Liberty U. removes dean for “contradictory” statements
Liberty University has removed its dean after an investigation determined that he made “self-contradictory” statements about the facts of his heritage as a former Muslim. However, the school is keeping Ergun Caner as faculty and letting him stay on as dean until his term expires June 30.
Caner, a celebrity in the evangelical world for his dramatic story of Muslim conversion, came under fire from Christian, Muslim and liberal bloggers as they noticed a pattern of contradictory statements concerning his past. AP reports that he changed his biographical information after receiving increasing scrutiny, and asked organizations to remove “damning videos.”
In a June 25 statement, the college said the following:
After a thorough and exhaustive review of Dr. Ergun Caner’s public statements, a committee consisting of four members of Liberty University’s Board of Trustees has concluded that Dr. Caner has made factual statements that are selfcontradictory. However, the committee found no evidence to suggest that Dr. Caner was not a Muslim who converted to Christianity as a teenager, but, instead, found discrepancies related to matters such as dates, names and places of residence. Dr. Caner has cooperated with the board committee and has apologized for the discrepancies and misstatements that led to this review.
To add some more perspective, Christian blogger Justin Taylor asks Liberty University to explicitly answer the question, “Was Dr. Caner raised in Turkey as a Muslim terrorist trained in jihad?” He writes,
All of the evidence … suggests that this cannot be the case. And yet Dr. Caner has claimed that this is true and has not publicly repented of this fabrication. If the answer to this question is “No,” then is there not some degree of culpability on the part of the Liberty University trustees for limiting Caner’s “discrepancies” to “matters such as dates, names and places of residence”?

















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back to top4 Comments to “Liberty U. removes dean for “contradictory” statements”
If he says he was a muslim who found Christ’s salvation and that appears to be true, I won’t get hung up on details.
The true details of his conversion (ie who witnessed to him, where and when) might mean persecution to those who witnessed to him esp if they still live in Turkey.
(I had thought that he got saved while in the USA)
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I did read the link to the Puffington Host and he does come across as a bit of an exaggerater/self-embellisher of the Barney Fife variety.
No Christian should ever resort to half-truths, white lies or whatever under any circumstance. The Body of Christ is thus ill-served if not harmed outright.
Still, the tendency to name names of famous muslims he has debated and then to have those muslims deny ever meeting/knowing him does put him in a bad light.
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I find it hard to believe that the evangelical world will be all up in arms if Liberty University fires this man, as Huffington puts it. It shows their own ignorance, IMO.
How much is true and untrue is hard for me to know. I don’t think he should hold the position is there are things that are deliberately misleading. As far as dates, I know if I were to write about my life, I could sure make errors. I would not be lying, but do we all remember the exact time and place of everything that takes place in our lives?
He should certainly seek to correct any untruths. We cannot assume everyone who denies speaking to him is telling the truth either. I simply do not know. It would make me want to listen less to him or read his writings as long as this is not cleared up.
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Hey, I have a candidate to replace him. How about the fellow who just got asylum. He is supposed converted “Christian” who even admits to “acting like a terrorist”.
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