I have posted (here and other related posts) before about the problems with the evangelist-apologist-dean-provost-now-college-president named Ergun Caner. Before 9/11, he was known as Butch Caner. Since, he has been Ergun Mehemet Caner. And he's made quite a life and name for himself playing himself up as a person who was "trained at a Madrasa" to commit similar acts as the 9/11 hijackers. But he was saved by Jesus and all is well.
The only problem is, none of it is true. He immigrated to the U.S. as a small child, growing up in Ohio, and doesn't even speak fluent Arabic.
It's a sham. Or a scam. Or both.
And now he leads Brewton-Parker College in Georgia, a small Baptist college just on the edge of losing its accreditation with SACS.
I'm enough of an autonomy of Baptist institutions guy to let them hire who they want to. They have every right to hire someone who has intentionally and consistently misrepresented himself before teens, adults, U.S. Marines, and thousands of others. But I also have the compulsion to say that it's a terrible choice.
While he's stirring up the red-meat appetites of the older Baptists in Georgia with comments like, "We don't have a problem [at the college] that a good old-fashioned revival couldn't fix," it remains to be seen how accreditation for basic standards at an institution and revival go together. It preaches well but the practice is...let's say it's not so great.
I bring this up, I guess, to add my voice to the chorus of people who are asking, "What the heck is going on?"
I can't fix it. I know. And God does indeed know there are times when my mouth has gotten me in trouble. But even in a losing battle against apathetic leadership among some Baptist institutions, people ought to stand up and say that it's not right.
It just reflects so poorly on Christian leaders and the Christian church. It's not enough that the world increasingly hates us, that Satan is steadily against us. Now we're shooting ourselves in the foot too with our tolerance of this?
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