpkins has long been one of the most vocal and least reasonable members of the very vocal and unreasoning defenders of Ergun Caner’s decade-long fraud and deceit. Indeed, outside of the small circle of Caner sycophants, Lumpkins is pretty much a laughing stock. Just a quick, albeit painful, reading of Lumpkins’ blog, SBC Tomorrow, shows that he is very good at writing long, rambling posts that are heavy in ad hominem and very light in logical argumentation, which will make him the perfect person to defend Caner officially on behalf of Brewton-Parker College.

As soon as this was announced, the alternate title of “Minister of Propaganda” was suggested, and allusions to the infamous “Bagdad Bob” were made. And, to be honest, how would you describe the person whose job it now is to officially communicate for a renowned liar?"

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[Join me on Twitter today as I post throughout the day who the NEXT payback hires are likely to be at Brewton Parker].

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Some other links releated to the Peter Lumpkins "Cabinet Appointment":

Tim Rogers waxes eloquently over the Lumpkins Hire

Baptist Press Article on Lumpkins Hire

Diagnosing and Delivering Slaves Week After Week - SOMEBODY Has to Do This Hard Work!

Hello WD Readers - Happy 2014! I am still here. Took some time off over the holidays, and then a few days ministering, er I mean visiting the sacred ground of New York City where only mega church pastors tread. I was able to visit Brooklyn, where Ergun Caner landed as a Muslim missionary in 1978 to learn English. Not sure if he received his training "to do that which was done on 11 September" there in Brooklyn, or if that was in his training center in Beirut. But it was a moving experience to visit the mosque where he may have received his training and learned English.

Wanted to kick off 2014 with a short post here, highlighting a Tweet from Tullian Tchividjian yesterday:

 

Notice this tweet was "favorited" 117 times, and retweeted 78 times.  

No wonder so many pastors think they are ultra-important and that God can't do accomplish what he wants to do without them. No wonder they tell you that you have to go to church every Sunday to be a good Christian: you are a slave. Their primary task each week is to get you to AGREE you are a slave, or to remind you that you are a slave. You have to go sit in the pew, and be either "diagnosed" or "delivered". You're a stupid sheep, and also a no-good slave.

And we have to be reminded of this every Sunday so we can be diagnosed. Or delivered. 

What important work, "..week after week after week". How DO they do it?

We might need to be delivered, all right.

Not BY the pulpit, but maybe FROM the pulpit.

"In What Room Did Your Father Molest Your Sister?" What Sort of Depraved Mind Asks Such a Question? Why Tim Rogers, Pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church of Course!

Last night Ergun Caner had a Twitter Q&A session, where he invited people to ask him anything on Twitter, and he would reply.

As you might expect, Tim Rogers, pictured at left, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist in Indian Trail, North Carolina was there to defend Ergun Caner from those who used the Q&A invitation from Caner to ask him about his lies and refusal to repent.

And Rogers was in rare form, using his standard tactic of defending Caner by attacking James White.

But this time Rogers has gone off the rails, using a tragedy in James White's family involving allegations of molestation of White's sister by their father when James was a young boy. Whatever the truth is in THAT situation in James White's family, it has absolutely nothing to do with Ergun Caner using the events of 9/11 to begin deceiving people about where he was raised and his prowess as a trained terrorist who converted to Christianity just before he strapped a bomb to his back.

Look at this Tweet from Tim Rogers, a supposed "man of God", Southern Baptist pastor, in which Rogers is almost making light of and poking fun at the tragedy in James White's family, calling James White "Jimmy" and asking him about the room in which his sister was molested:

And this was just one of many Tweets Rogers posted about the molestation charges in White's family. Go to Rogers' Tweet feed and see if for yourself. He continues to make charges that James White has committed a crime, that he covers for pedophiles.

There you have it, folks. If you needed any further evidence that Ergun Caner and his vocal defenders and his silent supporters will stop at absolutely nothing to prop Caner up to avoid the embarrassment that Caner's decade of deceit is to the likes of Jerry Vines and Paige Patterson and Jack Graham, you now have it.

Thank you, Tim Rogers, for showing the darkness of your heart in this and other Tweets in the past 24 hours.

I'm sure Tim's church members are proud of his defense of the deceiver Ergun Caner, and how he has asked the most sickening of questions to poke fun at the tragedy in White's family. And to make unfounded criminal allegations against James White.

As one commenter or Twitter said today, the train wreck known as "Ergun Caner" is gaining speed, and when it finally derails the mess it will make in the SBC and the embarrassment it will bring to many who have supported him will be spectacular.

Merry Christmas from the Watchdog

Merry Christmas to Watchdog readers!

Below is a repost of the WD poem from 2009. I did a remix of it a few years ago, below is the original.

Looking forward to 2014, the 8th year of the Watchdog watching pastors and churches and giving commentary and analysis. I suppose my tagline should be "gathering, condensing, and analyzing shameless nuttery from the SBC and mega church worlds... so you don't have to."

 And while some accuse me of only seeing the negative in pastors and churches: it is not true. While shameless nuttery is the focus of my writing on this blog, I have had good experiences in 2013 with several pastors - even a mega church pastor - that has shown kindness and grace to me and my family, and who refuses to beat the sheep like so many other pastors over tithing and instead teaches people to be generous givers. So these pastors are out there, but the Watchdog will keep watching and writing about the others in 2014.

'Twas the Sunday Before Christmas

'Twas the Sunday before Christmas

and all through God's church

"Not a churchman is tithing!"

Yelled the preacher from his perch

So the plates were all passed

down each row with great care,

In hopes that the peeps

Would put their 10% there.

The preacher told them 

how dare they not tithe,

Our country's safety at stake, 

Else God's wrath would arrive.

Mama in her new dress, 

and me in my tie,

I saw that plate coming, 

with a tear in my eye.

I took out my envelope, 

with my measly 9 percent

knowing I was "sinning", 

but had just paid my rent.

Here came the plate, 

Put my envelope upside down,

tried to fake a tithing smile, 

but wore a 9 percent frown.

Off Deacons, Off Trustees, 

please count all the dough

See if there is enough, 

for our mega preacher TV show.

The mega church preacher 

climbed up into his place

Said our tithe to his church, 

was required for grace.

He told of his trip to New York, 

how he was doing God's will,

and that we as God's people 

needed to pay for the bill.

He invited us with him, 

on a Holy Land Trip,

or to sail down the Danube, 

on a luxury ship.

He had a broad face 

and a little round belly,

That shook when he yelled, 

like a bowlful of jelly.

He pulled off his glasses 

and gave a jerk of his head,

Soon gave me to know 

I had something to dread;

He spoke not from the Word, 

and went straight to his work,

Began to tell the non-tither, 

how he was a jerk,

He was dressed all in finery, 

even cufflinks of gold,

He took out his Bible 

and yelled to the fold:

"Now please get out your bibles, 

you stupid sheep,

You're holding your tithe back, 

you're being way too cheap,

You owe me ten - 

not nine, not eight,

And we'll spend it as we please, 

you dare not designate."

We thought from our Bibles 

he would be sure to show,

How point-one times the gross, 

is the exact amount we owe.

But ne'er did he exegete 

this demand placed on us,

he just told us to fork it over, 

no need to discuss.

He said if we didn't agree, 

to "Take it up wit da book",

But he didn't tell me where, 

I should start to look.

The white-haired man to my left 

held on to his wallet

His trip to church today 

he was sure to regret.

"I didn't know it", whispered, 

the old man with sweat on his brow,

Then the preacher yelled, 

"HA, well you know it NOW."

I told the old man, 

after the show,

"Don't worry its not what you give, 

but rather its Who you know."

"The message this Christmas, sir, 

is God sent his Son,

He's after our hearts first, 

Not a wallet, not one."

"Baby Jesus came into the world, 

to show us the way,

Not to tell us what percent 

to the pastor we must pay."

The old man grinned, 

and nodded his head with a smile,

"I knew that, and 

I'll see you all in a little while."

"See, at Christmas time, 

I've blessed kids with gifts each year,

And not once did I demand 

a tithe in exchange for my cheer."

"I find it quite odd, 

these men demand cash as they do,

When God gives His love freely, 

to me and to you."

But I heard him exclaim, 

ere he drove out of sight,

"Happy Christmas to all, 

and to all a good-night."

Jack Graham Explains How to Have Your Best Christmas: Shun Church Critics, Especially Those "Watchdoggers"

At left is Jack Graham, pastor of the mega church Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.

Being the loving, caring pastor that he is, Pastor Jack delivered a sermon on December 8th explaining how his church members can have their best Christmas ever.

Here is Pastor Jack's advice:

"There's lots of bloggers and watchdoggers who love to attack pastors and churches...maybe people you hang out with who love to attack churches and be negative about the church. My advice to you if you want to be happy in life is to get as far away as possible from those people. They're only going to drag you down....Instead, get around people who say something like this: 'Isn't it great what God is doing in our church?'"

Here is a 3-minute excerpt from Pastor Jack's December 8th sermon:

Ah yes, one of the keys to having your best Christmas EVER is to determine in your heart that you're going to shun those who might criticize your church or your pastor.

Most pastors don't stand in their pulpit and say these kinds of things. To Pastor Jack's credit, at least he wasn't too angry about it.

But why would Jack Graham want to use his pulpit to tell his church members to not read blogs, to basically shun all people who criticize the church or pastors? Because it was a blogger who helped begin the process of calling Graham's church to explain why they failed to report pedophile John Langworthy to police, resulting in the pedophile moving to Mississippi where he molested more children.

Amy Smith is probably one of the "bloggers" that Graham would tell people to shun and stay away from. As I wrote back in 2011 in my article "In the Langworthy/Prestonwood Story, Bloggers Once Again Show They are Sorely Needed to Get Truth Out" I wrote:

"With the help of the New BBC Open Forum blog recently, former Prestonwood Baptist staffer Amy Smith was able to get the attention of folks in Langworthy's new church and community. Finally as word spread among the people at Langworthy's church, and they did Internet searches that landed them on the New BBC Open Forum post here, they realized they may have a pedophile in their midst. Their church leadership began an investigation, and then Brett Shipp became involved. Brett covered the story because of the connection of Langworthy to Prestonwood, and their apparent failure to report Langworthy's crimes to the police back in 1989 and instead let him slip away to another church."

Yes, those darned "bloggers and watchdoggers". They dare to criticize Jack Graham's church for not reporting a pedophile which resulted in John Langworthy continuing his abuse at another church.

So Prestonwood Baptist members: don't listen to your Man of God on this issue. He is one of the many mega church pastors and their minions who view bloggers as a problem. You should know that the New BBC Open Forum blog I mentioned above that helped bust one of your former pedophile ministers was one of the blogs that Jacksonville Sheriff's Office Detective Robbie Hinson subpoenaed (click here to see the subpoena for yourself) back in 2008 when he investigated my blog to uncover my identity (which resulted in a first amendment lawsuit ultimately settled out of court) - all while Hinson was on the discipline committee of his megachurch which sought my identity. Detective and Discipline Committee Member Hinson for good measure also subpoenaed Tiffany Croft's blog - a blog that actually assisted our State Attorney's office in gathering information from fearful Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist church members who reported Darrell Gilyard's (pictured at right) sexual abuses.
 
And don't forget about Prestonwood's treatment of Chris Tynes, another critic worthy of shunning in the wacky world of Pastor Jack: don't call the cops on the pedophile, but call the cops on the guy demanding answers about the pedophile. And one more reason Pastor Jack doesn't like Watchdoggers: we were quick to point out that Pastor Jack was one of those pastors who got duped by Ergun Caner right after 9/11 and allowed Caner to use the Prestonwood pulpit to create his new "former terrorist" image.

But hey, Prestonwood members, perhaps Jack's advice will indeed give you the best Christmas ever, and help you live a happy life: see no evil, hear no evil - and certainly speak no evil. As one friend said recently: if your pastor publicly declares that you shouldn't listen to this or to that person and tells you to shun a person - that should trigger a red flag to cause you to consider that this person is on to something, and schedule a lunch date with them immediately.

Or at least cause you to visit their blogsite every week or so.

Merry Christmas to you, Jack Graham, and thanks for sending me more readership from your church.