Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia—the world’s largest Christian university–announced recently that they have formed a committee to investigate the background of their seminary president Ergun Caner, the Washington Post reported.

Liberty University is investigating its seminary president, Ergun Caner over allegations that he's not the ex-Muslim he passed himself off to be.

The investigating committee will be headed by Liberty university administrator Ron Godwin.

Findings will be released by June 30.  Ergun Caner distinguished himself as a Muslim expert and is a popular speaker in the university lecture circuit.

Since he became president, he has tripled enrolment in the school that was owned by the late Jerry Falwell, Sr., according to Christianity Today (CT).

The CT said that among the claims that Caner made which have been brought to question are:

• That he grew up in Turkey (when he actually grew up in Ohio).
• That he was raised in a devout Sunni Muslim home (rather than a nominal one).
• That he had been involved in Islamic jihad.
• That he has debated dozens of Muslims about the Islamic faith.  (There is no video or audio evidence).

Caner’s reputation came to task when Mohammed Khan, a 22 year old London based Muslim, posted 17 of Caner’s speeches on YouTube.  Khan interjected portions of the speeches with his own commentary.  Among others, Khan said that several times when Caner claimed to be reciting the Shehada, (part of the Islamic creed), he was actually quoting a prayer from the Qur’an, which Khan said is very different.  Khan disputed Caner’s claim to be an Islamic expert.

This set off a rash of bloggers who commented on the issue.  Christianity Today quoted several bloggers including the following:
Debbie Kaufman, an Enid, Oklahoma Southern Baptist laywoman, who said, “This matters because we are to win people to Christ.”
Gene Clyatt, a Southern Baptist pastor in Superior, Montana, questioned Caner’s claim that he was trained as a jihadist until the age of 15.  In Ergun’s book, Unveiling Islam which he co-wrote with his brother Emir, he said that his parents married in Sweden and the family moved to Ohio when he was a young boy.

In the book the brothers said they recited daily prayers, visited the mosque weekly, and read the Qur’an and Hadith regularly.  They said they were raised to be devout, serious Muslims.

James R. White, director of the Phoenix-based Alpha & Omega Ministries, said “The president of a large theological seminary has created a myth concerning his background that is incredibly self-contradictory.”  White teaches Islam at golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary.

Sympathy

Some bloggers however expressed sympathy for Caner.

Hussein Wario, also a former Sunni Muslim who converted to Christianity, noted that while Caner had co-authored 17 books, it is only now that he is being criticized because of Khan’s videos.

Wario also said in his blog, Cracks in the Crescent, “I am a Reformed Christian and I am utterly ashamed of Dr. White. In my opinion, he is a disgrace to the Reformed faith—sola scriptura—because of his meddling in this matter and his disregard of the scripture. He is tacitly helping Muslims with their war against Muslim converts to Christianity.”

Roy J. Oksnevad, director of Muslim Ministries at Wheaton College said that the American church tends to pressure ex-Muslims to talk very negatively about their former faith.

Repent

Tom Chantry, on the Christ Reformed Baptist Church blog, suggested repentance on the part of Caner and Liberty University.  Chantry said in his blog that while it is difficult to make restitution in cases of deceit, it can be done, and that Caner can apologize and seek forgiveness.

However Liberty University must do the same, Chantry said, noting that the institution had benefitted from the celebrity culture of Evangelical Christianity and if they had instead put their focus on the Word of God, this may have been prevented.

Renee Griffith was forbidden to speak as a 2008 high school valedictorian because she was going to mention God and Jesus.

Griffith was asked, along with other students at Butte High School in Montana, to speak about what had gotten her through high school.

Renee Griffith was forbidden to speak as a 2008 high school valedictorian because she was going to mention God and Jesus. This year, a judge ruled that the school had not volated her freedom of speech.

The students were required to turn in their speeches for approval prior to graduation.

School officials asked Griffith to replace the words “Christ,” “His joy,” and “from God with a passionate love for him” with just words like “my faith” and “a love of mankind.”

She refused to make the changes, and was not allowed to give her speech.

According to One News Now,  Griffith’s attorney, William O’Connor, explained:

“Some people wanted to thank the football coach or the track coach or their uncle or a particular teacher, and they were permitted to do that.

“The only thing [the school] would not permit, by their own admission, was…her to attribute any achievements to her belief in God.”

When it first occurred, Griffith filed a complaint with Montana’s Human Rights Bureau. Her complaint was dismissed.

In April 2009, she filed a complaint in the Montana Thirteenth Judicial District Court (Renee Griffith v. Butte School District No. 1).

However, at the end of February 2010, a judge ruled that her free speech rights had not been violated.

The Billings Gazette in Montana reported Judge Gregory Todd’s written statement:

The Court did not feel the district’s actions were unlawfully discriminatory toward Griffith’s personal religious beliefs…the School District’s policy is to prohibit any religious references during graduation speeches in order to maintain “neutrality toward religion,” as required by the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

But according to the U. S. Department of Education’s release, “Religious Expression in Public Schools,” there is no such requirement. A student may deliver a faith-based speech when speaking on their own without encouragement or sponsorship of faculty.

Here is the “official neutrality” statement within this document (emphasis added):

“Teachers and school administrators, when acting in those capacities, are representatives of the state and are prohibited by the establishment clause from soliciting or encouraging religious activity, and from participating in such activity with students. Teachers and administrators also are prohibited from discouraging activity because of its religious content, and from soliciting or encouraging anti-religious activity.”

The next bullet in the document, “Student Assignments,” states:
“Students may express their beliefs about religion in the form of homework, artwork, and other written and oral assignments free of discrimination based on the religious content of their submissions.”

Griffith’s lawsuit names six violations of her state and federal constitutional rights.

The District Court’s opinion will be appealed to the Montana State Supreme Court.

Educate your local School Board, superintendent of education, principals and teachers with this document on Religious Expression in Public Schools, which has been circulated to schools several times since President Clinton was in office.

See the Underground’s previous reports on school freedom of religious speech issues:

As schools abandon Christmas…

No crosses allowed at Penn State U

Cheerleaders’ religious speech stifled

The Montana Supreme Court has decided that nothing in the state’s laws would prevent a resident from seeking physician-assisted suicide.

In 2008, a lower court judge ruled that Montana’s constitutional right to privacy law guarantees the right for terminally ill patients to ask their doctors for death drugs.

A “Montana Death with Dignity Act” has been proposed.

Although the Montana Supreme Court declared that there is no such guarantee in the Constitution (case of Baxter v Montana, Dec. 2009); the Court also stated that public debate should continue, and the final move toward physician assisted suicide would be made through the democratic voting process.

Montana would be the third state in the union to legalize physician-assisted suicide, behind Oregon and Washington.

Oregon’s “Death with Dignity Act” was affirmed by voters in 1994, and in 1997 it became legal for doctors to assist terminally ill patients toward death by giving lethal doses of prescription drugs.

Washington legalized essentially the same law in 2008.

Oregon’s original law was fashioned after that of the Netherlands; however, the Netherlands has seen a blurring of the difference between physician-assisted suicide and physician-decided euthanasia.

Here is a brief timeline:

1981: Holland’s Rotterdam Court puts out specific guidelines for legal physician assisted suicide. The patient (1) must be experiencing unbearable pain, and (2) the patient must be conscious and able to give voluntary consent. The “pain” part is universally accepted as meaning physical pain.

1986: It is ruled that “psychic suffering” or “potential disfigurement of personality” could also be a legal reason.

1992: The Dutch Pediatric Association issues formal guidelines for killing severely handicapped newborns. It is decided that doctors would judge if a baby’s “quality of life” was such that the baby should be killed.

1993: The Dutch Justice Ministry proposes extending court-approved euthanasia guidelines to formally include “active medical intervention to cut short life without an express request” from the patient; and that same year affirms euthanasia for psychiatric reasons.

According to Concerned Women for America, a 1996 USA Today poll found that seventy-five percent of Americans felt assisted suicide is acceptable.

However, in a March 2000 Zogby poll,  when posed directly with the question, “If you yourself were terminally ill…” only one-third of over 1,000 people said they would choose euthanasia for themselves.

The most famous recent U.S. case of physician-assisted suicide is the 2005 death of Terri Schiavo in Florida.

Mrs. Schiavo was unable to decide for herself whether she wanted to live or die.Her parents and several physicians maintained she was hearing and responding.

Courts ruled with her husband and other doctors who said she was in a “persistent vegetative state” (PVS).

The debate rages to this day as to whether she was actually in PVS or could have been rehabilitated while in the earlier years of her illness.

Schiavo was not removed from life support; her body was not on life support. She was breathing on her own.

She was only on feeding apparatus. Once that apparatus was removed, it took Schiavo fourteen days of starvation to die.

According to OneNewsNow, Montana’s pro-life organizations are lobbying against a Montana Death with Dignity Act.

The President of the Montana Pro-Life Coalition, Dr. Annie Bukacek, told OneNewsNow that physician-assisted suicide violates Montana homicide laws, violates ethical policies of the Montana Medical Association and the AMA, and also violates the Hippocratic Oath.

Check out the interview here: http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2009/05/tracing-the-daystracing-the-days/

James Wait, the Underground staff writer interviews Lonnie Boss, the lead singer for Tracing Days

JW: What age did you start playing music?
LB: I was forced to take piano at 6. I quit until I was 17.
I also tried and quit the following: drums/violin/saxophone (although I played Sax through high school).
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I found the wide variety of instruments helpful in hearing various parts of composition later.  The lack of discipline was less helpful.  It wasn’t until I realized you could play by ear that I enjoyed playing any of those.  It was more like practicing math tables, until I learned that I could create.

JW: What are some of your influences in music?
LB: My mom played piano when I was little, and sang, and my brother and I always asked her to quit, so we could hear the tv. 

Now my kids look dismally when they see me sit at the piano, knowing they’ll have no tv tonight.

I sang with Neil Diamond, Glen Campbell and others in my parents red 70 something station wagon, until someone saw me, at which point I hid. 

This terror of singing in public followed me through high school, and remains to this day in a smaller form.

I heard 80s bands like Journey, Def Leppard, Sting, U2 and others that hit my music passion switches. Nirvana, DC Talk and others influenced me later. 

Now Switchfoot, the Killers, Franz Ferdinand hit the same switches.  It seems my ears hear melody/music and lyrical nuances before I hear meanings of songs.

I have to work to pay attention to the messages. I was terrible at poetic interpretation in school.  It’s different when I’m doing the writing, since the meaning is critical for me to get across- though some struggle understanding my songs at times.

JW: Can you tell me a little about you? Where did you grow up? What you like doing for fun? When did you get saved?

LB: I grew up in Bozeman on a farm.  We had every animal you could imagine, and my dad taught me how to drive a team of horses when we’d feed the cows (just for fun).  I rode a real horse chasing real cows, and laugh at Hollywood ’s take on that scenario.

I played basketball in high school (which was my second religion, since I’d no inclination towards music at the time.

I listened to country music with my dad until I was about 11, and then discovered rock, which suited me better. 

I loved Indiana Jones and Spiderman, and wanted to be both of them.

I asked my mom and dad questions about predestination and other hard subjects when I was about 7.

God put that desire to understand spiritual things in my mind pretty early.  I could tell when our teachers were blowing smoke, and didn’t really know what they were talking about.  That grew into a firm distaste for clichés and pretending, which I saw as a temptation in my own life.

I also saw that I was a jerk to my brother, and knew God saw that as sin.  I asked him to forgive me over and over, not realizing that it wasn’t my thoroughness that gained the forgiveness, but his faithfulness.  Jesus became alive to me at about 15.

I was tested for Epilepsy in 8th grade, which leveled me.  I realized I couldn’t keep this whole thing together, and it jeopardized me getting a drivers’ license. ( I was able to get it, and had good health throughout high school).  I find it interesting that the day I had to go get tested for it was the day I planned to get into trouble with some of my friends.  Those same friends walked away from the Lord and into the partying scene later.

JW: What is your favorite bible verse?

EB: Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

It’s the ultimate pride killer verse.  We belong to God.  He made us, and then remade us in Jesus for his own purposes.  God has even seen to it that our works are waiting for us.  It goes contrary to our pride, where we want to be the ones thinking up the plan and getting the credit.  It also shows God’s concern and care for us in our daily living. It’s where real joy lies.

JW: Are you coming with any new albums or singles? Or doing any touring days?
EB: I’m always writing and they always feel like a single when they start.
Not touring much.  We set out with a specific plan to serve our local church and our families primarily, and leave the other stuff up to God.  We push radio and video hard, and I occasionally do radio/video tours to do interviews.  If a single takes off, we’ll hopefully play some larger venues.
Our Tracing Days marketing plan got sidelined when the economy tanked.  My wife and I funded our music by building/selling a house every couple years.  We ended up losing all of our equity in 24 months, and with it our Tracing Days budget.  It’s one thing to theoretically wonder if you would still walk with God if you lost all your money, it’s another to lose it, and find him faithful.  He is, and Tracing Days will only go forward as He provides.

For more information on Tracing Days, visit www.tracingdays.com or www.myspace.com/tracingdays.

–James Wait, the Underground staff writer