Debates

Brother John Mary Disqualified from Debate

Brother John Mary has disqualified himself from the debate on the subject of the Church of A.D. 325. He has broken every possible rule of scholarly debate, including blatant ad-hominem argumentation and egregious violation of the topic parameters. On any scholastic level, this debate is over, as my opponent has demonstrated a complete inability to behave in a civilized, let alone Christian, manner. I cite just a few examples from his most recent posting:

Further, he has demonstrated that he has no intention of sticking to the subject at hand. For example, he spends a great deal of time talking about Luther's 95 Theses, which are posted on our web page for completely historical reasons. Such only confuses the issues, and adds nothing to the debate. Luther was not a Protestant when he wrote the Theses, as I have pointed out to every Church History class I have taught on the subject.

Also, the most recently posted rebuttal (which was not sent to us, and no notification was provided to me that it was even available) is more than 2740 words in length....over 240 words above the limitations designed by the St. Benedict Center itself. To add to this, rather than providing in-text citations, hyper-links are used to add citations without adding to the word limitations. It would be quite easy for me to add hyper-links to all sorts of my own statements, and write long text files as documentation, but such would hardly be fair or right. I have provided my citations in the text itself, with those citations counting against my word count. My opponent's actions are unfair and far outside the spirit of the original agreement.

But most amazing is "Brother John Mary's" behavior with regards to the debate itself. Shortly after I began the debate, I was contacted by a Christian man who forwarded to me the following comments made by my opponent in an e-mail to him:

Jose:

I already started mopping the floor with White as can be evidenced by reading my opener. ::Hint:: One of the best mopping jobs I will do is when White tries to explain away the canons of The Council of Nicæa. I'm already laughing.

The only thing that an interaction between White and myself will show is how men of truth can really beat up liars. So don't get cocky about the White debate. When I ask YOU some of those questions, you will also be crushed -- cause you can't answer them.

Brother John Mary, M.I.C.M. (Mary Worshipper)

I imagine many prots like you are already wringing their hands wondering why James has not yet responded. You should see the ton of e-mails from both camps. This reminds me of a wrestling match I once saw, where the good guy was sucker-punched when taking off his jacket. This is what I have done to White. The debate hasn't even really gotten into the thick yet, and he's dazed from my sucker-punch opener. :))))

These exchanges were followed by another in which my opponent wrote the following:

"You know very well White's getting his scrawny little Prot butt kicked."

Interestingly enough, when I forwarded this to the St. Benedict Center, things got real quiet for quite some time. I was not even informed when my opponent posted his next reply, nor was it forwarded to us. Finally, I wrote again, and the responses I got in reply say volumes. Rather than answering for his comments, my opponent insisted I sign the following statement:

"I, James White, guarantee that I have never in my entire life, ever said anything at all about anybody that could be considered derogatory. Most importantly, I have NEVER made any such statements about any of my enemies, opponents or competitors in my entire life -- so help me God! If I have, and I am accusing Brother John of the same, then I wish God would strike me dead for being a hypocrite and a phony for attempting to remove the speck out of his eye while maintaining the plank in my own. I challenge anyone to bring counter-evidence to light."

And by the way: Why don't you start acting like a man by not being a crybaby, ok? I think Vinnie Lewis was right about you.

I wish to respond to your complaint about my lack of the use of Christ-like language: You viper! You white-washed sepulchre! (Full of dead men's bones.) Get behind me satan. Ok? Happy now?

A question: If I admit I made that statement, are you willing to turn the other cheek as Christ said we should? :) Or do you plan to pretend to have righteous indignation and run away from the debate using this incident as an excuse?

For most, such behavior would be more than sufficient to end any and all contact with someone who, obviously, has severe problems in the field of behavior (one is forced to wonder if this is not his intention, allowing him to then claim "victory"). But as there is an opportunity here to present the truth, I shall continue with the debate. The reader, however, should be aware of the background.

A note to serious Roman Catholic readers: I am fully aware that the St. Benedict Center is not representative of Roman Catholicism as a whole, and is even unorthodox in their beliefs. I have had more than one Roman Catholic make note of this in correspondence. And, I am aware that the behavior of John Mary is reprehensible to all serious Roman Catholic apologists, professional and lay alike. I do not take his antics as being reflective upon serious apologists of my acquaintance. At the same time, please realize that these folks do have a presence in the Internet, and do present what looks like arguments based on fact or Scripture. My sole desire is to demonstrate that their arguments are without merit.