When Mac Deaver accepts the grace of Christ and salvation by faith alone, he will be a powerful man of God. Debates are not about truth seeking, rather winners and losers. I put my money on the grace and Jesus. Just flush the COC patterns down the toilet where they belong.

Gary Cummings

To proceed further, there needs to be a commitment to a year's worth of face-to-face meetings – and not debates, as Mac has offered. A debate allows us to judge who has the quicker wit or the more amiable personality. It is a poor forum for coming together, for by nature, it is a defensive proposition.

(If every time your elders needed to make a major decision they debated it on the stage in front of the congregation, what would be accomplished but divisiveness?)

Is there an overlap between the so-called conservative mindset and the heart of an irenic spirit?