Can't you hear that whistle blowing? This is normal for many people that I've known and Ergun is no exception. Say "Pharisees" are those that criticize other Christians and then criticize other Christians for being Pharisees. Here we have don't accuse the brethren and then he accuses some of the brethren.
Oddly enough two lines come to mind.
"You know, that's a typical lawyer's trick - accusing the accuser." - EK Hornbeck - Inherit the Wind - 1960 played by Gene Kelly
"I will step outside the church if that's what needs to be done, 'til the door should shut behind me! I will do what needs to be done, though I'm damned to Hell! You should understand that, or you will mistake me." - Those lines from Sister Aloysius Beauvier played by Meryl Streep in the movie "Doubt" ring in my ears from time to time.
If Ergun would abide by his own rules, it would be one thing. However, he seems to expect everyone else to operate with kid gloves while he denounces them from twitter and the pulpit.
How can Ergun say things like this and not be working for Satan?
Easy, he doesn't consider them brethren.
Assess if the argument is even worth having on a 140 character format like twitter. If you have to look up the spelling of Androgen, look for another format.
Assess the possibility of winning. If neither of you will change your minds, it is probably more trollish to start something on twitter.
See if the twitter account is satirical or anonymous. It is generally best to avoid those.
Know if the person is likely to respond. If not, venting can be fun.
Avoid multiple replies. Try to get everything into one reply to one reply ratio. When you start sending more than one reply, the other person is likely to reply to both and then you have two threads. The more threads you have going on at the same time, the more convoluted the argument can become to both of you.
Reply to as few threads as possible. Do your best to keep the communication clear and concise. Not replying to a thread will end that thread and allow you to focus on the important ones.
If these fights get repetitive, think about writing a quick concise 140 or less reply to FAQs. This way you will already be prepared.
Correction 20:51 5-20-13: I know most of the views to this post have been to see me write "righting" instead of "writing". :)
Sometimes Ergun's lies surprise even me. In this video, we see him call his imam, "my father." We see him continue to misidentify everyone in the picture, but himself. He even names two family members he doesn't even have. Then he says that this picture that was taken in Turkey rather than Ohio. All of these factual statements that were self contradictory, Ergun maintains were unintentional misstatements that happen to every preacher. If all preachers are preaching this kind of nonsense, it does not give me much confidence in my own minister.
Complete Transcript
This was my father, the one I spoke of yesterday, Acar Mehmet Caner. I am the second from him, that is one of my half sisters, one of my half brothers, and one other of my father’s children. I am the knock kneed child sitting there with my father. This was in Turkey. This was in Istanbul.
1979, Ergun Caner with his imam and other children
Ergun now claims that almost all of that was an unintentional misstatement, just like most preachers make. Man that inspires a lot of confidence in my minister. Welcome to another video on Mother Smuggling.
Around 2004, someone uploaded this picture to Ergun’s website with the caption, “Dr. Caner in the Mosque with his father”. Now, if my memory serves
Ergun couldn’t upload pictures to his own website in 2005 when he came to the Seminary. Since this caption probably wasn’t written by Ergun himself, one might think that it was a clerical error. However this brings us to his statement in 2006.
Muslims live in enclaves. We travel together, because this is necessary for us. It is necessary for us, because we live differently, dress differently, look differently. I was the oldest. My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America. We call it the Abraham lie. They say, “This is my wife, and this is my sister.”
Erguncaner.com in 2004
This man is not Ergun’s father. This is Ergun’s father. Acar did not have grey hair when Ergun was this young. The man in this picture is Ergun’s imam as seen posing in this picture with Ergun’s father.
OK, you might be asking yourself, if I am being too picky. Perhaps all of this was a collection of misstatements. Well, let us continue.
I am the second from him, that is one of my half sisters,
Acar with his three sons
This young lady who is taller than Ergun is not his half-sister. Ergun is thirteen years older than his oldest half-sister. When this picture was most likely taken she was still in diapers. Besides, even though his half-sisters were born in 1979 and 1980, years before his disownment in 1982, Unveiling Islam states that Ergun Caner never met his half-sisters till 1999 at his father’s death.
OK, now you might be saying, OK, he mislabeled the imam on the website and in this sermon and he misidentified a girl as his half-sister, but could all this be unintentional misstatements? Well, again, let us continue.
one of my half brothers
Ergun and his two brothers
This young man is not Ergun’s half-brother. Ergun has no half-brothers. Don’t believe me? Norman Geisler said the following in his defense of Ergun.
7. Ergun claimed his father had many wives and two half-brothers and two half-sisters, but there is no evidence for the half-brothers.
Response: Ergun’s father did have two wives, having divorced the first one. He had three sons by his first wife (Ergun and his two brothers). So, Ergun has two full brothers and two step-sisters (from his father’s second wife). While speaking quickly on one occasion, he mistakenly called his brothers his “half” brothers. This is hardly evidence of an attempt to embellish or deceive. After all, he had the right number of each sibling, and he didn’t claim to have ten brothers or sisters!
This gentleman is neither Erdem or Emir as you can see from this picture. Hopefully by now the errors are beginning to add up to you and you can see that these were not accidental. Well, let us move on to one more.
and one other of my father’s children
Acar only had five children and according to Ergun these are four of them. Seriously, just like the previous child this is not one of Ergun’s half-brothers or brothers. His half-brothers do not exist and neither of his brothers had dark curly hair.
Well, moving on.
I am the knock kneed child sitting there with my father. This was in Turkey. This was in Istanbul.
According to Ergun’s parents’ separation agreement, Ergun was forbidden to leave the country as of April 1978. He couldn’t even be taken out of Ohio without notifying the Franklin County Court. This is important. Let me tell you why.
Ergun no longer claims that man was his father. This was simply an unintentional misstatement. He no longer claims that his father was polygamous. This was simply an unintentional misstatement. Ergun no longer claims that young woman was his half-sister. This was simply an unintentional misstatement. Ergun no longer claims that this young man was his half-brother. This was simply an unintentional misstatement. Ergun no longer claims that this other young man was one of his father’s other children. This was simply an unintentional misstatement.
Ergun also no longer claims that this picture was taken in Istanbul or anywhere else in Turkey for that matter. In 2008, Ergun posted this picture to his facebook account. In 2004, the caption on his website read, “Dr. Caner in the Mosque with his father”. Yet, in 2008 the facebook caption read, “1979 - In the Mosque. An Imam is like a pastor - I am the second kid from the left.”
If this picture was taken in 1979, after Ergun was forbidden to leave the country, this could not be
in Turkey. This was in Istanbul
It is important to point out that this is what Ergun often means by the word, misstatement. It is often not one detail in a sentence that he has presented incorrectly. Many times it is a several sentences in a row with no basis in reality.
How does Ergun explain all these errors about a simple childhood picture? Well, Ergun speaks hundreds of times a year. Errors creep in. Many times, he called this man his father. Many times, he called this girl his half-sister. Many times he called these boys his half-brothers. Many times he said this picture was taken in Istanbul. Given sufficient retellings eventually all of these errors were eventually made at the same time coincidentally the day after he called his father a “polygamous Muslim” who smuggled his wives across the border calling them his sisters.
Or maybe he just lied.
Thank you for watching.
Thank you to the original research done by Dr. James White who made this video possible.
I am working on the fifth video in my series on Ergun's claims that his father was a "polygamous Muslim". There are still more videos to come after that one.
When Ergun's lies were originally coming out, a defender of Ergun was like sure he said that his father had "other wives", had "many wives", that his mother "found out late in her marriage that my father was married to more than one woman", had "more than one wife at a time", had three wives at the same time, smuggled his extra wives across the border calling them his sisters, but did Ergun ever use the word "polygamous"? Well here we have him saying that his father was a "polygamous Muslim". If all of these were just misstatements, what are the odds that I can produce more examples?
Transcript
OK, let me explain. No there is too much. Let me sum up. In Sweden, Acar Caner married Ergun’s mother. Ergun was born first in 1966. Erdem was born second in 1968. Then they picked up the family and moved to Ohio where Emir was born in 1970.
The marriage was troubled so Acar moved out around 1975. The divorce was finalized around 1978. Shortly thereafter, Acar remarried. He had two daughters from this second marriage.
No one disputes this. However, I have provided several examples of Ergun publicly misleading people to the contrary.
Example number one, in 2003, at a Chicago church, Ergun said the following.
My mother found out late in her marriage that my father was married to more than one woman. I don’t want anyone else to deal with this.
Example Number two, in 2005, Ergun said the following while lecturing Marines at Marine Corp Air Station New River
My father had more than one wife at a time. As you know the Quran says in Surah four that you are allowed up to four wives. My father had three.
Example Number three, in the same lecture, Ergun doubled down.
We got stopped at the border, because my father had listed my mother as property. It’s true. And the guy said, “Your wife’s not property.” And he said, “of course she is.” Then he brought his “sisters” which is his other wives that’s how we bring in our other wives to America. We call them our “sisters”.
Example Number four, a couple of months later, Ergun went back to the church in Chicago and said the following.
I came over during the Iranian crisis. Ayatollah Khomeini had taken control. The Shaw of Iran had been kicked out. And Ayatollah Khomeini said this, “We will not stop until America is an Islamic nation.” So in 1978, my father, my mother, my two brothers, my father’s other wives, and my half-brothers and sisters came to this country. How is it that Muslims can come to this country with other wives? Well it is called the Abraham lie. “This is my sister.” It explains our last names being the same. And so he would say, “This is my sisters.”
Remember coming to America in 1978, his father being married to many wives at the same time, his father smuggling these wives across the border as sisters, having half brothers…all of this Ergun maintains that he never meant to say. Supposedly he never meant for people to believe any of those things.
Well here we come to example number five, September 2006 at an apologetics conference in California. Warning, this clip will be longer for greater context and irony.
It isn’t just, it is a rare person who gets led to Christ by reading a book, by reading a testimony. Those things are great supplements, but almost inevitably it needs the human touch, a Christian, a sold out, a born again, a blood bought, Jesus loving, devil shoving, Christian, who is willing to, with boldness and with heart, rise up and tell them, “I know your answer.” “I know the one for whom you’re seeking.
Paul lives this out in front of us. He begins with what I call authentic Christianity. And you can see it beginning there in verse two, when it says he speaks to them in the Hebrew dialect and they all got quiet.
And he doesn’t begin by going, “I am better than all of thee.” No, Paul begins by saying, “Yall know me.” “Yall know me.” That’s authentic Christianity. That’s transparent Christianity. It doesn’t point to us. It points to Him. He even in the middle of it goes, “Those men there, the council and the elders, the Sanhedrin, the leadership, they know that I used to be the hunter”. “I was Dog the Bounty Hunter and now I stand with those I used to hunt.” “I was holding their coats when they were stoning Stephen.”
With transparency, with painful authenticity, the apostle Paul says, “Yall know me.” “It is not about me.” “It is about the one I met.” One of the things that holds us back from revolutionizing the world sometimes is us. We get all caught up in who we are and fight over things we shouldn’t fight over and we argue over things that are not necessarily the important points of the gospel. We argue about what we should wear in church whether the choir ought to have robes and neglecting the fact that there are people outside doors of that church on the way to a devil’s hell and they don’t care what color the robes are.
I hated you. That may be harsh, but as Dr. Hayes told you, my madrasa – my training center – was in Beirut before I came to America. We came as missionaries to you. My father was a muezzin, the one who does the prayer in the mosque. Five times a day he would climb to the top of a minaret and begin, [different language] and he would do the call to prayer. He was also an architect so we built mosques. And so we came to America – it was ’78. Ayatollah Khomeini had said, we will not stop until America is an Islamic nation and we came and we continue to come.
Anything I knew about Christianity, I learned through misconception and caricature. I knew nothing about you, had never been in a church, had never been outside of the mosque. Anything I knew about you, I learned through either television, hyperbole, gossip, but I did know this. I hated you and I thought you hated me.
Muslims live in enclaves. We travel together, because this is necessary for us. It is necessary for us, because we live differently, dress differently, look differently. I was the oldest. My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America. We call it the Abraham lie. They say, “This is my wife, and this is my sister.”
And everybody goes aren’t they so family oriented. Yeah. And we moved from Brooklyn, New York near the Verrazano Bridge to Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio and it was there where my father built the mosque working with the other Muslims.
Now it is different than the way we do it here in America. It is different than the way the church does it. Yall know how we do it in the church when we are going to build something? We get together and we get a slogan. Somebody gets a slogan and we gather the people together and we show them a blueprint. Then somebody draws a thermometer.
Did you hear that?
Muslims live in enclaves. We travel together, because this is necessary for us. It is necessary for us, because we live differently, dress differently, look differently. I was the oldest. My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America. We call it the Abraham lie. They say, “This is my wife, and this is my sister.”
And everybody goes aren’t they so family oriented. Yeah. And we moved from Brooklyn, New York near the Verrazano Bridge to Toledo, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio and it was there where my father built the mosque…
No one disagrees with what he said,
I was the oldest. My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America. We call it the Abraham lie. They say, “This is my wife, and this is my sister.”
The contention is with what he meant.
Ergun wants you to believe that when he referred to his father as a “polygamous Muslim”,
My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America.
he had no intention that you would believe that his father was a “polygamous Muslim”.
My father brought his wives with him. Yes, polygamous Muslims do come to America.
Remember Ergun concedes that his father was not polygamous, he and his defenders simply argue that he never intentionally said anything to the contrary. Stay tuned to Moses Model to hear more examples of Ergun saying things to the contrary. Remember shares, likes, and subscriptions really help get the word out. Also, any critiques and recommendations are welcome.
Sources
Some of these links may be broken. If so email me for unedited sources.
"20 Things You Must Know to Witness to a Muslim" - Ashburn Baptist Church - Chicago, Il - March 2, 2003 Link
"Dr. Ergun Caner and the Teen Choir and Orchestra from the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida - A" - Ashburn Baptist Church - Chicago, Il - June 3, 2005 Link
