“A debate is a conflict which clarifies a position. A dialogue is a conversation which compromises a position.”
John E. Ashbrook, The New Neutralism II
I don’t have the book (yet), but given what yours truly does regularly (and by the way, we will have a major debate announcement upcoming soon!), this pithy statement caught my attention. So many I speak with fear the word “debate.” Why? Because it assumes the very thing our culture denies exists: right and wrong, truth and error. We’ve become so concerned about the offense caused by someone who abuses the truth that we have abandoned those categories completely. The result is a neutered Christianity that has absolutely nothing to say to the world.
