SBC Church Hosting an Ergun Caner "Call for Discernment" Presentaton on the "Great Evangelical Cover-Up" - Right in Caner's Back Yard

"English was not my first language....and I walked into that little church, my English was very poor...they didn't make fun of my accent, they didn't make fun of the clothes that I wore, or make fun of the fact that I wore a turbin, they didn't call me a 'towel-head'....a year later, still young in Christ, still with very bad English, I came forward in my little country church that loved me, and I surrendered to preach." Ergun Caner Sermon at Prestonwood Baptist Church, November 2001

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Three cheers for First Baptist Church of Lindale (TX), as tonight, Tuesday September 10th, they are hosting a presentation by Dr. James White on the "Great Evangelical Cover-Up" of Ergun Caner and his friends to discuss the harm Caner and friends has brought on modern evangelical Christianity. The banner above for this event was posted at White's blog site here.

This event is significant for several reasons:

1. This is the first time that I am aware of where a Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) affiliated church has taken a step to help expose the deceit of Ergun Caner from 2001 to 2010. Most churches are silent, or worse they still are booking Caner as a guest speaker or youth camp pastor. Finally an SBC-affiliated (and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention-affiliated) church is allowing from their pulpit the truth to be told about Ergun Caner and his SBC friends who have failed to hold him accountable for this "Great Evangelical Cover-Up". It was at the mega SBC church Prestonwood Baptist - about 100 miles from Lindale - that Caner delivered probably his most deceitful sermon ever right after 9/11 to transform himself from Butch Caner into "Ergun Mehmet Giovani Caner": the trained terrorist who barely knew English and wore a turbin when he converted to Christianity. It was a lie to establish his brand as an expert on Islam, and really a heretical exaggeration of the transforming power of Christianity. To read about the level of deception of this sermon, go here.

2. This event is right in Caner's back yard. Lindale, Texas is located about 2 hours away from Arlington Baptist College (ABC) as seen on the map at right. On White's Internet radio broadcast last week, he specifically invited students at ABC - where Caner is the provost - to come and hear the truth about Caner's past deceit in SBC churches. Quoting White from his Internet radio broadcast: 

"If you are a student at Arlington Bible College you are an honored guest [at this event]. Our understanding is that there on campus this has been the big 'no-no' topic. Do not ask questions, do not say anything about it [Caner's past deception], and so a lot of students are wondering: 'what's the real story?'. So we want to provide you with that information, we think you are owed that."

This event is going to be live streamed at White's blog site through YouTube and/or GooglePlus. The event starts at 7:30 Eastern time, and the stream is supposed to be set up at 7:15 pm.

From White's Internet radio show, here is his description of what will be covered in his presentation:

"Looking at Ergun Caner and specifically looking at the 'Great Evangelical Cover Up' as well. We're not going to be spending the whole time just playing videos of Ergun Caner claiming to have been born in Turkey and raised in Istanbul, and coming here almost as an adult trained in Jihad and different Madrassas all over the Middle East, speaking Arabic and debating Muslims now in mosques and all the rest of that kind of stuff. No, we're not going to just be looking at that - we will need to lay that out. But once we lay that out we need to look at the attempted cover up on the part of others. We'll be looking at some of the most egregious excuses that have been offered for Ergun Caner, by Ergun Caner."

Here are some links to other articles concerning Ergun Caner and James White:

"The Ergun Caner Evangelical Crisis" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 5/4/10

"Caner 2001 Sermon at Prestonwood: The Worst Deception Yet" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 4/26/10

"James White Speaking the Truth on Ergun Caner" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 9/28/10

"Ergun Caner...Finally Returns to Prominent SBC Pulpit, Where Decade of Deceit Began" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 2/18/13

"Ergun Caner: 'Growing Up I Learned About Americans on Turkish Television'" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 4/13/10

"Ergun Caner: 2001 FBC Jax Sermon: 'I Was in Islamic Youth Jihad'" - FBC Jax Watchdog, 3/29/10

Ergun Caner, Professional Wrestling, and Modern Evangelicalism

I saw this weekend that Ergun Caner loaded up the kiddos and headed to the Wrestlemania XXX professional wrestling event this past Sunday night at the Superdome in New Orleans.

It might seem strange that a minister, a Christian college president, would be a fan of the phony, make-believe world of professional wrestling. I mean I am not sure that I even know of a single person - certainly no Christian minister - who would hop on a plane to go watch the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) Wrestlemania event.

Yet here is Ergun Caner, ordained minister, Christian college president, who loves professional wrestling, who posts pictures of himself and his kids hanging out with some of the professional wrestling old-timers like Ted DiBiase and Rick Flair. Caner is and for many years has been fascinated with the wrestlers of WWE. Caner seems to be able to identify with these wrestlers/performers.

This weekend if it finally hit me. Caner's fascination with professional wrestling makes perfect sense. Too much sense. And sadly, as one considers the similarity between Ergun Caner's world of Christianity make-believe he lived for 9 years, it also seems so clear that modern evangelicalism is beginning to resemble the world of professional wrestling - and its fans are as gullible as the WWE fans who go and pay to watch their favorite wrestling star.

Let's first take Ergun Caner. As most civilized, educated people know, professional wrestling is a staged, choreographed "sport".  Fans pay to watch larger than life wrestlers - who have taken on fake personas and stage names -  act out their profession according to a wrestling script in front of cheering, adoring fans who eat it all up. Fans actually PAY to watch these men with fake names and fake stories pretend to wrestle and fight each other. They marvel at their antics, laugh at the jokes, and cheer the wrestling moves. But it is all fake.

So OF COURSE Ergun Caner can relate to these wrestlers - he lived out the same life as these wrestlers: a fake story line - lived in front of adoring fans who paid to watch his antics, laugh at the same choreographed punch lines and stories and jokes. He delivered the same show week in and week out, pretending to be a former Jihadist. And his fans loved it.

Ergun Caner was the professional Christian equivalent to Hulk Hogan of the professional wrestling world. Only Caner was better - he actually had his fans believing that his story was true - when we all knew that Hulk Hogan was just an act.

Caner's career began at the exact moment when the planes flew into the towers on September 11. Just

before the tragic events of 9/11, Caner existed as the mild-mannered Michael Caner, a balding and chubby minister who looked more like George Castanza of "Seinfeld" than he did a trained terrorist. Soon after 9/11, Michael Caner slid into the shadows, "Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner" emerged - a former terrorist trained in Islamic Jihad, "trained to do that which was done on 9/11", saved by Jesus Christ just in the nick of time before he himself committed heinous terrorist acts like those on 9/11. Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner was born even before the ashes at the World Trade Center had cooled.

Why did this fake personna of Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner emerge after 9/11? Why did "Michael Caner" slip into the shadows and give way to "Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner? The same reason that Terry Bollea emerged as "Hulk Hogan" back in the 1980s: because there was a market. Terry had a very talented wrestling promoter who was an expert in the marketing of professional wrestlers, and knew he could market a "Hulk Hogan" because he knew what the fans wanted. Hulk Hogan's story line, his fake persona would sell. Of course he had the enormous physical stature, he was very charismatic, and had a menacing stare.  Money could be made. Instant stardom could be had. It was there for the taking. So "Hulk Hogan" was born.

You see, after the events of 9/11, there was a HUGE need in the evangelical community for a former terrorist who had been saved by Jesus before HE himself committed terrorist acts. If such a former terrorist did exist, and if he were a talented speaker able to draw a crowd, he would be perfect to speak to churches everywhere on the evils of Islam - and he would be proof that THEIR religion of Christianity could triumph over radical Islam. This former terrorist - if he did exist - would be able to give Christians hope that their faith was the answer to preventing future terrorist acts like those of 9/11. This former terrorist - if he did exist - would help Christians make sense out of the senseless tragedy of 9/11 - and this former terrorist - if he did exist - would help pastors maintain the crowds drawn to their churches after 9/11, helping them raise money and to convert non-believers.

If such a former terrorist trained in Islamic Jihad DID exist, he needed to be found and found quickly.

The only problem: this former terrorist DID NOT EXIST.

But no problem. In America - if there is a need, if there is a market - if money is to be made - someone will emerge able to fill the need. So this former terrorist who did not exist, needed to be created. And once created, he needed to be promoted. 

And as we now know, Michael Caner was that man, hand-picked by the Christian promoters and King Makers at the time, Jerry Vines, Paige Patterson, and Jack Graham. Christians should have seen this coming, especially after the Darrell Gilyard fiasco that was the direct result of Jerry Vines promoting Darrell Gilyard in the late 1980s resulting in many ruined lives in Texas and Florida from Gilyard's well-documented sexual abuse. But in 2001, before social media was around, most people were unaware of Gilyard's abuse and Vines', Falwell's and Patterson's attempts in promoting and protecting Gilyard. And isn't it ironic: Gilyard's introduction by Vines included the phony story of him growing up homeless under a bridge.

Take Hulk Hogan for example: his name is actually Terry Bollea. Terry was transformed into "Hulk Hogan" in the 1980s, with the help of promoter Vincent J. McMahan. If Caner was going to be the former terrorist trained in Islamic Jihad, the guy saved-just-before-he-got-on-the-planes, he needed a huge introduction. His first large venue was Prestonwood Baptist Church, then First Baptist Dallas, then at the big-dog, First Baptist Church Jacksonville in November 2001. All of this was done while the rubble was still smoldering at the World Trade Center.

Terry Bollea was able to parlay his stage name and persona into all sorts of other marketing venues over the past 30 years. So too was Caner from 2001 to 2010, landing speaking gigs all over the world, getting the prestigious job of seminary president at Jerry Falwell's seminary, and also writing and co-authoring many books.

Ergun Caner lived the life of a former terrorist raised in Turkey, speaking Arabic, using his phony persona as an "olive skinned" immigrant to tell racial and sexist jokes from the pulpit, telling fibs about his own family members, and misleading congregations everywhere into thinking he was something he was not. Caner had crowds eating out of his hand, cheering him and howling at his jokes as he spoke of growing up in Turkey - even claiming that he watched professional wrestling while growing up in Istanbul. He couldn't help but to even bring up professional wrestling as part of his phony story! Ergun Caner became so popular that his brother Emir was able to ride his coattails into speaking gigs and a seminary presidency even without telling the fibs himself.

It was quite a ride Caner had. Ironically, there was a sick and twisted intersection of the Caner hoax and the fallout of the events of 9/11 from which the Ergun Caner persona emerged. In 2005 Caner was hired by our U.S. Marines to speak to troops preparing for battle in Afghanistan. Caner posed as an expert in Turkish culture, telling our Marines many of the same fibs he told to Christians in churches all over America. Think about that: Caner used the events of 9/11 as reason to create a false ex-terrorist persona, and then used that fake persona to gain an audience of our troops engaged in the war resulting from the events of 9/11. This is the stuff of a John Gresham novel.

But unlike Terry Bollea, Michael Caner's fake persona started to unravel at the hands of bloggers who helped Christians connect the dots. Everyone knows that "Hulk Hogan" was someone else. We knew it was pure entertainment, fiction. But Christians everywhere didn't know there was a Michael Caner prior to 9/11. They thought what they saw on stage in Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner was real. But sadly, to the shock of many, it was just a story, a fake persona that was marketed and promoted to gullible Christians everywhere.

Ergun Caner was a hoax born out of the events of 9/11, perpetuated on gullible Christians - and I was one of them - that wanted so badly to know for sure that their Christian faith was the answer to 9/11. We trusted Jerry Vines to have vetted Caner's story - and Vines failed us, and he failed a young Michael Caner who COULD have been a credible spokesperson after 9/11 if he had been completely truthful about his real past. Michael Caner needed Jerry Vines to guide him and keep him from the temptation of embellishing his testimony.

Sadly, to this day, the story gets worse. The Caner debacle continues, as he is still being paid by Southern Baptists in Georgia as a college president, while Jerry Vines and others who bear responsibility in the hoax will not come clean. The longer Vines and Patterson and Graham stay silent - the more long-term damage will be done to the Christian faith. There is the Caner lawsuit against Jon Autry and Jason Smathers for their publishing of the Caner speeches to the Marines in 2007 - still working its way through court. And probably more lawsuits from Caner. And Caner continues to get audiences in Southern Baptist Convention churches.

But maybe the saddest part of all of this Ergun Caner saga is this: modern evangelicalism is now beginning to resemble the same phoniness of professional wrestling. Maybe Caner was just a sign of things to come. Small churches with real pastors who want to minister to people are struggling and failing - while the large mega churches with the rock-star preachers seem to be thriving. Yet these men now are being exposed as grand marketers, using their churches and their notoriety to build their brand and build their market share. That Caner still exists in the evangelical community as a man with any credibility just serves to further blur the lines and confuse the difference between what is real in the Christian faith, and what is fake. We now see Mark Driscoll using church money to buy a fake "New York Times #1 Best-Selling Author" designation, and we see Steven Furtick using his notoriety to build a mansion - while Ronnie Floyd - the next SBC president - along with most mega church pastors now preaches a prosperity gospel that shamelessly requires 10% of one's gross income to be handed over to their church to avoid the curses of the God that loves them.

Sadly, America is watching all of this unfold. And when they see Ergun Caner, Steven Furtick, Mark Driscoll, Robert Morris and Ronnie Floyd as the faces of modern, mainstream Christianity - they are also seeing Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Andre the Giant, Randy Savage, and "The Undertaker" as faces of professional wrestling.

And to most Americans, they can't tell the difference:  all showmen, performers on stage, performing in front of cheering, star-struck fans, selling their stories to earn a buck and gain notoriety, and the only people still buying the tickets are the most gullible among us.

Ergun Caner Selected as "Camp Pastor" by Westside Baptist in Gainesville for Summer Youth Retreat - And They Use Graphic, Adult TV Show as Theme

Sadly, many church members of mega churches cannot trust their pastors and church leaders to make even the easy, no-brainer decisions when it comes to protecting the youth of the church. The latest example of this is Westside Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida.

The church's youth minister, Asa Walker, announced Thursday night via Twitter that the youth camp next month for grades 6-12 will feature none other than Ergun Caner as the "Camp Pastor", fresh off his two failed lawsuits he used in an attempt to wipe the Internet clean of the Marine video tapes in which Caner lied to our Marines about his background as a trained Jihadist.

And to make matters worse - or maybe in keeping with the edgy Caner choice - Westside Baptist leaders have chosen to use the softcore pornographic, ultra-violent HBO TV series "Game of Thrones" as a theme of the camp. I guess if the leadership is not wise enough NOT to have Ergun Caner as their "Camp Pastor", they certainly wouldn't be wise enough to know not to use "Game of Thrones" in the promotion of their camp for middle schoolers. Notice that Asa used the hashtag "Thrones" in his Tweet - a hashtag used to follow Tweets related to this extremely graphic and sexual TV series. Tis so sweet to have your youth minister hashtagging "Game of Thrones" to those he is supposed to minister to in Jesus' name.

From Westside's website:

Ah yes, the "Ergun the Warrior" pose. Notice the use of the Gothic letter "O" in "Thrones". See the "Youth Camp is Coming" tagline, played off of the "Winter is Coming" tagline of the "Game of Thrones" TV series as shown below:

And if you visit the Westside camp sign-up website, look at how the church leaders decided to promote Ergun Caner as the camp pastor:

"Youth Camp is a week-long retreat for students grades 6-12. We'll travel to Mount Vernon, Georgia where we will stay on the beautiful campus of Brewton-Parker Baptist College. You'll hear from Dr. Ergun Caner, one of America's most sought-after youth speakers, as he joins us as our campus pastor"

Really? Caner is one of America's "most sought-after youth speakers"? I would challenge that assertion. Will Asa Walker, Pastor Gary Crawford, and Rev. Phil Young let the parents know of Caner's propensity to fib in the pulpit about his past as a trained Jihadist, using 9/11 as the launching point for his hoax? Will parents be told about Caner's repeated use of racial, ethnic, and gender stereotypes in the pulpit? What about Caner's pathetic performance in front of the Marines that was the subject of his two failed lawsuits (here and here) against the Christian pastor and layman who dared post the video of his worst lies? If the parents of Westside knew this about Caner, would they STILL want to send their kids off for a week to be preached to by Ergun Caner?

This is particularly sad to me, to see Westside Baptist do this. We have friends at that church. We have gone there to see their excellent Christmas drama in recent years. This is the church where my wife and I met while in college at the University of Florida, and we were married by the pastor, Gary Crawford. People at that church probably have no clue about Ergun Caner's past. They are very fine people and they trust their church leadership to make right decisions on something as important as who will speak to their youth at camp. The leadership at Westside Baptist Church is betraying the trust of their people.

I did attempt to contact youth minister Asa Walker and administrative pastor Phil Young via phone and email on Friday.  Phil Young did email me back and tell me he was on vacation and would call me in June, but did say this in his email:

"I am well aware of both sides of the Ergun Caner story and we are confident in the Lord's leadership in our decision to have him at our Youth Camp. Thanks for your concern."  Phil Young, Senior Associate Pastor, Westside Baptist Gainesville

I don't doubt that Phil is aware of the Ergun Caner controversy. But the important question I want to ask Phil is this: are the parents of the WBC youth aware of the Ergun Caner controversy? And what "both sides" of the Ergun Caner story is Phil referring to? Maybe the both sides are the two federal judges that ruled against Ergun Caner in his attempt to suppress the release of his Marine training video? I find it repugnant that Phil says they he is "confident in the Lord's leadership" in exposing their youth to Ergun Caner for a week at youth camp.

Phil, was it also "the Lord" who led Westside to use the "Game of Thrones" TV series as the theme of your youth camp?

Parents and members at Westside Baptist, I hope you contact your church leadership and express your disgust over their plans for the youth summer camp. Let Phil Young know - let Pastor Gary Crawford know - that you are not confident that it was "the Lord" that led the church in this direction. And maybe Phil will take time out of his summer vacation to let you know what was the reason for Caner and the "Game of Thrones" theme choice for camp.

I am confident, Westside members and lay leaders, "in the Lord's leadership" in your decision to avoid sending your kids to the Westside Baptist Church youth camp this summer. And I'm confident that you can provide the leadership for your church that is so lacking in the paid, professional ministers that should be the ones making the right choices.

Caner Files Lawsuit in Federal Court Against Bloggers Over the Marine Training Video, Which Caner Calls "Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Islam"

We now know the official title of Ergun Caner's Marine Training video:  "Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Islam". Apparently number 1 on the list: ex-Muslims-turned-preachers will sue your pants off if you dare to expose their lies on the Internet.

On Tuesday June 18th, 2013, Ergun Caner and his lawyer David C. Gibbs III filed a federal copyright infringement lawsuit against bloggers Jason Smathers and Jonathan Autry. Smathers and Autry both posted 2005 training videos that Smathers obtained in 2010 from the U.S. government under the Freedom of Information Act - videos of Ergun Caner training Marines on the dangers of Islam in which Caner told fib after fib to our troops.

Part of the complaint filed Tuesday by Caner reads:

"This video [Caner speaking to the Marines] is solely the recorded and live footage of Dr. Caner delivering a presentation as a part of a series that Dr. Caner entitled 'Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Islam'. Upon an invitation from the United States Marine Corp, Dr. Caner delivered this presentation as  a part of a training series on the religion of Islam and was compensated as an independent contractor".

So we now move to the next stage of the Ergun Caner scandal. This move by Caner is nothing short of bizarre. He is putting his entire career on the line and the odds are not good. Let's face it, Caner has made his way back from the embarrassing revelations of 2010 that led to him leaving Liberty University. Caner now has a job that he tells everyone that he loves - working and training young people at Arlington Baptist College - and by his own admission he now has a full 2014 speaking schedule including summer camps with numerous youth groups. His debacle is behind him, and he has recovered - in large part because most people in the churches where he speaks do not know about what he did from 2001 to 2010 during what I call his "decade of deceit".

But now, 3 years later, Caner decides to exert what he thinks are his copyright privileges of a video tape containing multiple lies to our troops as they prepared to go to war. If Smathers and Autry decide to fight - this is only going to draw more media attention to Caner and his deceitful talks, and more people will find out what he has done. It won't be good for his business.

I predict this will not end well for Ergun Caner. It really is very sad. As I wrote back in my 2010 article "A Coherent Defense of Ergun Caner", my hope was that Caner would do the right thing, come clean, apologize, make restitution and move on with his ministry. But as I found in my battles in 2008 to 2010 - when you're dealing with professional religious men and their minions who are more interested in protecting their turf and their revenue and their status in a religious heirarchy than they are advancing the faith they profess, they will make wrong decision after wrong decision after wrong decision.

And this lawsuit is just the latest - and largest - wrong decision in the decade long series of bad decisions by Ergun Caner.

A few observations and questions now that I've read the Caner and Gibbs complaint:

- Even if the court finds that Caner does own the copyright to this video and not the U.S. government, the question remains: what possible commercial value would there be to a training video full of lies and deceit? Certainly Caner can't claim that he was ever going to benefit financially from this video, and the Internet distribution by Smathers and Autry thwarted this benefit. Surely the defense would be during discovery for Smathers and Autry to show the video was so packed full of deception that it had no commercial value at all, and therefore their Internet postings could not possibly impact the commercial value of Caner's work. Furthermore, the timing of the release of the videos, and the context of the blog articles in which they appeared shows the videos were posted for a nonprofit, educational purpose. Seems like an easy case to make that their use of Caner's work falls under the "fair use" provisions of copyright law. But that is just my untrained legal view.

- Caner now admits in his filing that he "was invited" by the United States Marines to speak. I thought that maybe Caner spoke pro bono, maybe the "training" was just some informal talks he did as a courtesy to the officer that introduced him in the officers' club videos. Nope, apparently the Marines sought Caner out because they believed him to be someone credible based on their belief that he was raised in Turkey as an enemy of America, as both Caner and the officer that introduced him told the audience.

- Caner admits in his filing that he was compensated for these videos as an independent contractor. Now we know for sure there was a financial payment made to him for this training. As a U.S. taxpayer, I'm outraged. Our tax dollars paid Caner to come and speak to our troops preparing for battle based on a false pretense that he was born in Turkey, trained as a terrorist in the protocols of jihad, and raised to be an enemy of America - all which are not true. I want to know why the U.S. government has not taken legal action against Caner for the potential harm he caused our troops by what in my opinion was a fraud perpetrated against my government. I would also like to know who was responsible for not vetting Caner fully before hiring him to speak to our troops.

Lastly, let me say this: there is a better than 50/50 chance that this action by Caner will greatly escalate the media attention given this embarrassing saga. Caner professes to have devoted his life to the cause of Christ, but his actions are only going to bring shame and embarrassment to the cause of Christ and evangelical Christians everywhere - and rightly so. And Caner won't be the only one to blame: it will be those in his circles who refused to hold him accountable, and those who continued to pay him to speak at their churches and youth functions.

I'll conclude by saying that while Caner might be able to get rid of most of the embarrassing video and audio put up by bloggers, Caner surely won't be able to get rid of the video below. It is a 2011 news report by Brett Shipp of WFAA in Dallas that documents not only the Marine training lies but the entire Ergun Caner "mystique and legend" as Shipp calls it. And more media scrutiny is sure to come as a result of this lawsuit, and the ensuing legal discovery process.

And bloggers like myself will be here to write about it.

Caner Interrupted - A Prominent Georgia Baptist Finally Speaks and Answers: Was Caner Really "Innocent Before the Consistory"

"Defiant before Pharisees, Innocent before the Consistory." 
Ergun Caner's self-description on his Twitter feed tagline

"I am aware of the videos and all charges you have mentioned. If I were to sin as Ergun has and been employed by FBC Woodstock I would repent publicly here and claim God's forgiveness. I like Ergun would be fired, he was. It cost him dearly and I feel it has humbled him." 
Johnny Hunt's direct reply to FBCW church member, January 2014 

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One of the untold stories so far of Ergun Caner's appointment last December as the president of the Georgia Baptist Convention's Brewton-Parker College, is the growing concern of Georgia Baptist church members as to whether monies they are giving to their local church are helping to pay the salary of a potentially unrepentant serial liar and charlatan as the president of one of their state convention's colleges.

If many of these concerned church members are just now beginning to look at the Caner controversy, they don't have to look very far on the Internet to see examples of Caner's deceptions over the past nine years in churches all over the country. The video evidence is out there for all to see, as well as credible news reports from both Christian and secular news outlets.

So the first level questions for many of the casual observers in Georgia who are concerned about their money possibly going to fund Caner's salary are: were Ergun Caner's lies that the videos seem to show just innocent "misstatements"? Was he actually fired from Liberty University for his lies, or did the investigation at Liberty, and another investigation at Arlington Baptist College and then at Brewton Parker - did these investigations "exonerate" Caner from any serious wrong doing?

If Caner was exonerated in these investigations, and if he really wasn't fired at Liberty, then a concerned Georgia Baptist might put his/her mind at ease and not be too concerned over the hiring of Ergun Caner at Brewton Parker.

But if Caner was NOT exonerated, if he WAS fired for having committed serious sin by purposely deceiving Christians after 9/11 about his past, then Georgia Baptists have a genuine right to be concerned over Caner's hiring by Brewton Parker, and rightly should demand that their church stop donating money to the GBC.

So who are we to believe in the questions of Caner's exoneration and sin? Who is speaking out on this matter?

Well, if you listen to Caner, he claims he says he did not sin, and he claims he was exonerated by Liberty:

The only thing Caner has ever admitted to are "pulpit mistakes" and he says flatly "I never intentionally misled anyone". In his official "apology" posted here, he doesn't admit to sin, only:

"For those times where I misspoke, said it wrong, scrambled words, or was just outright confusing, I apologize and will strive to do better."

In a September 2010 interview with the Lynchburg News and Advance, Caner downplayed the seriousness of the charges of lying and deceit by painting himself as the victims of "frustrated people" creating "edited videos":

“Every pastor in America, ask them if you can go through 200-odd hours of your sermons. Would they find where you said your kids’ names wrong or dates wrong? Yeah, of course. You just smile and move on....it takes more than edited videos to take me down.”

So it is crystal clear: From the days before the Liberty University began, to just after the Liberty University investigation was announced and Caner lost his job as president of the Liberty seminary, Caner admits to no sin, only harmless misstatements that anyone might make, and that he is the victim of bloggers, Muslims, and Calvinists.

But fast forward to 2013, and Caner still claims his innocence. He never has admitted to any sin and has not publicly confessed to misleading congregations for nearly a decade. In fact, he claims that the investigation at Liberty "exonerated" him.

In a Twitter exchange last year regarding his need to repent over the video and audio of his falsehoods, Caner says he won't repent for sins he did not commit.

In this tweet, Caner flat out says that the investigation of 3 schools found that he was "exonerated". To exonerate means an official body has examined the evidence, and cleared a person from any wrong-doing.

"It seems that Liberty is moving in a direction to say nothing further (on Dr. Caner). In that vein we at SBC Today will not discuss this issue any further. This matter is behind us and we praise God that Dr. Caner is exonerated as he is retained at Liberty on faculty." SBC Today Website, quoted by Wade Burleson.

So was Ergun Caner exonerated?

Norman Geisler says that the moral charges are unsubstantiated. Geisler says that the decade-long deception by Caner were just "factual misstatements" that we all make!

“Having examined all these charges against Dr. Caner carefully and having looked at the related evidence, I can say without hesitation that all of the moral charges against Dr. Caner are unsubstantiated. Further, no one had demonstrated moral intent on any of the factual misstatements he made (which we all make).” Norman Geisler

Even the very respected war hero and evangelist Tim Lee says the same. I wrote a blog article back in 2011 after it was announced by Arlington Baptist College that they were hiring Caner. I wrote that a reliable source within Liberty claimed Caner was fired. Tim Lee responded within my blog post, coming to Caner's defense, claiming:

"I was the Chairman of the committee that crafted the statement concerning Ergun. We never once found that he lied....It was Ergun's decision to leave. No on pushed him out. No one threatened him in to leaving. So you are wrong on this matter.". Tim Lee

Then there are the numerous statements of Peter Lumpkins, VP of Communications at Brewton Parker, and Tim Rogers, board member of the Traditionalist Group "Connect 316" ministry and pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in North Carolina. Both have claimed Caner's exoneration by "three independent investigations" at Liberty, Arlington Baptist College, and now Brewton Parker.

So that leads us to the question: who are Georgia Baptists to believe? Bloggers who have documented the video and audio evidence of Caner's lies and deceits from just after 2001 to mid 2010? Or should they believe the defenders of Caner such as Tim Lee, Norman Geisler, Peter Lumpkins, and Tim Rogers?

Was Caner "exonerated"?

Well, I am going to put forth another source - one that has the credibility to trump the bloggers and the Caner defenders on the matter of whether Caner sinned and needs to repent, and whether he was fired from Liberty for his sin, and whether he was exonerated, and if he decided to leave Liberty on his own.

That source is former SBC president Johnny Hunt. Johnny Hunt has the credibility to speak on this issue. He himself has quite a dramatic conversion testimony on par with Caner. Imagine the damage that would be done to the SBC were it found that Hunt made up his stories of growing up in the projects of Wilmington, North Carolina, beginning to drink at age 11, dropping out of high school to manage a pool hall. So Hunt knows the importance of the credibility of one's testimony.

And Hunt is not a Calvinist, blogger, or Muslim. Caner and his defenders have claimed the charges are a conspiracy concocted by Calvinists trying to bring Caner down, along with disgruntled bloggers and Muslims.

So Johnny Hunt has the credibility. I suggest that Georgia Baptists trying to determine if Caner sinned, if he was fired at Liberty for this sin, or if he was exonerated, listen to Johnny Hunt.

I am in possession of an email exchange between Johnny Hunt and one of the members at his church, First Baptist Woodstock, who is concerned about the possibility of FBCW monies going to the Georgia Baptist Convention and then to Brewton Parker and Ergun Caner.

The direct response of Johnny Hunt to one of his church members will be helpful to Georgia Baptists:

"I am aware of the videos and all charges you have mentioned. If I were to sin as Ergun has and been employed by FBC Woodstock I would repent publicly here and claim God's forgiveness. I like Ergun would be fired, he was. It cost him dearly and I feel it has humbled him."

Johnny Hunt was a Liberty University trustee at the time of the Caner investigation. And in a candid moment he admits Caner WAS fired, that he DID commit sin that required repentance.

Hunt says he is aware of the "videos and charges" - yet does NOT downplay them as just "misstatements" or "pulpit mistakes". Instead, Hunt refers to the videos as evidence of Caner's "sin", sin requiring repentance and dismissal from his place of service.

So there you have it Georgia Baptists. It is clear: according to Johnny Hunt, prominent and respected Georgia Baptist leader, Caner was NOT exonerated by Liberty University. According to Hunt, Caner did commit serious sin, and according to a LU trustee, Ergun was fired, and rightly so. When Caner and his supporters claim Caner just uttered "misstatements", that he was "exonerated" by investigative committees - remember the words of Johnny Hunt.

So now, Georgia Baptists, you can move on to the second question. Armed with the knowledge of Caner's sin and that he was NOT exonerated by Liberty, and that Caner has NOT publicly repented of this sin for which he was rightly fired by Liberty, then is Caner fit to serve as a president of one of your educational institutions?

And if not, what are YOU going to do about it? You have the power, actually, Georgia Baptists in the pew. You, Georgia Baptists, are the ones who can set this straight by having a conversation with your pastor and finance committee, and then using the power of the pocketbook.

Your collective wallets and revenue flows to Brewton Parker - THAT is the language that the leadership in the Georgia Baptist Convention understand. Make your voice heard.

The Truth is Incontrovertible - Judge Norman Moon Tells Caner He Must Pay All of Autry's Legal Expenses

"The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is." Sir Winston Churchill

----------------------------------------------

At the end of this chapter of the Ergun Caner Evangelical Crisis, the truth is finally exposed.

Yesterday the Honorable Judge Norman K. Moon of the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia handed down a scathing indictment of Ergun Caner and his frivolous and harassing lawsuit of Jon Autry, demanding that Ergun Caner pay the entire $34,389.59 of Jon Autry's legal expenses.

Not only did the judge rule that this lawsuit never should have been filed, but he pointed out contradictions of Caner's own testimony, the bad faith with which Caner negotiated after filing the suit, and the abuse of our legal system perpetuated by Caner under the guise of copyright protection claims. If one bothers to read Judge Moon's entire ruling - which is below - you will get a complete glimpse of the dirty rotten scoundrel known as Ergun Mehmet Caner. Caner has played the SBC pew sitters as a bunch of fools for a decade, but Caner couldn't fool Judge Moon.

The truth of Ergun Caner is not just now on the blog sites of a few recalcitrants or Calvinists or bloggers - it is now filed by Judge Moon with Case 6:14-cv-00004.

The truth is incontrovertible.

Peter Lumpkins and Ergun Caner and Tim Rogers and Norman Geisler have attacked the truth, and derided it and denied it, but in the end, as Sir Winston Churchill said, the truth is there. And Judge Norman K. Moon's ruling serves to forever document the truth of Ergun Caner and his frivolous lawsuit, his abuse of our legal system, and his terrible harassment of Jon Autry and his family.

Some quotes of Judge Moon describing Caner in his ruling yesterday:

"..acted with improper motive..." (page 7)

"those like Caner should be deterred from exploiting the court system for their own purposes." (page 8)

"....cared more about...harassing his critics than protected his alleged copyrights." (page 9)

"On factual issues, he [Caner]...cast unsupported assertions or asserted boldface contradictions..." (page 12)

"[Caner] filed a copyright infringement suit to stifle criticism..." (page 15)

I wonder if Bucky Kennedy and the Brewton Parker trustees view this recent ruling by Judge Moon as another of the "pagan attacks" that serves to confirm their selection of Ergun Caner. I am sure that it does.

One can only hope that Georgia Baptists will come to their senses and take immediate action to save Brewton Parker from Ergun Caner and Peter Lumpkins.

Here is the entire ruling of Judge Moon:

Attorney Fees in Caner v Autry by Jason Smathers

Inside Story: Ergun Caner Was Finally Shown the Door by Liberty Officials

Ergun Caner posted a press release on his website to announce that he is being hired as the Provost and Vice President of Arlington Baptist College in Arlington, Texas. ABC is a tiny bible college of about 115 students.

I have an inside source at Liberty University who has shared with me some of the details behind Ergun Caner's departure from Liberty to join ABC. In the interest of closure in this saga and some sense of disclosure on what Liberty finally did with Caner, I share this information that was shared with me by a reliable source.

Caner was finally forced out at Liberty by several of the trustees and a number of faculty members who gave an ultimatum of some sort to the administration that it was either Caner who had to leave, or them. My source tells me it was not unanimous with the trustees in forcing Caner to leave. In fact the majority wanted to keep him, but the straw that broke the camel's back was his refusal to make a public apology for the repeated lying of parts of his life's story. Thus, with no willingness to make a public apology, Caner was told he had to leave.

So Caner moves on to the next chapter of his life. The more fundamentalist World Baptist Fellowship churches and members, and the very small school to which Caner is moving, likely hasn't followed the shenanigans last year with Caner very closely. Perhaps those that hired him are believing whatever his version of events are - plus most independent fundamental baptists don't have a high regard for the "liberal" SBC'ers anyways.

How sad that in the "press release" announcing Caner's hiring at ABC, they actually quote evangelist and Marine Vietnam Vet Tim Lee - a staple evangelist amongst independent baptist churches - and Tim Lee tells everyone just how wonderful Ergun Caner is! Does Tim Lee understand that Ergun Caner duped our U.S. Marines in 2005 when he conducted training sessions as some sort of Muslim culture expert who grew up in Turkey?

From the press release:

"Evangelist Tim Lee said, 'I have learned that my good friend, Dr Ergun Caner has accepted the position of Executive Vice-President and Provost at Arlington Baptist College in Arlington, TX. I am excited for Arlington Baptist College! They could not have made a better choice. I believe Ergun will have a very positive impact and that it will be realized immediately! Both Arlington Baptist College and Dr Ergun Caner have my support!' "

But this is the good thing about the Internet: no matter who they get to speak on Caner's behalf, what transpired last year on the blogs in exposing Caner's lies is still here for anyone who is interested in the truth to read, Tim Lee endorsement or not.

In the end, it was arrogance that did Caner in. He could have humbled himself earlier last year when the story was still breaking. I called on Caner to do it, and he could have salvaged his reputation and his ministry with the students at Liberty.

Instead he chose to be defiant and silent, while his friends went into full attack mode against those who called for Caner to come clean. It was a shameful chapter in the life of the SBC that won't soon be forgotten.

And really, isn't the arrogance in full display again with the issuance of a "press release"? Go figure: the man is leaving Liberty after being demoted last year, and moving to an extremely small, mostly obscure school in Arlington Texas that most Baptists have never heard of with maybe 100 students or so....yet he figures that someone of his stature requires a "press release" to announce his hiring at this very small school.

Let's hope that Caner has learned his lesson and the fantastic stories of his past will be buried at Lynchburg. And we can at least be thankful that he is out of the SBC, and that some folks at Liberty in the end did the right thing.

Blogger Files Grievance with Texas Bar Against Ergun Caner's Lawyer Over Marine Training Video Takedown

As reported yesterday on Jason Smathers' blog "Witness Unto Me", Ergun Caner and his lawyer David C. Gibbs III have attempted to take down videos posted by Smathers documenting Caner's deceitful training sessions of U.S. Marines in 2005. Smathers is fighting back, legally contesting the takedown, and filing a grievance with the Texas bar against Caner's attorney, claiming the takedown request is an abuse of copyright law, given the very videos they are attempting to take down are property of the U.S. Government.

Please visit Jason's blog here to read about this take-down request, and to view the actual letter sent by David C. Gibbs III to Jason's video hosting company Viddler. Jason Smathers is one of the blogging heroes in this Caner story - he did an incredible amount of research to document for all of modern evangelicalism the depths of the Caner controversy, and Christians everywhere should be grateful to Jason for his work.

Here is some background and analysis and additional information regarding Caner's recent attempts to scrub the Internet of videos documenting his decade of deceit:

Above is a picture of Ergun Caner conducting one of the two training sessions of our Marine officers in New River, North Carolina, on April 15, 2005. This still shot is from the videos of this event that blogger Jason Smathers obtained from the United States government back in 2010 using a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

Hands down, the videos of the two Ergun Caner presentations made to our Marines on 4/15/05 are the most egregious deceptions that Caner committed. As I said back in 2010:

"It is one thing to listen to Caner spin his yarns of his days growing up in Turkey when he is front of the guffaw'ing Ohio Free Will Baptist men who are absolutely eating out of his hand. What's the harm: they hear some good stories, hear some great ethnic jokes, get some laughs, and return home to their churches in Ohio.

But to watch a Colonel stand in front of his soldiers and tell them they are about to hear from a Turkish-born Muslim, who came to the states at age 14 through New York, describing him as someone who has seen the "Islamic culture from both sides" just makes my blood boil. These are people who weren't there for a laugh, they weren't gullible Christians on a retreat hoping to be entertained; they were there to try to learn from an expert the culture of the country where they all will have a big target on their chest."

Well, this story just won't die. As I said in my opening paragraph, as Smathers wrote about yesterday on his blog, Ergun Caner has hired the Gibbs Law Firm to help him take down Internet videos - including the two Marine training videos obtained under FOIA by Smathers - that document Caner's "decade of deceit".Caner is also attempting to take-down the videos by blogger "Moses Model", as he wrote here.

As I documented back in the summer of 2010, Caner's decade of deceit started in 2001 right after 9/11, when he was invited by Jerry Vines to speak at FBC Jacksonville. Right in front of my eyes, at my church, with my pastor nodding approvingly, it was then that Caner transformed himself from the little-known "E. Butch Caner" into "Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner". His claims to be raised in Turkey, of his training in Islamic Jihad to "do that which was done on 11 September" were all made up. He took advantage of the most horrific terrorist attack on our soil to launch himself to stardom in front of scared, gullible Christians after 9/11. He also gave a similar talk to Prestonwood Baptist Church in late 2001 as I documented here, which was rebroadcast as recently as 2010!

But Smathers is fighting back, thank God. He won't let Caner bully him into letting those videos be taken down permanently.

I predict this is only the beginning of Ergun Caner's offensive, and that it will backfire on him.

I will do my best to stay on top of this story.

Meanwhile, thank you Jason Smathers for fighting the good fight, standing up to Ergun Caner and defending your right to post those videos.

Wrecking Ball Blow #2: FBC Jax Helps Create the Ergun Caner Phenomenon

It was November 2001. America was still reeling from the September 11 terrorist attacks. Americans were scared, angry, confused and suddenly very interested in Islam. And into the pulpit of First Baptist Jacksonville walked a preacher with one heck of a testimony.

His name was Ergun Caner, and boy, did he have a story. Caner told the packed First Baptist auditorium that he had been raised in Europe, had been involved in "Islamic Youth Jihad," and had been "trained to do that which was done on 11 September." I was sitting there with my family listening to it, and I believed him. Talk about having the right testimony at exactly the right time. A former Muslim supposedly immersed in Islamic jihad, converted to Christianity and now able to explain the Muslim world to frightened American Christians? You couldn't have ordered a better speaker from Central Casting.

There was just one teeny-tiny problem: the dramatic biography Caner was presenting to us didn't hold up. And one of the churches that gave the emerging Ergun Caner phenomenon one heck of a launch into Southern Baptist stardom? You guessed it: First Baptist Church Jacksonville.

Before and After 9/11

Years later, I posted what I still think is one of the most remarkable visual summaries of the whole Caner affair: two photographs of Caner before and after 9/11. I called the post "Caner - Before and After 9/11 Shots."

See the two Caner photographs in my October 29, 2013 Watchdog post

Look at those two pictures. On the left was the pre-9/11 version, known as "Butch Caner" or "E. Michael Caner." As I wrote at the time, he was an obscure preacher who had grown up in Ohio from about the age of three. I certainly don't remember seeing the George Costanza-looking version of Caner making the megachurch circuit.

Then came 9/11, and just a few weeks later Jerry Vines brought a considerably more exotic version of Caner into First Baptist Jacksonville. Now we had "Ergun Mehmet Giovanni Caner." Same guy, much better marketing. Caner stood before thousands of us talking about Islamic Youth Jihad and being trained to do what had happened on September 11. He spoke with an accent, rolled his R's and talked about having difficulty speaking English as a teenager; except Caner had been living in Ohio since he was a small child.

When I wrote about those two photographs in 2013, I described what had happened to those of us sitting in that auditorium with two words: "We were tricked. Bamboozled."

Nine Years Later, I Got the Tape

In 2010, as questions about Caner's biography began circulating on the Internet, I remembered that sermon at First Baptist Jacksonville. I knew what I had heard that morning, but there was a problem: this was November 2001. There wasn't a convenient YouTube archive where I could type "Ergun Caner FBC Jax" and pull up the video.

Believe it or not, First Baptist still had something resembling the old church tape ministry.

And this is where the story gets interesting.

I had a friend who was still a member of First Baptist Jacksonville. Through the church's own resources, that person was able to get her hands on an audio recording of Caner's November 20, 2001 sermon and get it to me.

Think about the irony of that.

One of the most important pieces of evidence in the Ergun Caner controversy didn't come from some sophisticated investigative operation. It came from an old FBC Jax audio tape that had apparently been sitting in the church's own archives for nearly nine years.

I listened to it.

And what I heard was worse than I remembered.

Caner told us he had been "raised in Europe." He said that until age 15 he had been in "Islamic Youth Jihad." Then came the whopper: "until I came to America, until I found Jesus Christ as Lord, I was trained to do that which was done on 11 September."

I posted the audio on the Watchdog.

And I have to imagine there were some people who deeply regretted that the old FBC Jax tape ministry had been so diligent about preserving sermons.

Because as far as I have ever been able to determine, that FBC Jacksonville recording was the surviving record of the sermon where Caner was making some of the most extraordinary claims about his life at the very beginning of his post-9/11 rise. I was contacted by a trustee at Liberty University about that tape, and the recordings I had archived from an Ohio Free Will Baptists website where Caner told outlandish stories of learning about American culture as a teenager in Istanbul, Turkey. Total rubbish. 

Read my March 2010 Watchdog investigation of Caner's FBC Jax sermon

That recording is also why the Caner story became so personal to me. I wasn't investigating something that supposedly happened at somebody else's church. I was there, with my family. I remembered believing that we had just heard the testimony of essentially a former Islamic jihadist who had been saved by Jesus just in the nick of time before becoming one of the people we had watched flying airplanes into buildings. That was precisely why the story was so powerful in November 2001.

We Got the Testimony We Wanted

The really fascinating part is that Caner's actual testimony was already a perfectly good Christian testimony. He had been raised Muslim and converted to Christianity as a teenager. Isn't that enough?

Apparently not for the evangelical celebrity machine.

Regular Muslim kid growing up in Ohio converts to Christianity? Nice. But apparently that doesn't provide quite enough horsepower for the evangelical conference circuit. Former Islamic jihadist raised overseas, trained in terrorism, finds Jesus and arrives in your church immediately after September 11? 

Books, conferences, speaking engagements, seminary positions and packed auditoriums followed. Jerry Vines and other prominent Southern Baptist leaders gave Caner tremendous credibility. And when Caner stood in the First Baptist Jacksonville pulpit, he wasn't speaking at some storefront church next to a laundromat. He was speaking to thousands from one of the most influential pulpits in Southern Baptist life.

That platform mattered. If Jerry Vines had this guy standing in the FBC Jax pulpit telling us this incredible story, surely somebody had checked him out, right? 

Then the Bloggers Ruined Everything

Eventually the Caner controversy became too large to dismiss as pesky Internet bloggers tapping away in their mothers' basements, as Ergun Caner liked to say. I posted the FBC Jax recording so people could listen and judge for themselves, and by the end of 2010 I had written more than 20 articles about Caner. The Watchdog material became part of the larger investigation into the contradictions in Caner's public biography.

Liberty University eventually investigated Caner's public statements and concluded there were factual statements that were self-contradictory involving dates, names and places of residence. His appointment as seminary dean was not renewed.

But what bothered me almost as much as Caner's stories was the reaction from the evangelical establishment. Where were all the guardians of biblical truth? These were guys who could detect theological liberalism at 500 yards. Say the wrong thing about the creation story in Genesis and somebody would convene the discipline committee. Let a woman get within 25 feet of the pulpit and somebody would need smelling salts. (which reminds me of the time Ergun joked to the Ohio Free Will Baptists: "Do I believe in women behind the pulpit? You bet I do, how else do you expect them to vacuum back here if they can't get behind it?")

But when serious questions emerged about the autobiographical claims of a nationally prominent evangelical celebrity, suddenly everybody became very cautious: "Well, we don't know all the facts." Funny how that works.

And amazingly, Caner was back at the FBC Jax Pastors' Conference in January 2011. At the time I argued that putting him back on the program, surrounded again by major SBC personalities, effectively communicated that Caner was back in good standing with the evangelical preaching establishment.

Why This Was Another Swing of the Wrecking Ball

I'm not arguing that Ergun Caner caused First Baptist Jacksonville's attendance decline, and I'm certainly not claiming his 2001 sermon caused the financial problems that eventually resulted in the Main Auditorium being sold. That would be ridiculous.

Caner was a symptom. He showed what could happen when enormous evangelical platforms became fascinated with sensational testimonies, celebrity personalities and incredible stories while forgetting to ask boring little questions such as: Is this true? Did anybody verify it? Should this person really be standing in our pulpit? And when we discover that something isn't true, are we willing to admit publicly that we got fooled?

That's where institutions either correct themselves or begin deteriorating. First Baptist Jacksonville helped give Ergun Caner an enormous platform. The Southern Baptist celebrity machine helped turn him into a star. And when the story eventually unraveled, precious few of the people who helped create the phenomenon seemed particularly interested in standing up and saying, "We got this wrong."

Maybe that's because accountability is considerably more enjoyable when you're preaching it to the people sitting in the pews. It's a little less fun when the sermon on accountability is about you, the "man of God".

The Main Auditorium was still standing. The crowds were still coming, the conferences were still going, the celebrity preachers were still arriving, and everything looked fine.

But another swing had landed.

Wrecking Ball Blow #2.

Brewton Parker Alumni Board Member Makes Public Resignation Over Ergun Caner; Meanwhile Caner Offers Confusing "Vision" for BP Future

Jeff Dickerson, a graduate of Brewton-Parker College and an Atlanta attorney, has tendered his resignation from the National Alumni Board of the college.

On Facebook yesterday, Dickerson posted:

"I am very thankful for the valuable life lessons I learned while attending Brewton-Parker College. However, I am saddened and embarrassed by the new administration and by the direction in which the school is moving. Accordingly, I today tendered my resignation from the National Alumni Board."  Jeff Dickerson, on FB, 3/10/14

You can see Dickerson's name listed here on the Brewton-Parker website as a member of the board. I'm sure it will be removed very quickly. I have captured a portion of the NAB member list showing Dickerson's name before it is removed today.

Further down in the Facebook thread, in response to friends wanting more information on his reasons for the resignation, Dickerson provided the following links:

Ergun Caner, Ex-Muslim Evangelical Leader, Exposed As Fake (by Walid Zafar)

and

Ergun Caner and the Integrity of Baptist Institutions (by Associated Baptist Press).

Bravo for Dickerson. Dickerson is no Muslim, he is no blogger in his mother's basement, nor is he a Calvinist. No, he is a defense attorney for a prominent law firm in Atlanta that is sorely disappointed that his college has gone off the deep end and hired Ergun Caner.

Meanwhile, to make things worse for Brewton Parker grads, students, and Georgia Baptists, Ergun Caner provided his "vision" for Brewton Parker in an interview he gave to Gerald Harris. This "vision" has to leave all those associated with Christian education scratching their heads - including the members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) who will be visiting Brewton Parker any day now to re-evaluate Brewton Parker's probationary status.

Ergun Caner seems to be confusing the function of an accredited college with that of a church or seminary. It seems he is more interested in BP being a center of indoctrination and not education. These quotes of his "vision" for Brewton Parker cannot possibly help their standing with SACS:

"Brewton-Parker has had some financial issues and athletic issues, but there is not one thing that can’t be solved by an altar call, by a revival." 

Really?  An "altar call" will solve the issues of a college dealing with accreditation issues? So what are these "financial issues" to which Caner refers? Let's read them right from the SACS disclosure statement after their last assessment, which extended their probation. SACS says Brewton Parker: 

"..had failed to demonstrate compliance with Core Requirement 2.11.1 (Financial resources), Comprehensive Standard 3.10.1 (Financial stability), Comprehensive Standard 3.10.3 (Control of Finances), and Federal Requirement 4.7 (Title IV program responsibilities) of the Principles of Accreditation. To continue as an accredited institution, despite failing to comply with the standards, the institution was able to meet the provisions of good cause.  

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm not sure what "altars" and "revivals" have to do with any of these problems cited by SACS that, if they are not corrected by now, could result in Brewton Parker losing their SACS-accreditation this June.

Unfortunately, Caner's remarks get worse:

"We’ve got to invert the order of our priorities....The most important thing is not the degrees we give or the classroom; it is the altar. The classroom will take care of itself if you’ve got an altar, if you get the students back. "

What does that even mean? What is SACS supposed to think when they read the president of Brewton Parker uttering such unclear "vision", claiming the classroom will "take care of itself" if you get the students to "an altar"?

Sorry, but it gets even worse, as Caner shows he is much less interested in education than he is in religious indoctrination:

"I had rather cancel class and have chapel go on all day. I had rather have an all night cottage prayer meeting than have a symposium. We are going to have education that is focused on wisdom more than knowledge. Anybody can give you knowledge, but only God can give you wisdom."

Of course. Chapel over class. "Cottage prayer meetings" over symposiums. I doubt SACS is familiar with "cottage prayer meetings".  If they aren't, here is how to conduct a "cottage prayer meeting" according to the Tennessee Baptists. 

And for good measure, here is Ergun Caner's vision for Brewton Parker: :

"I want to see Brewton-Parker brought back to its glory days – to a invitation-giving, soul winning, sinners’ prayer leading, hope-to-a-local-church, inerrantist, general atonement, mission obsessed ministry."

But Caner knows this is all just religious-speak red-meat to the Georgia Baptists. Caner knows that retaining accreditation is not about altars or chapels or "cottage prayer meetings" or revivals. It is dedicated educators implementing systems in the college that will meet SACS standards - which I'm sure has been going on by dedicated staff and educators at BP way before Ergun Caner was dumped in their laps.

But if BP does retain their accreditation, Caner will likely claim victory, that God did it because Ergun Caner came on the scene to save the day and lead them "back to the altar". If BP does retain their accreditation - which they probably will - it is because of the leadership of the school before Caner and those on staff working hard to correct the deficiencies. Not because of altars or revivals or a miracle of God.

I would say this: Georgia Baptists ought to get to an altar and have a cottage prayer meeting - so they can pray for Brewton Parker's future under the leadership of Ergun Caner.

Re-Writing History - Attempts to Get Rid of the Truth on the Ergun Caner Wikipedia Biography Page

Currently there is an "edit war" taking place on the Ergun Caner Wikipedia page.

A person editing as "dseppling" is trying to clean up the Ergun Caner biography, while another editor "MosesModel" is trying to expand it to include the important events of the past couple of years leading to Caner's departure at Liberty University.

Currently Wikipedia has frozen the Ergun Caner Wikipedia bio page with the latest MosesModel version, until at least July 31, 2011. I do not know how these editing disputes are ultimately resolved, so what ultimately comes of this remains to be seen.

Click here to go to the Ergun Caner Wikipedia page. In the upper right hand corner, you will see a hyperlink for "View History" and you will be able to see a blow by blow edit list, with time and date stamps of the edits made to the Caner biography.

What are the paragraphs that seem to be in dispute? Here are the ones that have been wiped by the "dseppling" editor:

".....He ignited controversy largely due to the criticism and scrutiny of "an unusual alliance of Muslim and Christian bloggers"[6] which found errors of various kinds in Caner's lectures and books, even in his biography;[10] though he had claimed to have been raised as a teenager in Turkey to become a Muslim extremist and only immigrated to the US in 1978. It was during these years that he claimed to have attended a Muslim extremist training center in Beirut. However, court records show that he had actually emigrated to the United States in 1969 at age 3.[6]

"On April 25, 2005, he conducted two training sessions for the United States Marines in New River, North Carolina. During these sessions he was introduced as having moved to the United States from Turkey at the age of 14. He claimed that he did not know anything about America until he came to the country at age 14. He told the marines that he did not learn English until after age 14. He said he watched American television in Turkey, but he had to watch it with Turkish captions.[15] He claimed that he had been educated (before coming to America) in madrassas in both Instanbul, Turky and Cairo, Egypt.[16] The unedited videos of these sessions were obtained by a Freedom of Information Request in August, 2010.[17]

"Moreover, in a statement released on his own website and reproduced by the Southern Baptist Convention, Caner admitted, in February 2010, that he had actually been born in Sweden, and that possible errors in his "pronunciation of Arabic" as he's from a Turkish background and other matters were not intended to mislead but were bound to happen in two decades of ministry and hundreds of sermons.[18] The Associated Baptist Press reported in May 2010 that Liberty University backed Caner after having investigated the allegations of untruths,[19] but a few days later the university announced that it would continue investigating.[20] "Because of "factual statements that are self-contradictory", he was forced to step down from his position as dean in June 2010, though he was retained as a professor.[6]"

"September 24, 2010, Ergun Caner was the keynote speaker for the Twin City’s 12th Annual Community Prayer Breakfast in Bristol, VA. When interviewed about the controversy, the chairman of the local prayer breakfast committee said that members were aware of the controversy, but the invitation had been issued before the controversy became apparent. He also noted that the Community Prayer Breakfast does not delve into the backgrounds of their motivation/inspiration speakers. [21] At the meeting, Caner claimed that he and his brother saw the controversy coming for years. The bloggers were simply "frustrated people in their basements.” He claimed that it would take more than edited videos to take him down. All of his false statements could be explained by the fact that he has more than 200 hours of combined sermons which would yield random misstatements.[22]"

Nothing false in those paragraphs. If you go to the webpage you can follow the citations to their sources, and see that the above are all properly sourced.

So why is a "dseppling" trying to wipe these off? Who is "dseppling", anyways?

It could be anybody, but there is a David Eppling who hails from Jacksonville, Florida, who is currently on staff at the Liberty University School of Law. He was brought in to be Caner's "Chief of Staff" at Liberty Theological Seminary. Prior to that he was a middle school dean in Jacksonville. David Eppling's brother, Chris Eppling, was the former high school pastor at FBC Jacksonville, before leaving last year to work for Emir Caner at Truett McConnell as the Vice President of Student Services and Athletic Director.

The first edit made by "dseppling" contains a statement that he is the "Executive Vice President of Ergun Caner Ministries".

So someone tells Brookwood Church they can't podcast Caner's sermons he preached at their church this month. Then a "dseppling" who says he is the EVP of Ergun Caner Ministries tries to wipe the Caner Wikipedia page free of any references to Caner's deceptions.

What is next?