I seriously question the usefulness of public debates. I would much rather pick up a book and read a reasoned, researched, and well-written case for a proposition rather than watch a debate. This is especially so on social media. Read the comments section on your typical blog and the debate usually spirals out of control within a matter of a few keystrokes. These so-called debates then overflow into the church pews where people take the digital vitriol and disseminate to others.

In the history of church formal debates have played a role in helping the church sort out truth from falsehood. One of the most famous written debates was between Martin Luther and Erasmus of Rotterdam on the nature of the will. Is it free or bound by sin? Luther wrote one of the all-time theological classics, Bondage of the Will. I myself have participated in a formal debate over different views on the millennium. Over the years, however, I have begun to doubt the benefits of formal public debates. I also believe that the so-called debates that take place on blogs and social media are detrimental to the life of the church. Why have I come to these conclusions?

The more I have reflected upon the nature of debates, I have observed that the debate venue significant shapes the nature and content of a debate. In terms of Marshall McLuhan’s famous work, Understanding Media, the medium shapes the message. In other words, the content of discourse changes from one venue to the next. When an author writes a book, he might take several hundred pages packed with footnotes to make an argument to prove his thesis. In a debate, he must take that same data and condense it to a presentation of, say, sixty minutes. What he argued in 50,000 words gets condensed to 10,000 words. Moreover, given the nature of the audience, he undoubtedly trims out some of his finer points. Let’s say for the sake of argument that the author has written an absolute airtight case and sufficiently proves his point. But this same author is not the best public speaker, makes a few verbal gaffes, and gets very nervous.

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