Ergun Caner, Porn, and the Champion 2002

As a former prayer leader at Liberty, my mind often flashes back to a prayer leader meeting with Dwayne Carson.  He told the story of a Convocation speaker that was caught buying pornographic movies at the Wingate Hotel, the night before he was to speak in Convo.  Liberty was paying for his hotel, but the speaker thought that he could wake up early, pay his bill and Liberty would be none the wiser.  Little did he know that the man behind the desk was a Liberty student.  The student called the University and the speaker was turned away when he came to speak.

Dwayne told us this story to let us know that the Campus Pastors took who they put in front of students very seriously.  They wanted to make sure that every preacher who spoke was a man or woman of integrity.

I wonder how Ergun made it through.  I thought, well maybe they did not know he made those claims, but below is a Champion article from February 26, 2002.  I vaguely remember the convocation the article references.

Years ago, he lived in constant fear. Always wondering, if he died that day, would Allah find him at least 51 percent good? Ergun Michael Mehmet Giovanni Caner, the son of a Muslim pastor, now not only lives in peace and joy, but also shares how God's grace changed his life in 1982. Caner shares his testimony and information about the Islamic faith often. After the Sept. 11 attacks he was called in to the UN to address Muslim thinking.

Caner, Professor of Systematic Theology and Church History at Criswell College, briefly shared his testimony and a message at convocation on Monday, Feb. 18. Caner attended Criswell College at the same time that campus pastor Dwayne Carson attended. They remain good friends.

"Until I was 17, I thought my life would be in service of Allah," Caner said. He was born into a Muslim family in Stockholm, Sweden and raised in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. In 1978 his family moved to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he said he learned English for the first time.

In high school, he faithfully pulled out his rug three times a day and went in the bathroom to recite the Islamic creed, he said. Most people made fun of him, but one day a friend invited Caner to attend a revival service at his small Baptist church. He went.

"That little church loved me to the cross and preached Jesus to a kid who didn't know who Jesus was," Caner said. He described the relief he felt in finding out he did not have to work his way to salvation.

Though his father, an Islamic pastor, disowned him when he became Christian, his two brothers, mother and grandmother have now all received Christ.

Caner explained that Muslims believe everyone is born with two angels, one on each shoulder, constantly weighing that person's good and bad deeds.

Life is lived in fear of the scales and a hope that when they die Allah will find them at least 51 percent good. The only eternal security a Muslim can have is in martyrdom.

"Those 19 men thought that by shedding blood, they'd find forgiveness," Caner said of the men involved in the suicide terrorist flights of Sept. 11.

When asked if he believed whether Osama bin Laden was still alive, he said, "Yes, because if a Muslim knows he's dead, he must be proclaimed a martyr." It is one of the protocols of Jihad that if a Muslim dies a martyr, any Muslim who knows is obligated to tell it to others.

Caner's message came from Acts 16, when Paul and Silas were imprisoned. He noted how the men praised God in prison and did not flee when the doors were opened so that the jailer and his family could be saved.

"In Acts, the jail was turning into a church house, but today many churches act like jail houses," Caner said. "The secret is that it's better to be in prison with God than in the palace without him." He said that too often church has become tradition and drudgery.

"It takes a true man of God to praise when nobody else is," Caner said.

After Caner spoke many students went up front to meet with him. He made a point to say hello to each one.

"I like his testimony," freshman Nora Willsher said. "The message was really good and I really liked him."

 So there you have it.  Before Ergun came to work for Liberty, he told the Liberty students that "born into a Muslim family in Stockholm, Sweden and raised in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria. In 1978 his family moved to Brooklyn, N. Y., where he said he learned English for the first time."  Liberty knew what he was about.

PS ~ I do not know what Dwayne's current position is on Ergun's fabrications.  I was just trying to point out that in this instance they swallowed the camel.

PSS ~ Ergun maintains publicly that he did not intentionally mislead the Champion into believing that he was "raised in Turkey, Lebanon and Syria" and moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1978.  He maintains he was trying to say that he moved to the United States in 1969 and gained his citizenship in 1978.  According to Dr. Norman Geisler, it was well known that he gained his citizenship in 1978.