Ergun Caner - Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma - Annual Meeting 2009

Ergun Caner apparently addressed the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma at their annual meeting in 2009.  The following are some excerpts from that address (all times approximate) (link to mp3):

0:55 "I was born overseas, to Turkish parents, as a Sunni Muslim. We came to America with my father who built mosques. We settled in Columbus, OH, and it was in Columbus, OH, in 1982, that I found Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior."

a) Did Caner's dad actually build mosques?  I'd love to see some evidence of this.
b) Was Caner's mom Turkish or Swedish?  Her mother was apparently exclusively Swedish speaking.
c) I hope Caner got saved in 1982 as he claimed, but compare below:

8:40 "As a matter of fact, when I got saved at the age of 17 going on 18, I knew nothing about what church was supposed to look like. I knew nothing about Baptists, I had never been in a church, never held a Bible, I didn't go through AWANA, I'd never been to a GA coronation, had never been in a VBS, I knew nothing."

Caner turned 17 in November of 1983, and 18 in November of 1984.  So, was it in 1982 or some other year?

34:10 "I have an entire group of people - an entire cottage industry, dedicated to attacking me and my brother, and those of us who are former Muslims. 'He was never a Muslim! No Muslim has ever converted!' Well, here's one right here. 'Oh, this is all lies - this is all lies.' I maybe see five people saved a year out of Islam. My job is not about keeping score, my job is to be faithful to the task to which He's called me."

a) I hope that Caner has reached people for the gospel.
b) I don't think Caner's characterization of the "group of people" is very accurate.

37:10 "Do you know who reached me for the gospel? A Muslim who moved to this country to build mosques to you? Whose father was, for lack of a better term, a missionary to you?"

a) Caner came when he was a toddler.
b) A better term would be "engineer."  Caner's father was not, from what we can tell, an occupational "missionary" or anything like that.

38:00 "Thank God for Jerry Tackett. You'll never know his name. He's a high school teacher in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, who hates it when I use his name."

I bet he does hate it.  People probably ask him whether these stories are true, placing him in a difficult position.

41:00 "I live a weird life. My kids see me on TV. I got all these books. But I'm the same idiot I was when I was 18 years old and didn't know Ha-bak'-kuk from Ha-ba-kook' - and called Philemon, "Filet Mignon," and I couldn't find a church that would hire me as a pastor, because my English was poor, and look at me - fat, balding since I was 16 - not the good-looking preachers with hair gel - I wear a vest because it's a male girdle. So I couldn't find a church to call me."

Why would his English be poor?  He grew up in America - he was involved in theater in high school.  How "poor" are we to believe his English was?

- TurretinFan