The leading bidders for the Crystal Cathedral in Orange County appear to be a University and a Roman Catholic diocese, but a new buyer (unnamed in court documents) appears to be coming into the picture, among other bidders.

Meanwhile, Crystal Cathedral Ministry is still hoping to keep the cathedral and is trying to raise the funds through pledges and donations. It also announced that the campus is not for sale, putting it directly against its creditors committee.

The creditors committee allowed the cathedral to choose a buyer at a minimum purchase price of $50 million. However, failure of the church to cooperate may mean losing out on buyback options, and perhaps, having to leave the cathedral sooner that it was expecting to.

Front-runner bidders

Chapman University and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange are in stiff competition for the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral. Court documents that were filed last Tuesday also state that a third, unnamed buyer has emerged.

Bids have also been lodged by Hobby Lobby, a nationwide retailer of arts and crafts which is controlled by David Green, an evangelical Christian; and My Father’s House Church International, which is Norco-based. The documents did not mention who the new potential bidder is.

Crystal Cathedral, a 31-year-old church with 10,000 panels of glass, became known internationally through its Hour of Power television program. In October last year the ministry filed for bankruptcy after accumulating a $50 million debt.

The church, which lies in Garden Grove city, 30 miles from Los Angeles, was founded in 1955 by Rev. Robert Schuller and wife Arvella. They started out by renting a drive-in theater for services, and continued to grow and prosper until Robert Schuller retired in 2006. (See http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/07/crystal-cathedral-mulls-50-million-offer-from-roman-catholic-church-16749/ and http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/05/crystal-cathedral-sold-to-pay-off-creditors-16086/).

Diocese of Orange

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange upped its original bid of $50 million to $53.6 million. Crystal Cathedral’s ministry may also rent space temporarily, but would have to vacate after three years.

Stephen Bohannon, diocese spokesman, said the original plan of the diocese was to build a new cathedral which would have cost $100 million. However, they realized that they could cut expenses in half by simply purchasing the Crystal Cathedral.

Bohannon told Reuters that the slash in costs is part of the reason why Bishop Tod Brown and diocese officials made the offer. Also, “[Bishop Brown] feels very strongly that Crystal Cathedral should remain a place of worship.”

Chapman University

Chapman University, a rival bidder, upped its original bid of $46 million to $50 million, the minimum bid required by the creditors’ committee. The University is an affiliate of Disciples of Christ, a Protestant denomination.

The University is also offering the services of two individuals with “extensive experience in business, financial and operational strategy,” at no charge, a service valued at $500,000 annually.

Chapman also said it may lower the repurchase price from $23.5 million to $21 million if Crystal Cathedral is able to repurchase the property, and may consider a longer lease term to Crystal Cathedral than its original proposal of 15 years, but this would be subject to approval.

Church ministry wants to stay put

Crystal Cathedral ministry said less recently that they will try to raise $50 million so that they will not have to sell the cathedral. Sheila Coleman, director of the ministry and daughter of Robert Schuller made this announcement during service less than two weeks before.

Coleman said, “I believe with every fiber of my being that God turned the eyes of the world on Crystal Cathedral because God wants to make a big bold statement,” Reuters reported. “He wants the world to know that he is a God who still does miracles.”

The creditors committee, however, issued a warning that it would proceed with a sale even if the ministry is against it, court documents said. It is also possible that the final deal might not include provisions for repurchase or lease-back.

Ergun Caner, the controversial religion professor at Liberty University, is leaving LU to join Arlington Baptist College in Texas, where he will serve as its provost and vice president.

Caner, the former president and dean of Liberty Theological Seminary was demoted when it was discovered that he was lying and exaggerating about his Muslim childhood, according to the Associated Baptist Press.

Arlington Baptist College, a fundamental bible Baptist institute, was founded in 1939 by J. Frank Norris and is affiliated with the World Baptist Fellowship. Caner, aside from serving as provost and vice president of academic affairs, will also teach theology, apologetics and church history, the ABP said.

Caner has coauthored many books, including “Why Churches Die,” “Unveiling Islam,” and “When Worldviews Collide.” He  was taken into Arlington on a unanimous vote from the board of directors of the college, Baptist Press said.

Ron Godwin, LU’s administrator said, “We wish Ergun the very best in his new assignment and would have been delighted to have him continue serving here. We will miss his contribution,” The News & Advance reported.

Of his new assignment, Caner said, “I am thrilled to be joining the Arlington Baptist College. This is an historic institution, founded by one of Christianity’s most courageous voices, Dr. J. Frank Norris,” ABP reported.

Norris, founder of Arlington Baptist College and the World Baptist Fellowship, was a Texas fundamentalist Baptist leader and one-time editor of the Baptist Standard. He was once called the “Texas Tornado” over a long-term feud with the Southern Baptists, ABP said.

Norris founded his own independent fundamentalist group, originally called the Pre-millennial Baptist Missionary Fellowship but renamed the World Baptist Fellowship after a split, ABP said.

Caner said, “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,” The News & Advance reported.

9/11 circuits

Caner rose to fame after 9/11 when he shared his testimony of being a trained jihadist terrorist before his conversion to Christianity in several speaking engagements and during the Southern Baptist Convention, ABP said.

However, blogs and news reports emerged that he was actually raised in Ohio. Liberty trustees investigated his case, and, among other things, reviewed recordings of Caner’s speeches, according to ABP.

LU determined that “factual statements … are self-contradictory.” In 2010 Caner was demoted after a committee headed by Godwin looked into the professor’s claim of having grown up Muslim and converted to Christianity as a teenager, The News & Advance said.

The committee determined that there seemed to be no doubt that Caner had converted to Christianity. However, Caner did make “factual statements that are self-contradictory,” and demoted Caner, giving him a one-year teaching contract, ABP said.

Caner often said he is a Turkish immigrant and said in speeches he gave in other states that he was trained as a teenager in Islamic jihad. However, documents of his parents’ divorce which are filed in an Ohio courthouse indicate otherwise, The News & Advance said, indicating that Caner was born in Sweden and the family moved to the U.S. when he was four years old.

Last fall, Caner taught two online cases, and in the spring taught two classes in LU.

Utmost confidence

President D.L. Moody of Arlington Baptist College presented Caner to the Texas school’s board of directors and said, “I have the utmost confidence in Dr. Ergun Caner,” according to The News & Advance.

Moody said, “I believe that he has the abilities, wisdom and passion to enhance the work and ministry of Arlington Baptist College as we prepare a ‘Generation of Giants for Jesus Christ.’ He shares the values that I have for biblical authority, evangelistic fervor, and godly example,” BP reported.

A man from Portland, Ore., who has been afflicted with a spinal cord injury for four years is suddenly back on his feet after receiving experimental treatment that uses an electric stimulator, lending new hope for the paralyzed.

Rob Summers, 25, is now taking steps on a treadmill thanks to therapy that shows, surprisingly, that lower limb movement is possible without receiving signals from the brain, CBS News said.

The treatment lends hope to some five-and-a-half million others who are partially paralyzed from spinal cord injury, according to CBS News. Dr. Susan Harkema, who heads the experiment at the University of Louisville, said that while Summers’ progress is remarkable, They still have a long way to go.

Harkema, director of rehabilitation research at the University’s Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center told CBS News, “There’s technology that needs to be developed and more research, and testing it in other people. But it just opened up a whole new set of opportunities.”

Summers, the first spinal injury patient who was able to stand and move purposefully using an electric stimulator, told The Oregonian, “I hope my story will motivate others with spinal cord injuries and revitalize their hopes for the future.”

Whether or not the treatment can meaningfully improve daily life functioning, and whether or not Summers’ experience can be replicated in others, remains to be seen. But experts agree this is a landmark, more so as it is done without any brain signal and through electrical stimulation, The Oregonian reported.

Hit and run

Five years ago Summers was a student at Oregon State University and a pitcher in its baseball team. One night in July 2006 as he grabbed his duffel bag inside his car, a drunk driver crashed into him and sped off, The Oregonian said.

Summers recalls trying to crawl, collapsing and waking up the next day in a hospital. He told CBS News, “The car drove off, leaving me there with nothing and no help, no hope.”

Doctors said he was paralyzed from the chest down and he would never walk again. But Summers, who dreamt of playing baseball, trained for three years but still could not stand, walk independently, or move his legs, The Oregonian said.

Experiments on cats

Summers learned of an experiment in the University of Louisville that showed that cats with severed spinal cords could stand and take steps, as could rats, with the help of electrical stimulation.

Harkema and her team also pinpointed evidence that human spinal nerves can preserve some capability to control movement even after a disabling spinal injury. She wanted to see if electric stimulation could agitate the spinal nerves in a way that would promote standing and stepping, The Oregonian said.

Summers volunteered, and some 16 tiny electrodes were implanted directly over his lower spinal cord segments connected by wires under his skin that went to a unit as large as a small cell phone that was implanted over his hip. Through a wireless remote, electrical pulses were sent to the spine, The Oregonian said.

The devices are already in use to control chronic pain and cost from $20,000 to $57,000, with maintenance at $5,000 to $7,000, according to The Oregonian. The experiment was financed by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, according to CBS News.

Summers told The Oregonian, “[I]t feels like a tingling that goes from my abs down to my toes. Once I got used to it was fine. It wasn’t painful or uncomfortable.”

Three days after implantation, both Summers and the research team were surprised that he could stand up unassisted. Harkema told The Oregonian, “This result was really unexpected.”

After 80 sessions and a period of seven months, Summers can take a few steps on a treadmill, has motor control in his toes, ankles, knees and hips. He cannot walk yet but with help, can take a few steps, The Oregonian said.

Other benefits noted by Harkema and her team was improved body temperature regulation, increased muscle mass, decreased body fat, bladder control and a greater sense of wellbeing in the patient, The Oregonian said.

The research has been published in the medical journal, Lancet. Susan Howley of the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, who financed the experiment, told CBS News, “I think Christopher Reeve would be very, very pleased.”

Harkema told CBS News, “It was gratifying to know that decades of research by many scientists had reached a point where it might help people with paralysis,” adding, “A lot of scientific decisions went into (our decision). … We trained him intensely to make sure that there wasn’t any possibility of recovery before we took this next step.”

Summers told CBS News, “Now I can stand. I’ve gotten my confidence back to just go out in the public, and be out in the world again. As well as I work on standing for one hour a day, as well as voluntary movement. I can move my toes, ankles, knees and hips, all on command. And that’s just an amazing feeling to be able to get that back.” His next goal is to stand and walk “completely normally.”

Harkema said her goal is to be able to use these therapies for the mainstream market. She told CBS News, “An important aspect is that there’s knowledge we have now that can make incremental changes in people’s lives. And so we need to start there, and then just continue to learn more about the circuitry and how we can take advantage of it to improve function and people’s quality of life.”

Homosexual students from Christian schools are rallying together to seek acknowledgment and acceptance of their sexual orientation, and to question the belief that homosexuality is a sin.

Homosexual organizations have been emerging, or trying to emerge, in Christian Evangelical colleges including Baylor University, Abilene Christian University, Belmont University and Harding University, among others, according to The New York Times.

Many members of these student organizations came to realize their sexual identities in college, but had gone through inner processes and struggles when they were younger, as shown by one online publication from Harding University which tells of the personal experiences of several gay students from the school.

A 2010 Pew survey indicated that Millennials (born after 1980) are in agreement with allowing same-sex marriage to be legalized by 53 percent vs 39 percent, the highest margin since 1928, The Christian Post said.

Another study by Lifeway Research in 2009 surveyed 1,200 Millenials and showed that six out of 10 young adults are agreeable to same-sex marriage, according to The Christian Post.

Unstoppable force

Adam R. Short, an openly gay student at Baylor University told The New York Times that he had tried, unsuccessfully, to get the campus to ratify a club that would dwell on homophobia and sexuality.

Considered the largest Baptist university in the country with 15,000 students, Baylor did not allow its students to participate in a sexuality forum. Lori Fogleman, university spokeswoman told The New York Times, “Baylor expects students not to participate in advocacy groups promoting an understanding of sexuality that is contrary to biblical teaching.”

Despite this some 50 Baylor students meet regularly at the online site, Sexual Identity Forum, and are hopeful that they will eventually be give formal status on campus, The New York Times said.

The SIF forum states, “Baylor University welcomes all students into a safe and supportive environment in which to discuss and learn about a variety of issues, including those of human sexuality,” which is picked up from the University website.

The SIF website said it “seeks to open the discussion about sexual and gender issues.” Its stated purpose is to “start dialogue about important issues concerning gender and sexuality including violence against LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) students; suicide among LGBT students; homophobia concerning students; and current political events regarding gender/sexuality issues.”

Abilene Christian University, Texas has also disallowed the forming of Gay-Straight Alliance.

Jean-Noel Thompson, university vice president told The New York Times, “We want to engage these complex issues, and to give help and guidance to students who are struggling with same-sex attraction. But we are not going to embrace any advocacy for gay identity.”

Harding University, Arkansas blocked access to an online publication which featured the gay outings of university alumni and students. David B. Burks, president of Harding told students, “[I]t was important for us to block the Web site because of what it says about Harding, who we are, and what we believe,” The New York Times said.

Recently the first annual Day of Dialogue was held among evangelicals to talk about God’s “best plan for sexuality and relationships.” The event was organized by Cadi Cushman and Focus on the Family, The Christian Post said.

The purpose of The Day of Dialogue was to help students to understand “God’s deep love for us and what the Bible really says about His redemptive design for marriage and sexuality,” according to The Christian Post.

The Day of Dialogue was also launched in response to The Day of Silence which occurred April 15 and was organized by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, The Christian Post said.

Cushman told The Christian Post, “We hope this event will give them confidence that their faith speaks into the hot topics in the culture of today.”

A study from a Chicago university discovered recently that there is a link between middle-age obesity and regular church attendance.

The study, Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults, was conducted by fourth year student Matthew Feinstein of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, The Daily Mail said.

The paper concluded that there is a 50 percent higher likelihood that regular churchgoers will become obese by middle age compared to those who are nonreligious, according to The Daily Mail.

The study was included among a number of other reports that had been presented at the American Heart Association’s  Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism/Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention 2011 Scientific Sessions in Atlanta, The Los Angeles Times said.

No explanation was given for the findings, although it was pointed out that oftentimes many churches allow eating during service.

Methodology

The study looked into the lives of 2,433 people who came from Minneapolis, Chicago, Alabama, Birmingham and Oakland, California, according to The Daily Mail.

The test group was followed for 18 years and were ranked by their church attendance in the following categories: High (weekly to more frequent church attendance), medium (regular but not weekly church attendance), low (rare church attendance) and none, The Los Angeles Times said.

The findings noted that young adults ranging in age from 20 to 32 who were on the high category regarding church attendance were 50 percent more likely to be obese when they reached middle age, compared to those who never go to church, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The findings remained consisted even after the researchers made adjustments for race, sex, age, income, education and the person’s body mass index from the start of the study, according to the Los Angeles Times.

By the second year of the study, a profile of those participants who tended to be in the high level of churchgoers indicated that they tend to be black females with a higher BMI, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Historical link?

Feinstein did not give definite reasons to explain why high church participation is linked to obesity. He did say in a news release, “It’s possible that getting together once a week and associating good works and happiness with eating unhealthy foods could lead to the development of habits that are associated with greater body weight and obesity,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Courtney Parker, catering manager of the Apostolic Church of God (20,000 members) in Woodlawn said that historically, church services were very long, and so people were allowed to eat while hearing the gospel, The Daily Mail reported.

Parker told Sun Times, “[T]he first thing you do is go eat, and then you go to sleep,” according to The Daily Mail.

Upshot of study

Feinstein told the Los Angeles Times that there is an upshot to the study, “[T]hese findings highlight a group that could benefit from targeted efforts at obesity prevention,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

In fact a number of religious groups have engaged in exercise programs including jazzercise, belly dancing, zumba and pole dancing (see http://theundergroundsite.com/index.php/2011/03/former-stripper-teaches-pole-fitness-for-jesus-class-16294).

Other studies have shown definite health benefits that churchgoers enjoy, according to Feinstein. For example, churchgoers smoke less, live longer and enjoy better mental health, The Daily Mail said.

Liberty University announced recently that it will undergo a $120 million major construction upgrade over the next three years to steer it towards a new age of expansion and progress.

The Lynchburg-based University raised the funds in just two days in New York City by selling 30-year, tax-exempt education facilities bonds. In so doing, they will not have to cull funds from their endowment, fostering even quicker growth overall, ABC 13 reported.

Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. told PR Newswire, “It is humbling for me to witness God’s blessings of such magnitude on Liberty University. This is a wonderful Christmas gift to Liberty and its students.”

In the past, Liberty had used its own cash reserves to pay for major capital projects. However, it chose this time to make use of the prevailing low interest rates, tax-exempt financing and low construction costs, PR Newswire said.

Construction plans

The News and Advance said the showpiece of the overall plan will be the refurbishing of the back of the DeMoss Learning Center, where there are currently a number of buildings, a cafeteria and a small courtyard.

LU will demolish the older buildings to give way to a large outdoor quad and a freestanding library. Falwell said, “That’s something we’ve never had on campus, an open area for students to enjoy the outdoors and just sort of a green area,” The News and Advance reported.

An 8,000 square-foot land area in Campbell County will be used for a new health sciences building for LU’s existing nurses’ programs, plus new programs for physical therapists, athletic trainers, nurse practitioners and physician assistants, The News and Advance said.

ABC 13 said LU will additionally build a new practice area for the basketball team, and an intramural sports complex. Eventually, it hopes to add a large parking deck.

Fallwell said about $72 million of the money raised will pay for recently-completed capital projects. He told PR Newswire the new campus facilities “will greatly enhance the educational experience for students, [and] will revolutionize the look and feel of the campus.”

S & P Rating

LU acquired an AA bond rating from Standard & Poor’s, ranking it alongside the top 44 S&P-rated colleges and universities including Cornell University, John Hopkins University and Emory University, PR Newswire said.

Its high bond rating is due to LU’s strong financial grounding of late. Net assets increased from $100 million in 2007 to $530 million today, PR Newswire said. It is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2014, a goal which the late Jerry Falwell, LU founder, had targeted for 2017.

Falwell Jr. told ABC 13, “There’s going to be a lot of dirt flying around Lynchburg here the next few years.”

The recent ruling by a North Carolina appeals court gives rise to the question of whether this will impact on past and pending cases that were reported by the college’s police officers.

Last Tuesday’s N.C. Court of Appeals decided that an N.C. Attorney General’s Office was wrong to give police powers to the Davidson College police department, because the college is affiliated with the Presbyterian church, the Carolina Weekly said.

The decision was rendered in connection with a four-year-old DWI case when Julie Anne Yencer was arrested by state-commissioned Davidson College police officer Wesley Wilson for reckless driving, on a road that was adjacent to the college campus although Yencer was not a student of the college, the AP said.

Although the lower court convicted Yencer, the Appeals court withdrew the conviction. The three-judge panel unanimously decided that by giving police powers to campus police, this led to “excessive entanglement” with the Constitution’s First Amendment, which bans any government endorsement of religion, CNN said.

Attorney General Roy Cooper will determine whether to raise the ruling to the Supreme Court. Should he decide not to, the question remains as to the status of all pending charges that were made by Davidson College police officers, and whether past criminal cases by them will be subject to review, the Carolina Weekly said.

Officials of Davidson College are currently consulting with Cooper’s office, Vice President Stacey Schmeidel said in a statement. Schmeidel noted that even the appeals court judges were interested in what the SC would decide, the Carolina Weekly said.

Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote, “There is evidence in the record to show that Davidson College is not a religious institution,” the Carolina Weekly said. Two of the judges, Donna Stroud and Cheri Beasley recommended that the Supreme Court determine whether a college or university with religious affiliation is entitled to delegated authority, provided it does not impose beliefs or indoctrinate students, the AP said.

Wynn, who wrote the decision said, “We thus acknowledge the important distinction between an institution with religious influence or affiliation and one that is pervasively sectarian,” the AP said.

Davidson College has some 1,800 students and has produced many Rhodes Scholars. It is consistently among the top echelon liberal art schools in the U.S. with long established adherence to religious tolerance and academic freedom, the AP said.

Wynn said the appeals ruling was based on two similar cases regarding arrests by Baptist-affiliated Campbell University (Buies Creek) police officers and United Methodist Church-affiliated Pfeiffer University (Misenheimer) police officers, the Carolina Weekly said.

The United Methodist Church announced recently that it would preserve its denominational affiliation with Claremont School of Theology and  restore funding that it had previously embargoed, the Christian Post said.

Earlier this year, the UMC issued a public warning when Claremont established the University Project which instituted clerical training for Muslims and Jews. Claremont was originally a theological school only for Christians, the Christian Post said.

The UMC also suspended the normal funding that it had always set aside for Claremont, and began a review of the seminary with its new changes. At the end of the review, the UMC’s University Senate, which decides which schools are suitable for affiliation, determined that Claremont met all required criteria, the Christian Post said.

Although Claremont will undertake the University Project with Jewish and Islamic schools, this is a separate endeavor from Claremont’s School of Theology. It also affords for the students integration with those of different faiths in the aim of promoting understanding, the Christian Post said.

Claremont President Rev. Jerry D. Campbell said they were happy with the affirmation from the University Senate.

He added, “I think that the review came about in the first place because some people were worried that we were turning a United Methodist-related seminary into something very different, but we were able to show the review committee that we have no such plans,” the Christian Post said.

Some conservatives had aired concern after Claremont announced the University Project, fearing that Christianity may be compromised to accommodate the other faiths, the Christian Post said.

However Claremont saw the new move as a way to provide an environment where students can learn to live in harmony despite differences, and further down the road, become better equipped to work together and be peacemakers, the Christian Post said.

Despite sanctions and flak from conservatives, a Methodist seminary will include religious training for Muslims and Jews to its curriculum this fall.

The Claremont School of Theology was sanctioned by the University Senate (a body which decides whether theological schools are qualified to fall under the Methodist denomination) for “failing to consult fully with United Methodist authorities in a substantial reorientation of the institution’s mission and proposed transformation from a school of theology to a university with schools of ministry,”  Christian News Wire said.

Some $800,000 was also withheld (8 percent of its total $10-million funding) by The United Methodist Church’s Ministerial Education Fund upon learning of Claremont’s planned curriculum expansion, Christian News Wire said.

Still, Claremont President Jerry Campbell is proceeding with the new curriculum this fall, the Los Angeles Times said.

In due time, Campbell would like to add training for Hinduism, Buddhism and other faiths, too, Christian News Wire said.

While Campbell said he hopes the University Senate will re-establish funding, he also said the new programs slated for fall will be funded by some $10 million that had already been promised by philanthropists, the Los Angeles Times said.

With the new curriculum Claremont, which affords masters and doctoral programs, will become the first institution to train people of other faiths for careers in their respective faiths, the Los Angeles Times said.

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion and Democracy said, “Claremont’s new interfaith approach seems to undermine the transcendent claims of all faiths, and treat religion as merely a prop for the secular culture’s enchantment with multiculturalism and diversity,” Christian News Wire reported.

Campbell said in a speech prepared for today’s formal announcement, “We want our future religious leaders to understand the landscape in which they will be leading. We want them to be able to see ‘the other’ as neighbor, friend and co-worker. We want to be able to facilitate love among our different traditions in order that we can begin to solve the big problems,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

Partner organizations in this project are The Islamic Center of Southern California and the Academy for Jewish Religion-California, the Los Angeles Times said.

The Muslim program will train imams—a first in the country as imams in the U.S. have either been sent to Muslim majority countries for clerical training or they had already been trained in a Muslim country, then emigrated to the U.S., the Los Angeles Times said.

Rabbi Mel Gottlieb, president of the Academy for Jewish Religion California, stressed the importance of students being well grounded in their own faiths and said that such grounding would not be compromised. At the same time he hoped the program would provide important connections between future leaders of differing religions, the Los Angeles Times said.

Stakeholders in the project agreed that quality of training of each faith would be genuine.  They do however see possible areas where classes can have students of different faiths together, such as classes in the Hebrew Bible and its canon, the Los Angeles times said.

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.