I grant you, details of our births are hard for most of us to remember. In my case, the specifics have escaped me — and it’s not just because it happened so long ago. Even so, I have never been confused about where I was born. Most of us get that detail nailed down pretty early in life.
Apparently, Ergun Caner, president of Liberty University’s theological school, is still a little fuzzy about where that singular event in his life occurred. Or, in his case, the event does not seem so singular. Video recordings of Caner have appeared on YouTube in which he tells one group that he was born in Sweden while to another group he reports that he was born in Turkey. I don’t dispute that he has been “born again,” but he is being altogether too literal.
Jim White
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Depending on which version of his childhood best fits his audience, he was reared in Sweden during his early years and came directly to the United States from there, or, if you prefer a more dashing account, he moved from Turkey to Egypt and other points in the Middle East before coming to the States.
He seems to have lost touch with that date, too. Although accounts of his immigration vary somewhat, all seem to agree that he settled with his family in Ohio where Caner’s memory still seems unreliable. He remembers that his father climbed to the top of the minaret to call the faithful to prayers as a signal of the family’s devotion. Except that, according to a blog report by Wade Burleson, the imam of the mosque where he and his family worshiped says it had no minaret.
Caner claims that he was trained as a terrorist. That had to have happened prior to his immigration to this country when he was 3, or was it 10? I remember once, in a private setting, holding church members spellbound as I went into details about my immoral life, numerous crime sprees and personal addictions prior to my conversion to Christ. Then, with a flourish I announced, “Then, when I was 6, God saved me from my tortured past.” They were disappointed. They seemed to prefer a pastor with a good story even if it meant a shady past.
In Caner’s case, he seems to have been willing to sacrifice a small thing like integrity for the sake of a good story. I could go on detailing his conflicting claims because Caner has provided ample opportunity for critique and criticism through his videotaped testimonies. Suffice it to say that no doubt exists that he said one thing at one time to one group and something completely different at other times to other groups.
Caner’s actions are all the more egregious in that he recently had the audacity to call Jerry Rankin, head of the Southern Baptist Convnetion’s International Mission Board, a liar. Caner took exception to the IMB’s practice of using an evangelism method with Muslims whereby the Koran was used to make an argument for Christ.
Am I being picky? Caner thinks so. Since he has preached hundreds of sermons, he reasons, it would not be unthinkable that he would occasionally misspeak. I can understand that. I have preached hundreds of sermons, and I suspect that I’ve also misspoken on occasion. I even referred once to Paul as the author of Hebrews in an editorial. That’s misspeaking. But, it is inconceivable to me that I would ever become so preoccupied with speaking or writing that I would forget where I was born. Such a misrepresentation is not misspeaking — it is lying.
Liberty University seems to think I’m being picky, too. Their response to Caner’s cavalier treatment of the truth says, in effect, “Hey, preachers get a little carried away at times. So what if he embellished the truth a little.” Bumping one’s birth weight up by a few ounces might qualify as an embellishment. But telling listeners he was born in Istanbul when he was really born in Sweden just to embellish his testimony is an outright lie. Let’s be honest about that.
In an official statement made to Christianity Today on April 27 in response to a rash of bloggers exposing Caner’s duplicity, the seminary’s dean, Elmer Towns, said, “It’s not an ethical issue, it’s not a moral issue. We give faculty a certain amount of theological leverage. The arguments of the bloggers would not stand up in court.”
When did honesty cease to be an ethical issue? Is integrity, perhaps because of its scarcity, no longer considered a moral issue? Equally troubling to me is trying to interpret what he could possibly mean by “theological leverage.” If he means, as he appears to, that the end (a captivating testimony that produces increased enrollment at Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary) justifies a certain amount of fact manipulation to suit their purposes, the only thing “theological” about it is what is printed on their stationary letterhead.
The university’s board of directors has decided not to take action against Caner nor even to reprimand him. Rather, they have chosen to turn a blind eye to a situation that has become so obvious to others that it can’t be ignored. I suggest that the seminary drop the word “theological” from its name and elect a board of ostriches. Any theological seminary that does not insist that its own president be a person of unimpeachable integrity has sacrificed its soul and character on an idolatrous altar.
I want to be clear. Although some might challenge me at this point, I am not attacking Ergun Caner, Liberty University or the seminary. I am attacking deceitfulness and the catastrophic arrogance that assumes Liberty University isn’t bound by such constraints as, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”
What Caner and his supporters seem not to understand is that bloggers and editors who are writing about this issue are doing the school a service. Again I refer to a statement by Towns: “We don’t see any way that bloggers will damage Liberty.” They aren’t trying to. The administrators and directors of the school are doing it all by themselves.
Jim White is editor of the Religious Herald.