A few months ago Ergun Caner was feeling “Tweeterific,” it seems, and went on a tear on his Twitter account. Let’s review what he said:
And I shall keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing for decades. Humbled before God & unrepentant before the Calvin boys
I neither seek their counsel, nor advice. Their charges, much like their degrees, are fraudulent. That is why such heroes stand w/me.
In summation- I categorically deny the charges & those who brought them
And I will NOT repent for their false accusations, nor sins I did not commit. Ever.
No need to prove anything. Certainly not u. Again, 3 schools looked at it all. Finding? Exonerated
Over the course of the past three years we have often had Christians, ignorant of the background and details of the Caner Scandal, object to our exposure of falsehood behind the pulpit and in the classroom. Because we are doing a seminar next Tuesday evening in Lindale, Texas, on the continuing, unresolved Great Evangelical Cover Up, some Christians are contacting us, and the hosting church, objecting to our warning others about Caner’s unrepentant attitude. I would like to respond to some of the objections being voiced in hopes of helping fellow believers understand the need for discernment and warning when seeking to honor the Christian ministry and the pulpit.
First, it is objected that we are not seeking reconciliation with Dr. Caner, but instead are vilifying him. Given that three years have passed with Ergun Caner refusing repeated calls to repent in light of overwhelming documentation of his publicly presented lies and falsehoods, and given that Dr. Caner refuses to dialogue or to answer direct questions about his claims, and given that Dr. Caner has produced fallacious excuses for his actions that are utterly without merit, and given that Dr. Caner has recently claimed to have been fully exonerated regarding all charges, what other options are left to us? We are the ones who have called for confession, reconciliation, and repentance on Dr. Caner’s part for three years now. He has refused. When do those who love the truth switch to a mode of warning, given the biblical teachings? Should anyone sound the call and warn the uninformed that there is a man in the ministry who has lied about his past, given great reason to the enemies of the cross to revile the truth, and yet refuses to face the facts and admit the truth?
The most often repeated assertion is that we have not followed Matthew 18:15-16. First, that text is not about public matters of teaching and integrity, it is about personal acts of sin between believers. Second, many people have gone to Ergun Caner privately, and he has rejected their remonstrance. Third, the local churches to which Caner has attached himself have refused to act on the information, just as the schools with which he has been involved. Fourth, when it became clear to me that Ergun Caner was lying about some of his claims in early 2010, I did, in fact, contact him privately before going public with the information. His replies showed he intended to remain defiantly unrepentant and to continue the charade he had promulgated since 2001.
Next, we are told that Galatians 6:1 exhorts us to restore a person in a spirit of gentleness, not do seminars about the person. Yet, years worth of attempts have been made to bring Dr. Caner to repentance. He has not only spurned all such attempts, he mocks those who have sought to bring him to repentance. With his recent public proclamation of his utter innocence, no choice is left but to “tell the church” and warn people concerning a man who refuses to acknowledge the truth and who refuses Godly counsel. Galatians 6 envisions a person who is actually seekingrestoration, and this is the very thing Caner refuses to do. He demands to be accepted in ministry without any repentance concerning his falsehoods and deceptions, indeed, without even admitting he lied, as the above tweets demonstrate.
Some folks suggest we have only listened to one side. One of the reasons we are doing this seminar is so that both sides can, in fact, be heard. The Caner brothers, and those assisting them, have done all in their power to squelch any discussion of the claims Ergun has made. A concerted effort has been made by Caner’s people to suppress video recordings and audio recordings that document Caner’s many wild claims. We are convinced that Dr. Caner cannot engage in a meaningful defense of his position, which is why he has not even attempted to do so. We are the ones who have, in fact, listened carefully to “both sides” and weighed the evidence.
Some have objected that the title to the seminar is too inflammatory, and that Caner would never seek to damage a Christian witness to Muslims. Yet, the truth is, Dr. Caner’s outrageous behavior has provided many Muslims with a wonderful excuse to reject Christian dialogue and evangelism. “Oh, you were a former Muslim who converted to Christianity? You mean like Ergun Caner?” More than one convert has reported this kind of retort to me. Caner’s many errors regarding Islam (he continues to make them), combined with his clearly fallacious claims to have been born in Turkey, raised in Muslim majority countries, speaking Arabic, debating Imams in mosques, etc., have provided the proverbial “black eye” to all Christians seeking to minister to Muslims, as I do regularly.
