No man has a good enough memory to make a successful liar. -Abraham Lincoln

 

courtesy of Wikipedia

 

 

Thirteen months ago we featured our very first post on Ergun Caner entitled “A Liar for a Seminary President?” You can read our concerns here. 

 

As the Caner debacle clearly demonstates, the internet has forever changed the information highway as we know it. Bloggers are garnering the attention of the media, as shown in our post “Are Caner and Liberty Just Jive Talkin’?”

 

Here’s an excerpt from that article:

“Who knew there would come a day when some internet sleuths called “bloggers” (a relatively obscure bunch) would cause such a ruckus within Christendom? Yesterday, Christianity Today posted an article entitled ‘Bloggers Target Seminary President’ on the Web.”

 

In response, Liberty University formed an investigative committee to examine the serious charges against Caner.   A subsequent CT article stated the following:

"Apparently, Liberty University's trustees consider Caner's misleading statements to be serious enough to undermine his ability to serve as seminary dean. They are removing him from that role while allowing him to remain on the faculty."

 

You can read it here. 

 

On May 17, 2011, Arlington Baptist College (Texas) made this surprising announcement:
 

Here’s how it begins…

 

“FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

ARLINGTON BAPTIST COLLEGE CALLS NEW PROFESSORS, APPROVES NEW PROGRAM IN WORSHIP MINISTRY, AND CALLS ERGUN CANER AS PROVOST AND VICE PRESIDENT OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS.”

 

The press release then provided these details regarding Caner and Arlington Baptist College.

“Upon the recommendation of President D.L. Moody, the Board of Directors voted unanimously to call Dr. Ergun Caner as Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs. Along with his administrative duties, Caner will also teach Theology, Church History and Apologetics.

Founded by Dr. J. Frank Norris in 1939 as the Fundamental Bible Baptist Institute, the Arlington Baptist College is affiliated with the World Baptist Fellowship (WBF). In addition to Dr. Norris, the school has been led by such Baptist luminaries as Drs. Louis Entzminger, Earl K. Oldham, Wayne Martin and David Bryant. Dr. Moody was elected President in 2009.”

 

Caner had the following to say in the press release cited above:

“I am thrilled to be joining the Arlington Baptist College,” Caner said. “This is an historic institution, founded by one of Christianity’s most courageous voices, Dr. J. Frank Norris. The vision of President Moody is profoundly exciting- to train a generation of Christian warriors who are prepared for ministry on every level- intellectually and spiritually.”

 

Arlington Baptist College (ABC) is in west Arlington, Texas, and the 35-acre campus is recognized as a Texas Historic Landmark.

 

Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press provides some background for how ABC came to be founded in his article “Ergun Caner moving to school begun by J. Frank Norris”, which you can read here. (This ABP article was republished by Free Republic). 

 

“Ergun Caner, the former president of Liberty Theological Seminary demoted for exaggerating claims about his Muslim upbringing, has been hired as provost and vice president for academic affairs at Arlington Baptist College, according to a press release on Caner's website. Founded by J. Frank Norris in 1939 as the Fundamental Bible Baptist Institute, the Arlington Baptist College is affiliated with the World Baptist Fellowship.”

 

Allen then gives this background information regarding Caner:

“Caner became a popular speaker after 9/11 on circuits including the Southern Baptist Convention with his testimony of being trained overseas as a jihadist terrorist before his conversion to Christianity. After blogs and news media reported that he grew up in Ohio, Liberty trustees investigated and found “factual statements that are self-contradictory” in recordings of Caner’s speeches, asked him to step down as dean and gave him a teaching contract for one year.”

 

We found the following historical information helpful in understanding the friction between the SBC and WBF.

“Norris, founder of both Arlington Baptist College and the World Baptist Fellowship, was a fundamentalist Baptist leader in Texas in the first half of the 20th century. The one-time editor of the Baptist Standard and longtime pastor of First Baptist Church in Forth Worth was nicknamed the “Texas Tornado” during a long-running feud with the Southern Baptists.

 

Once loyal to the Southern Baptist Convention, Norris became alienated by the Seventy-Five Million Campaign, forerunner to today’s Cooperative Program of unified budget support of both state and national Baptist conventions. He spent the rest of his days seeking to undermine the SBC, accusing Baptist schools of teaching evolution and tolerating “modernist” theories of Bible study.

After his exclusion from his local association, state convention and the Southern Baptist Convention, Norris founded his own independent fundamentalist group, originally called the Premillennial Baptist Missionary Fellowship but renamed the World Baptist Fellowship after a split over his authoritarian leadership.”

 

Given this background information about ABC, we found this following comment by Dr. James Galyon intriguing, as he responded to an SBC Today post on Caner’s new position: 

“I wonder if Ergun will try to move ABC toward the SBC? Nothing like adding more Independent Fundamentalist Baptists to the denomination, as happened with Thomas Road and Liberty.”

 

As Caner embarks upon his new positions at ABC, we wonder whether he will repeat the taser stunt for the students there. We’re still trying to figure out why both probes from the taser gun didn’t make contact with his back, as clearly seen in this video.

 

 

 

 

Lydia's Corner: 1 Samuel 1:1-2:21 John 5:1-23 Psalm 105:37-45 Proverbs 14:28-29