Integrity, Church Discipline, & Ergun Caner

Although we may not understand entirely why Dr. Caner may have done what he did, we can say we have been victim of the same thing: fabricating the truth. I grew up going to church camps where Dr. Caner spoke and also heard him speak at an annual conference at my home church. We were always encouraged by his passion for Christ and ability to hold our emotions with his messages from the pulpit. We never would have thought that as he was sharing with us about his Islamic upbringing that any of it would have been invalid. Neither would Liberty University, until recently.

Dr. Mehmet Caner is being investigated by the Lynchburg, Va. under allegations that he has embellished the truth of his past, particularly his Muslim childhood. There are several different articles giving basically the same general information on where the progression of this investigation currently stands, but here are a few to read for yourself:

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i96cPQE
_WX5ctKCpHLWQyXPSnDaQD9FOENTO0

http://turretinfan.blogspot.com/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/walid-zafar/ex-muslim-evangelical-exp_b_582225.html

It is interesting though, the media seemingly lives to feast off embarassing a leader in a conservative circle, especially someone in a religious vocation. They feast off of making sure everyone knows of their downfall or sin while athletes and movie stars seemingly receive a pat on the back or at least positive attention for committing adultery or some other crude incident.

Personally, I hope and pray that these allegations will return showing Caner's innocence, but if not, then there will need to be church discipline. If it is true that Dr. Caner has fabricated his past, this serves as an example that integrity is often at the core of the testimony of the gospel. There are a lot of people who are disturbed and upset with Dr. Caner, both unbelievers and Christians, as well as evangelicals, many of whom are in the Southern Baptist Convention. But may they and we join in prayer for brother Caner and his family as his days of ministering at Liberty may be numbered.