MK,
Why would he need to apologize to Islam? For converting? Before he apologizes to Islam he should apologize to maybe Sweden, for disowning her and claiming Turkey?

This story must be fake. Everyone knows the media cannot track down a person's birth certificate records.

James White surely doesn't seem very gracious. Apparently he thinks nothing short of a completely ungracious response on the part of Liberty will suffice. Perhaps that sort of sanctimony and judgmentalism on the part of White is a big reason for the perception of so many evangelical conservatives that they're an unloving lot.

James White has been unnecessarily mean spirited through this whole event. I am not certain what his brother in Christ, Dr. Caner, did to upset him so but there is a more biblical solution than airing your grievances via video from you basement.

That said, Dr. Caner needs to be released from all seminary and university related duties. He openly lied and misled people in their churches and meetings about his background, abilities, and testimony. All for a cheap buck or to validate an unnecessary point. As an alumnus of Liberty I am sickened by this, though not awfully surprised since the school has a habit of extolling entertaining speakers over substantive speakers.

I can only imagine that Dr. Falwell wouldn't have let this man keep his post. He lied and misled. We (Christians) are better than that.

Very few comments have been made regarding Ergun Caner's virulent anti-Calvinism at Liberty University. He certainly has a right to his opinion regarding Calvinism. However he had no right to try to force that view on the seminary and its students. The LU seminary had and has no official policy against Calvinism. That being the case, the seminary leadership (and the whole leadership at LU) should try to remain as "neutal" as possible regarding Calvinism. I served for 22 yars at LU, as head of the Government program and a professor, and at times the opposition to Calvinism was pretty open and hard. On the other hand there are a lot of Calvinist professors and students. Generally though if a professor was open about Calvinism, he/she was castigated in some way, while those who opposed Calvinism openly had a free hand. That is not as it should be in a Christian institution where Christian charity should rule on matters of non-orthodoxy (that is doctrinal disagreements that do not challenge historic Christian "essentials").

I am a full time employee at LU and I can assure you that there are many at LU who are very very glad that Caner is no longer the seminary president. He is a pathological liar who created a fake past to sell books and get attention. LU's reputation is damaged because of him and I wish more people at LU would stand up for the truth and demand that we do not have to be followers to a blatant liar as Ergun Caner.

Anyone who has heard Caner talking about Calvinists, and heard about the attempted debate between Caner and White that collapsed would have no problem understanding exactly why White has been less than charitable toward Caner. There is no love lost between those two men; it may not be the Christian reaction to what happened, but it certainly is a human reaction.

If I were an apologist who debated Muslim apologists, and I hear that Ergun Caner of Liberty University is also debating many of the same Muslim apologists, I would be very interested in hearing those debates. But they are not available. Where are Ergun Caner's debates?

Apparently, James White, who debates Muslim apologists (and many other apologists), and makes these debates available on his website, could not find the debates and even verified a series of false statements by Ergun Caner regarding debates with Muslim apologists. And that is not all that is documented.

False statements about his past.

A claim to use Islamic uterances that no one seems to understand. Is he speaking in tongues?

A record of debating that is almost certainly falsified and padded.

I think we have been fooled by Ergun Caner long enough. (John Ankerberg, are you listening? And brother Emir Caner, why so complicit?) I don't think Ergun can be transparent because it will expose that he's told a multitude of lies.

Thank-you James White for unfolding the truth. If Ergun Caner is a false teacher, let's expose him as one. The Apostle Paul would do no less. And Liberty Univ -- please do YOUR homework better in the future!

Kevin,

As a full time student at Liberty I completely agree and know of several others who do as well. There are several of us students who have already dropped Caner's Theo 201 class for this coming Fall, because we do not want to be taught by a liar. Someone that we can't trust to be truthful. He has lied right to our faces just recently in a Campus Church and it is WRONG and hurtful. He better have something dang good to say to us in the Fall when we get back or I will NEVER take him seriously again. Period.

I have listened to James White ..Alpha and Omega programs for a few years and I can say that He is right on about just about everything and he is in no way confused..I agree that most of the Students of LU will come out from among them and be seperate.This muslim thing is so obvious to me that just a hint of leaven really leavens the whole school...

AM,

Curious as to what you think Caner lied about recently in Campus Church? Glad to hear students are dropping his classes though I admit I'd be personally interested in taking one just to see if he lies!

Pathological liars don't stop lying, and Ergun seems to fit the bill.

As an alumni (95) of LU and one year at the seminary I am embarrassed that the school does not take truth seriously. It is sad to see how LU has circled the wagons to protect their image. Unfortunately they have destroyed their image. I would never send my kid to Liberty after this.

How could any professor with a clear conscience want to stay and teach at such a corrupt institution? And why would any student want to stay there?

James White's blog contains a statement today bragging that "yours truly" was quoted by CT in this article, referring to himself. This was his goal all along---to receive some notoriety at the expense of someone who was actually notable. Kudos to Liberty University for showing some forgiveness, grace and mercy while still disciplining wrongdoing.

CT's disgraceful reporting added fuel to this misrepresentation of the facts. Note, Caner did not defend himself. Ask why. Liberty would not let him.
On the NAME issue: For the record, Mehet is Caner's father's name and he took it as his middle name after his father died. He also used to go by the nickname "Butch" when he was younger. A lot of people have nicknames.
About being a "radical Islamist": Remember there are a lot of people, including Caner, who believe all of Islamic teachings, in their true forms are radical. So that means the potential for any person raised as a muslim could be radical is obvious.
LOCATIONS: Caner's books are clear about this biography. In speaking there may have been some discrepancies about EXACT timing, but how many of us remember exact years, dates, etc., as we get older. Ridiculous.
A personality like Caner attracts enemies. Too bad he's taken the fall for someone with hatred and bitterness. Not a godly situation. At all. And as for apologies. He did apologize for any embellishments, a long while ago. Note that no serious journalists took up this "investigation;" but only a CT reporter quoted bloggers and others with known agendas who distort facts.

Bedford,

He had mentioned things about being born and raised in Turkey. Which was a lie. Then told a story about his grandmother (which I do not know if it is true or not) but I dont believe it anymore. I question a lot of the things he has said and will question things he says.

Lance,

To be honest I understand your anger at the University and the fact that they are trying to hide this so much and that Caner is still on staff. I agree it is embarrassing and annoying that as a student I would be given 18 reps and I believe a $50 fine just for a white lie to an R.A. Let alone lying to the entire student body/ world. However, that does not change the fact that Liberty is still a one of a kind University. Caner did not make the University what it is today. It is the students and majority of the faculty that have made it the only one of it's kind. The people that have the largest influence on the students at Liberty are the ones that have no say whatsoever in this situation. It is awful that the school is doing what they are doing and it HAS destroyed their image. But the students and teaching staff are still as great as ever. That is why I have chosen to stay as a full time on campus student at LU. I am anxious however, to see what Caner has to say for himself to the student body. For that reason and that reason only I am glad he is still on staff....

There is a sense of sadness at the spectacle that has taken place, as Liberty circles the wagons around a modern day Elmer Gantry, an embarrassing fraud to all who highly value truth and the defense of the faith. On one hand, one can feel like David, when he heard of Saul’s demise and declared, “Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.” He did not wish the enemies of God to gloat over the fall of God’s anointed leader of his people.

However, Ergun Caner, is certainly not, nor to those who know the truth, has he ever been, the anointed leader of God’s people.
One day during his ministry on earth, Jesus corrected the wrong belief of those who interpreted Pilate’s mixing of blood with sacrifices and the tragedy of the Tower of Siloam as signs of God’s judgment on those who were killed (Luke 13:1-4). As John MacArthur so helpfully pointed out in the days following 9/11, Jesus pointed out the wrongheaded thinking of those people. Those tragedies were not to show a judgment for the sins of those people, but it was a picture of the thin vapor or life, that all perish and the only way to avoid perishing like those people was to repent.

Jerry Falwell, a great man in many ways ( I mean it most sincerely as one who has not accomplished 1/1000th of what he has) , was on the airwaves after the U.S. had its own Tower of Siloam on September 11, suggesting it was God’s judgment for all the sins in America. What he probably should have done was searched his own heart (perhaps he did?) for areas of pride, areas where he needed to repent. It’s tragic that shortly thereafter, a fraud emerged right under his nose, one who took advantage of the deaths of those 3,000 and perpetuated one of the worst frauds in Christian history. Do you think this is an exaggeration? Do we serve Mammon or God?

Let’s put it this way, if Liberty were instead Harvard Business School , which proclaims itself as the top business school in the world, and Ergun Caner’s name was Bernie Madoff, do you think that things would have been handled a bit differently? And yet, here is a fraud who was given responsibility for teacher and leading a faculty in its most important area: Theology, the area that God fearing intellects of past centuries viewed as the chief science, the subject to which all the other sciences merely served as handmaidens .
The people of God for years have been trying to point out the hubris and hucksterism of this guy. How sad for the faith that because Liberty did not listen to brothers (such as James White) years ago, it took a member of another faith (there’s your “publish it not in Ashkelon” application!) to expose the ironclad case against this guy.

This whole incident is very sad.

I pray it can be worked out in a way that does not bring shame and scorn to God's people.

I wonder what would have happened to E Michael Caner's career if bin-Laden had changed his mind about attacking the Twin Towers?
Would Caner have become Dean of a LU faculty?
Would he ever have made up pseudo-Arabic expressions and a utterly fake Jihadist history?
Would Falwell now being suggesting an LU-Mormon alliance to distract attention away from Caner?

If he would, I'd be interested to know "the whole truth"'s response to the following:
1) Didn't LU itself appoint this investigative committee because they started to get questions from serious questions from serious, secular news outlets? That is the distinct memory I have.

2) If Dr. Caner claimed to be a Muslim terrorist from and trained in Turkey, does he not need to come clean on this? All the court documents from his parents' divorce indicate another start in life for Dr. Caner than the one he has presented from many pulpits.

3) If Dr. Caner's books are clear as to his biography, why did LU pull from its website Caner's original bio and make necessary corrections? This, of itself, is an admission of guilt to some degree about not shooting straight about his past.

LU can do much better than having Ergun Caner on its faculty. I feel very badly for the profs there who have had their reputations soiled by having to work for him. I enjoyed learning from many of them in my days there (1979-1986).

Turkey is not an arabic country.Their language is not arabic but Turkish. Why does Caner not seem to know this?

So how far should 'Christian charity" go?
Rev. Austin Miles

As one who has followed the Caner brothers' tirades against Calvinism in Baptist circles, I have to admit that I was not surprised at all to see this story break into the secular press. It is a shame that sinful behavior is so frequently covered up in fundamentalist Baptist circles under the guise of "protecting Christ's work." The fruits of Christ's work are evident and need no cover-up.

I am a full time online student at the Seminary and it pains me to see this happen. However, it pains me even more to see the overall lack of love and a spirit if restoration among the brothers and sisters. We do not know everything about the situation, nor will we. the best course of action is to with hold judgment until more is clear. And if more is not clarified, as believers, we need to forgive and stand behind one of our own.

I am in complete agreement with Shane...What was Jesus' main message to us as his followers??? Where is the love and compassion for our fellow man? Rather than trying to further tear down Dr. Caner or our beloved school, ask yourselves, "What would Jesus do!?"

I find it amazing that sinners would tear down a fellow Christian because of his sin. If he lied (I/We don't know all the facts) it was wrong. Anyone else in here ever lied? I'm gonna say everyone reading and typing in here is a liar. It is a bit pharisaical don't you think? Being a Calvinist (Not hyper), I don't agree with everything he says. However, he is my brother in Christ. Christ never called us to tear down and destroy our brothers and sisters in Christ, but to be about the ministry of restoration. Why don't we just pray for him... just sayin'.

This is a hard thing to see and hear given the good this man has done. The public will never know the total truth but if it has been found that this leader has not told the truth then he should repent and everyone should move on and sin no more. If there is sin it should be taken care of by the University leaders and they should determine how serious the issues. Of course there are sins that would keep him from being the President of the University. If he lied to hurt others or gain something over another person but sin is sin and we all need forgiveness. The real issue is that we cannot give a pass on sin. Just look at the lying coming out of Washington. As Christians we have to be different or we will need to move to Washington. I hope this man is redeemed.

Con men have used the Christian's tendency live out a ministry of restoration for years. We are Christian and we should forgive, but we should also be made accountable for our sinful actions.

@Shane and Mark,

You should probably reconsider what you think Jesus would do. Jesus was always ready to deliver and forgive those who were broken, poor in spirit. Yet, how did Jesus react to those who are puffed up, proud, profiting in lies? It is not our job as Christians to stand behind other Christians who are in error/sin, but rather to hold fast to Christ. It is asked, "Why are we rejoicing in Caner's fall?", but I would ask, "Why aren't we rejoicing that God is calling a brother back to the fold?" We are to hold fast to Christ, divide rightly between good and evil and discern the will of God, and trust all things to God who judges justly. I don't pretend to know Dr. Caner's heart, but I trust that God does and I hope that Caner is chastised, proving he is not an illegitimate child.

Personally, I am tired of the use of the phrase "misstatement," did Dr. Caner Lie or not? If the alligations are as serious as stated, even by liberty, then Dr. Caner should be terminated immediately. For the sake of Christianity and the university I believe that this is the only acceptable course of action. (Liberty Student online).