Staples vs. Slick

I haven't had a chance to listen to this yet, but Catholic apologist Tim Staples was on Matt Slick's Internet show: Matt Slick and Tim Staples Discuss Salvation. Slick is the founder of CARM, and, if I recall, he is also Reformed (a graduate of WTS). It's always interesting to listen to Tim Staples (as the Catholic Answers clips on the Dividing Line prove).

Update: I listened to almost all of the broadcast. My overall conclusion was that the dialog was not fruitful. I'm not one who appreciates conversations that wander all over the place, even though I realize the topic was "salvation" and that entails a lot of different related points.

Positively, Tim Staples was treated respectfully by Matt Slick, and I appreciated Matt's tone and demeanor. Matt asked some good questions, and sought to have Tim define his position.

But Matt did a less than adequate job of corralling Tim. Tim can speak quickly, and throw out a lot of content. I recall more than once hearing Matt say something like "No it isn't. you're wrong," and then Tim saying, "O.K. why am I wrong?" And then the discussion moved on to other points. In fairness to Matt, Staples is a very difficult person to do a radio dialog with. Just go back and listen to Staples on the BAM show with James White a few years ago. Hank would try to go to commercial, and Tim was still talking! Tim frequently would not stop talking to give the opposition a chance to speak.

I know some people like the free-for-all type of discussion, I don't. Probably what would have been helpful, would have been to pre-pick a particular passage of Scripture about salvation, and then discuss the text. A crucial passage to concentrate on would be Romans 3-4 (I think these verses only came up briefly, and the topic was salvation!). I think the structure of looking at a key text like this, and trying to stick with it would have helped the conversation stay coherent. Give Tim 5 minutes to state his case, then let Matt make his case, then try to set up some form of constructive dialog. Maybe let Tim ask Matt questions for 5 minutes, and then let Matt do likewise with Tim.

My gut feeling is this will be another one of those broadcasts Catholic Answers will sell like the the BAM show with Akin vs. White. Catholic Answers sells that set because Akin got most of the time. Dr. White was not given the opportunity to even respond to most of the points Akin brought up (in case your interested, Dr. White has gone through that old radio show, and proved this). They sell this set gleefully, knowing full well, that Akin would be bulldozed by Dr. White in a formal debate.... Best let the Catholic Answers folks have a James White (alleged) debate in which he isn't given time to respond to points raised.

In this case, Slick allowed Tim to make multiple points and use multiple verses, and simply didn't seem to be able to keep up with all Tim was saying. This is the type of stuff Catholic Answers loves to sell. They will say something like, "See, Tim made all these points that went unanswered!" "Swim The Tiber!"

Anyway, Matt if you read this- I respect you for doing this dialog, and for also standing up for the gospel, as well as not holding back what your position is on Roman Catholicism. But if you have Tim back, you better come up with a better strategy to dialog with him.