Well, this one will go down in the archives, that’s for sure. I know many of my readers have turned the Sippo materials “off” over time, mainly because his bombastic, insulting diatribes are simply not enjoyable to read. But if you have, turn the switch back on for just a moment, long enough to digest just a tiny little sampling of a much larger body of documentation of the kind of bluster and rhetoric that flows daily from the keyboard of the main apologist of catholic-legate.com, as collected on the fly by one of the brave souls who dares to press onward in speaking the truth in the midst of the Envoy web forums:
In a state of fear and panic James White has begged me not to debate him on justification! He grovels asking that I pick any other topic but not THAT!
My areas of special interest is St. Paul and Justification. I know that area inside out.
It is also the only thing that matters in a cath/prot debate. As Martin Luther stated the heresy of “justification by faith alone” (JBFA)is the doctrine upon which the Deformation stands or falls. If it can be shown that the prot doctrine of JBFA is false, then the whole prot system collapses and Catholicism remains standing triumphant. Purgatory is trivial by comparison and is indeed a derivative topic from Justifcation.
This is a grudge match, James. We debated this topic before and you lost. You have written several books dealing with Justification. Why are you afraid to revisit the topic now? You should be able to do this one in your sleep.
Puragatory is out. Our respective fans what to hear us do justification. We should give them what they want.
He is too cxowardly to face me in open debate on the very doctrine upon which the prot fraud stands or falls. Why? Because he knows I will demolish him. I already have and I would do it again if he were man enough to face me.
Of course, this tiny sampling could be increased a hundred fold, not only from going to Envoy but from going to Sippo’s website. Fourteen years of this kind of behavior. So, finally, I challenged Sippo to debate me on the topic he himself demands we debate. I arranged a local venue, right there where he lives. He doesn’t even have to take a day off of work, doesn’t have to pack a bag. We even do the video taping, and provide him, free of charge, an unedited master to distribute far and wide! After all these years of calling me a coward, a fraud, referring to me as “Pseudopodeo” (an alteration of one of my old AOL screen names), lying about me without even bothering to check facts, I finally get fed up and see a chance to combine an already scheduled event (lecture series on New Perspectivism in the St. Louis area) with the debate Sippo has repeatedly said I am afraid to engage in.
So, what’s the result? Well, it’s really quite simple: Art Sippo says I’m not civil enough. Yes, the man who calls Calvinism “demonic” and refers regularly to the “deformation” (Reformation) and “prots” and whose favorite words are “coward” and “fraud” and the like, does not believe I have been civil enough to him to accept the challenge to debate. You see, as soon as Dr. Sippo began writing to me, he was all sweetness and light. I immediately pointed out the contrast and contradiction between his public behavior and his private e-mails. He did not like this. I contrasted his current statements with his past statements, and he did not like this. What was more, he asked for my personal cell phone number, and I refused to give it to him. I was quite honest: I don’t trust him with it. But more, I had no intention of arranging any debate without doing it all, completely, in writing. Sippo lied about the pre-debate discussions with Bill Rutland only two months ago: why on earth should we arrange this debate any differently than we have all the others? I gave him the ministry’s number and who he should talk to (Rich Pierce, the man who arranges these things anyway). Sippo demanded my number or there would be no debate.
And so, the simple fact of the matter is, Art Sippo has no intention of ever exposing himself to a public debate on any topic at all against me. He has declined every challenge to public debate, and written debate. His bluster and slander has been demonstrated to be constructed out of nothing but wet paper towels, a facade with no substance, loud fury backed by match sticks. If Sippo seeks in any forum whatsoever to misrepresent this situation, I will post, en toto, every bit of the correspondence that has been written over the past two days. Those with the slightest bit of familiarity with Sippo’s long history of anti-Protestant harangues will be able to see the truth of the situation instantly.
And with the close of this saga, I turn my attention, Lord willing, finally and solely, to John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg. Seattle and Alaska are right around the corner….
