LYNCHBURG, Va. — The president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary in Lynchburg, Va., has apologized for calling the head of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)’s International Mission Board (IMB) a liar, saying he got carried away in an interview while criticizing a mission strategy used to evangelize Muslims.
In a Feb. 24 podcast on the SBC Today Web site, Ergun Caner, a former Muslim turned Southern Baptist who has written extensively labeling Islam a false religion, defended earlier statements critical of a strategy called the Camel Method.
The method uses verses from the Quran to convince Muslims that what the Christian Bible says about Jesus is true. Caner said that is like using the Book of Mormon as a bridge to someone in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
But Caner said he “became an idiot” and “stepped over the line” in a Feb. 3 SBC Today podcast with comments picked up by other media accusing IMB President Jerry Rankin of lying by allowing missionaries to use the method in engaging church-planting movements in the Muslim world.
“I believe that the Camel is lying,” Caner reiterated in the new podcast interview. “It assumes the ignorance of a Muslim by saying, ‘Oh, you believe Allah? I believe in Allah.’ That’s one of my ethical issues with the Camel. I think it’s based on deception.”
“And then the idiot opens his mouth and says, ‘Do I believe it’s lying?’” he continued, quoting his previous words. “Sure. Do I believe that Jerry Rankin is lying? Yes.”
“And so what happens is, in one fell swoop I cast aspersion on a brother, and given the last few days I’ve discovered that’s not the biblical thing to do,” Caner said.
Caner said he acknowledged his mistake before students in a chapel service at Liberty Theological Seminary and in a letter of apology sent directly to Rankin. Caner said one reason he is going public with his apology is to separate his criticism of the Camel Method from his statement about Rankin.
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