Catholic priest in Hyde Park London, Explaining and Defending The Christian faith in public.
Debate is an act of public discourse where religious doctrines are scrutinize , prove and disproved by people who adheres to it or opposes it. Religious debate is a litmus test to establish the reasonableness and truthfulness of the given doctrine in question. It is also through debating wherein people can judge fairly which doctrines are firmly grounded in Sacred Scriptures, Apostolic Tradition and history. Throughout the history of the Christian faith doctrinal disputes are settled through debates, take for instance when Arius questioned the divinity of Christ the matter was settled when St. Athanasius vigorously defended Christ’s divinity against Arius through debate in the Council of Nicea. The same thing is also true in succeeding dogmatic councils of the Church.
However, there is an ongoing trend among Born again pastors to shy away from debating their doctrines. They simply wanted people to accept their opinionated doctrines without being questioned or scrutinized in public fora. If you notice they promote their doctrine on a personal level wherein they can control the situation or precondition the minds of their audience but they would never face a Catholic apologist to dissect and question their faith in public. If what they believe is the truth then these pastors should not be afraid to defend their doctrines in public as the old saying goes “Contra factum non valet argumentum”.
When asked why they do not engage in debates these pastors answered by saying that we should not debate the word of God and that we should just respect each other. These pastors have a connotation that debates are bad that it disrespects the word of God and it creates an environment of division and hatred. This wrong notion about debate is the only thing that saved the born again movement from being exposed of its erroneous doctrines.
Is religious debate a bad thing? What does the Bible says about it? If Born again pastors are honest enough to read the Bible they would have known that the Sacred Scriptures encourages debate as what the apostles always been doing.
Certain members of the so-called Synagogue of Freedmen, Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and people from Cilicia and Asia, came forward and debated with Stephen. Act 6:9 NAB
Then Saul [Paul] began to live with them. He moved about freely in Jerusalem and preached openly, in the name of the Lord. He also spoke to Hellinists; and argued [debated] with them. But they wanted to kill him. Acts 9:28-29 CCB
While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he grew exasperated at the sight of the city full of idols. So he debated in the synagogue with the Jews and with the worshipers, and daily in the public square with whoever happened to be there. Act 17:16-17 NAB
He entered the synagogue, and for three months debated boldly with persuasive arguments about the kingdom of God. Act 19:8 NAB
Public discourse of faith is an integral part of Christian evangelization St. Stephen and St. Paul both engaged in public debates to prove the facts of Christianity. They did not shy away or makes use of “respect” as an escape goat to avoid being scrutinized, they boldly debated in public to prove the Christian religion. To avoid being questioned in public born again pastors twisted the true essence of debate just like what they did with the concept of religion; they downplayed the importance of religion because they cannot trace the history of their Church back into the time of Jesus Christ and the Apostles.
Born again pastors refusing to debate is an act of self preservation by hiding the truth from the people that some of their doctrines are incompatible with the word of God.
The Catholic Truth Society 