Tag: debate

The hive of scum and villainy known as The Gospel Coalition is putting on a series of debates to be aired in early May between several prominent folk. This is to be a “five-part video debate series featuring prominent Christian thinkers discussing some of the most divisive issues facing the church today” in order to show that “it’s possible for two Christians united around the gospel to engage in charitable conversation even amid substantive disagreement.”

The topics are as follows:

• Debate #1: How should Christians think about gun control and the right to bear arms? Featuring Bob Thune and Andrew Wilson.
• Debate #2: Is “woke church” a stepping stone to theological compromise? Featuring Sean DeMars and Rebecca McLaughlin.
• Debate #3: Should the “pro-life” movement be holistically (womb to tomb) or narrowly (womb) focused? Featuring Scott Klusendorf and Karen Swallow Prior.
• Debate #4: What’s the best approach for the church to address racial injustice? Featuring Brian Davis and Justin Giboney.
• Debate #5: Should we insist on a theological and historical definition of “evangelical” if many self-described evangelicals see it primarily as a political identity? Featuring Ryan Burge and Andrew Walker.

As far as who is taking which position, from what we can tell:

Debate #1. Unless their views have changed from their public writings and positions, Bob Thune is against gun control and Andrew Wilson is for it. Wilson is a contributor to TGC and the teaching pastor at King’s Church, London. He is what might charitably be described as an ‘extreme pacifist’, and has taken the position that killing or even knocking out a man who breaks into your house with the intention of killing your wife and kids, is a grave evil and a sin.

Debate #2. We presume that Sean DeMars believes that being ‘woke’ leads to theological compromise and Rebecca McLaughlin believes it does not.

Debate#3. Karen Swallow Prior is on the record saying that “abortion is not murder” and “calling abortion murder” is mean to abortion doctors and it’s “unchristlike”. She told pro-lifers not to vote pro-life in 2020 and made some truly idiotic comparison of COVID-19 and abortion. She’s taking the ‘holistic’ view for sure.

Debate #4 With Justin Giboney, the co-founder of the social Marxist organization known as the AND Campaign involved, his solution to ‘address racial injustice’ is certainly going to be the wrong one.

Debate #5. Andrew Walker is taking the affirmative position- that ‘evangelical’ must have theological grounding and exclusivity, and Burges the latter- that the term is big-tent and can/does include anyone religious with GOP-voting proclivities.

We can think of other things we’d like to debate, such as “Is it morally good for the Senior Editor of TGC to recommend movies and TV shows filled with Sex and Nudity?” or “Is TGC correct that Straight Men Should Consider Singleness Out of Solidarity for Celibate Homosexuals? or even is it true that Christians Have Endured No ‘Hostility’ or ‘Ill-treatment’ From Govt During Pandemic, as TGC authors have claimed, even as pastors were being thrown in jail and churches forcibly shut down?

We’d love to see those debates.