Free Republic

A former Sunni Muslim has been elected as the new president of Truett-McConnell College in Georgia. Dr. Emir Caner, who was the founding dean of the College at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, was voted by Truett-McConnell’s board of trustees to become its eighth president on Aug. 8, according to the Cleveland, Ga.-based college. His new appointment makes him the first former Muslim to be elected as president of a Southern Baptist college or university. He will officially begin his duties on Aug. 18. “It’s a great day in the life of Truett-McConnell College and Georgia Baptists!...

FORT WORTH - Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary trustees elected a Muslim convert to Christianity as dean of the seminary's new undergraduate college.Emir Caner, 34, was brought up to be a devout Sunni Muslim. His father, a leader of the Islamic Center in Columbus, Ohio, disowned Caner after he became a Christian.Caner earned his undergraduate degree at Criswell College in Dallas, his master of divinity degree from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., and his doctor of philosophy degree from the University of Texas at Arlimgton.He was associate professor of church history and Anabaptist studies at Southeastern Seminary and...