Alpha & Omega Ministries Apologetics Blog
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Ignatius, Ben Douglass, Summary Response 1
06/30/2008 - James White
00:01:00 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Response to Ben Douglass #4
06/25/2008 - James White
00:01:00 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Intellectual Fisticuffs: Mark Shea on the Apologetics Scene (With Combox Update)
06/23/2008 - James White
Over the years I have commented on the attempts of particular antagonists to paint yours truly as a fire-breathing zealot. Part of the ploy is to ignore the entire range of my work as a part of the attempt to make it look like I lack balance, and hence should not be worth the time one might invest in reading a book or listening to a debate or lecture. Normally, those engaging in this activity limit the amount of information they provide to a bare minimum, and try to make it sound like I spend my every waking hour opposing Group X, whether that be Rome, Salt Lake, Brooklyn, etc. Now, one might immediately wonder why anyone would do this, but the reason is not difficult to discern. This kind of tactic is employed by those who clearly know they could never defend their position in debate, and hence they wish to avoid having to do so at all costs. Since I have been active for decades now in this arena, it is better to do a pre-emptive strike so that you can have an excuse when asked why you won't debate. It is just that simple. Even the few (like Patrick Madrid) who have ventured out to debate clearly wish to avoid taking that risk in the future, and hence they likewise seek to engage in ad-hominem tactics, joining these to unrealistic and self-serving claims of total victory in the few debates they have done (witness my current series going over the veneration debate from 2002 that Madrid has claimed was a "painfully obvious" example of how unbiblical my arguments were).Another glowing example of this methodology appeared in an article by Mark Shea June 18th, found here). The article is generally on the topic of the "apologetics subculture," of which Shea has at least a cursory knowledge. He has ventured, not very successfully, into the field a few times. His 1996 OSV publication, By What Authority? An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition is particularly poorly argued and documented, containing numerous rather easily proven errors of fact and argumentation. It is, however, "pop friendly," that is, it is written to communicate with some level of clarity. Nevertheless, it is plainly intended to be apologetic in focus and application. I encountered Shea in 1997 on a Catholic web board. After a few rounds that did not go well for him, he threatened legal action if I ever posted the materials. However, in 2002 he himself posted portions of the exchange, which clearly freed me to post the encounter, which I did here.
In any case, there is much I could comment on regarding Shea's article (Tur8inFan found it, and may be commenting on other aspects of it in the future). I think James Swan should be most encouraged by the e-mail Shea quotes, for it is clearly about his work on Luther on his blog. But you will notice another interesting aspect of Shea's article, one he shares with other Roman Catholics. He does not mention the names of non-Catholic apologists when he is busy skewering them. This irrational fear of mentioning names is becoming more widespread. The infamous incident where Envoy Magazine published an entire article attacking me, but refusing to use my name or even cite the article being attacked, remains the most glaring example of this kind of literary cowardice. To this day the fact that you cannot even enter www.aomin.org into the Envoy forums (the system automatically changes the address to a "0") speaks volumes about just how much of your "mind" you can "speak" at Envoy. And of course Steve Ray's constant gratuitous insults against the "rabid anti-Catholic" that he won't name are well known as well.
Now, I did find it interesting that Shea admitted an error very similar to that of Steve Ray regarding Jerome and the canon. Shea admitted that he had erred in an Envoy article. While that is refreshing, it would be nice to then hear the "correction" to the error. That is, if he was wrong then, what does he have to say now? Evidently, it doesn't really matter how often Rome's defenders get the facts wrong: Rome remains right all the same. ...
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17:52:34 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Response to Ben Douglass #3
06/20/2008 - James White
00:01:00 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
When God's Word is Ignored
06/16/2008 - James White
HT: TCIsaiah 46:6-7 and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. 7 "They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress.
Isaiah 41:7 7 So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, "It is good"; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter.
Isaiah 41:7 7 So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, "It is good"; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter.
15:03:41 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Response to Ben Douglass #2
06/13/2008 - James White
00:01:00 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Art Sippo Strikes Again (Updated)
06/10/2008 - James White
I was just pointed to the following claim by Art Sippo, sometime Catholic apologist, medical doctor, and Doc Savage pulp fiction afficionado, regarding the incomplete tapes provided to us by Catholic Answers nearly two decades ago of my debate with Sippo on justification (1991):Pseudopodeo has doctored the recording. I have come to expect such tactics from him and other anti-Catholic Protestants. It is more about egoism than about the truth. Sorry. That is the way it is.Evidently, Art Sippo spends so much time in the fantasy world of "Doc Savage" (he even chose one of the medical schools attended based on the fiction series!) that he has no problems creating fantasy himself. Simply put, this is yet another example of how completely disconnected Sippo is from the world of truth. In case he has forgotten, we did not record the debate in Toledo, Ohio. Catholic Answers did. We had to repeatedly ask them for the tapes, and when they finally did mail them to us, they were only a partial set of poor quality. We were never given a meaningful explanation other than, "We messed up the recording." I personally find that hard to believe, but in any case, the recording we have posted of that "lost debate" is simply the reproduction of the tapes that were given to us. The accusation of "doctoring" is slanderous and false. As normal, Sippo will avoid providing evidence of his slander, and his followers will continue to adore him for it.
Falsehood and slander is Sippo's stock-in-trade, in fact. He posted this lie on the Envoy forums. Now, let's remember that on Envoy, if you try to post a URL to www.aomin.org, it replaces aomin.org with "0." So, you can tell these folks are on the front lines of apologetic action and response! [Update: I found out just now that they even run text filters, so that if you write "Roman Catholic" it posts as simply "Catholic"!] Sippo is a regular contributor of bombast and vitriol, a fact that tarnishes Madrid's oft-repeated claims of fairness and the like. In any case, just before posting this lie Sippo had provided a classic expression of his kind and loving apologetic methodology:
Luther suffered from bipolar manic-depressant illness and Calvin was a classic paranoid personality and was convicted of sodomy. They were both unstable. Their errors led to their excommunication. They died outside the Church of Jesus Christ. Everything Pope St. Peter prophesied in his 2nd Encyclical has come to pass in these two backsliders.Now, in case you are left just a little bewildered, for Sippo, any slander, as long as it serves Mother Church, is, by definition, usable. So, despite the gross falseness of the charge against Calvin, for example, and its repudiation by all meaningful historical scholars and even by Roman Catholic historians (and even Dave Armstrong!), it is normative Sippo to sling the mud. This is the kind of material you will find on Envoy's forums all the time.
A quick search of this blog for "Sippo" will reveal more than sufficient documentation of his incredible behavior over the years. Around the time he fled publicly from my challenge to debate him in his own home town on the only topic he said he would debate, he posted the following on Envoy (it has since been removed, surely out of embarrassment, by Madrid or others, but its original URL was http://www.envoymagazine.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1025):
Mr. White is an ignorant bigot who has no academic credentials. He was raised by bigots to be a bigot and would parade around in a white sheet burning crosses on people's lawns if there was any money in it. In a strange bizarro parody of Christian discipleship, he hates his enemies and does bad things to people whom he doesn't like. He also is a big whopping LIAR and likes to slander anyone who has the temerity not to kowtow to him. He is known affectionately as Pseudopodeo by those who know him best.The fact that he is allowed to spew his venomous verbiage without restraint through the Envoy forums and through the Catholic Legate website is yet another commentary on the current state of Roman Catholic apologetics.
Update 6/11/08:
The specific citation I gave at the beginning of this article has been removed by one of the moderators of the Forum, Patti [Edited by - Patti on 06/10/2008 4:04:03 PM]. Following posts still make reference to it, but the specific line has been removed. Of course, Sippo then posts another vitriolic rant afterwards, so it seems that the Envoy folks just follow Sippo around, cleaning up his messes rather than dealing with him once and for all. Another amazing insight into that realm where a man without a single theological degree is allowed to ramble on and on without censure.
20:12:56 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
Reponse to Ben Douglass #1
06/06/2008 - James White
00:01:00 - Category: Roman Catholicism - Link to this article -
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