Is there any point in debating Protestants online?

No.

Thanks for visiting the blog once again, see you next time.

Okay, not so fast. I'm assuming you would like a longer explanation to this question. I just wanted to offer some of my own personal experience and thoughts concerning debating Protestants. Also, if you are absolutely required to debate, I wanted to provide some pointers as to perhaps better ways to deal with such situations.

Just today I noticed there was a post from the Vatican on Twitter. I believe the post was related to a plenary indulgence being granted by the Church. In response to the Vatican tweet, a Protestant was throwing out disparaging comments regarding indulgences and temporal punishment due to sin. I popped in and asked what his purpose was for coming onto a Catholic twitter account just to say he doesn't agree with a point of Catholic teaching.

I gave a brief explanation of Catholic beliefs regarding indulgences but also said I was not interested in debating him any further. Here's why:

I don't really think in 99% of the cases, there is any point in debating non-Catholic Christians regarding the Catholic Church. It does very little good, and probably only entrenches the other side more than they currently are. I applaud people and groups who have gone out there to do apologetics work for the Church such as Catholic Answers. In fact, Catholic Answers has been huge in my Christian life. But for the most part, I find there is little if any value in debating with Protestants. Let's get more specific.

First of all, when debating there are a few things I've noticed.

The burden of proof is always on Catholics. The format is always the Protestant grilling the Catholic on every point of doctrine and the Catholic being in a position where they must justify and defend every Catholic teaching perfectly. The Catholic is always on the defensive. The Protestant on the other hand is rarely questioned. He takes the role of questioner and the Catholic assumes the role of "answerer". It's an unfair and biased format to begin with.

If the Catholic who is forced to respond to these accusations is well-versed and able to handle himself well, the Protestant employs his next tactic: rapid-fire questions. If he accuses the Catholic of worshipping the Virgin Mary and the Catholic successfully refutes him on that, he immediately jumps to indulgences and how they are not Biblical. Having responded to that line of attack, the Protestant yet again jumps to one of a dozen topics he has ready.

Clearly the opponent is not at all interested in clarification or understanding. Rather, he is simply seeking to destroy the other side. He is not asking questions in good faith. He is trying to find rhetorical victories. There are many things wrong with this approach. One thing I've seen is some Protestants insisting that Catholics hold a certain belief despite the fact that they don't actually believe it. They copy-and-paste documents and quotes from anti-catholic sources to "prove" that Catholics do in fact believe certain things.

I find this very strange. To me, it would make sense to find something Catholics actually believed and then attempt to disprove it rather than trying to find something they don't actually believe and try to prove that they do. How does that make any sense? I suppose it is like what Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said:

“There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

If your strategy is to "prove" to the Catholic that he is wrong about something he doesn't actually believe, you have a terrible strategy.

I mentioned copying-and-pasting. This is another popular strategy employed by non-Catholics. I have in the past attempted to debate someone on a particular topic. I will personally write up my reaction to whatever they are saying and expect a reasonable response. Instead what I get is a very long copied-and-pasted text from some other source usually filled with dozens of errors. The person who sends it probably hasn't even bothered to read what I've written, but just proceeds to paste something from some random source that he thinks will cover what I said.

Do you really think someone doing this has any interest in coming to the truth on a particular topic? Often they don't even wait for a response and will post 2, 3, or 4 more multi-paragraph attacks. Do they think whoever posts the most words is the winner?

These are some of the strategical ways in which debating is pointless in this context. But there are other reasons why there are inherent pitfalls to Catholics attempting to debate Protestants.

One issue is the Protestant oversimplification of doctrines. Correct doctrine isn't about being simpler or more complex as such. Rather, it's about coming to the Truth. But during the Protestant reformation, when the Protestant movement came into being (about 500 years ago), they stripped away anything which prevented them from having a one-on-one religion with God. Anything that did not comply with this was wiped out. Priests, sacraments, the visible Church, all taken away. It became very individualistic. Because the Protestant religion is so simple, they often go into debates with bumper-sticker slogans rather than defined doctrine such as that found in the Catholic Church that has taken centuries to develop.

As an example, when discussing temporal vs. eternal punishment due to sin, a Protestant simply explained how simple it all is: "Jesus forgives everything!" and goes on to say no such thing as temporal punishment, etc. All so simple. Do something bad, God forgives, badabing badaboom! Do Catholics believe God forgives sin? Yes, of course we do! But we just haven't simplified every single aspect of every doctrine into 3 words. Somehow there is a belief out there that the simpler a belief, the more true it must be, which is obviously false.

Another issue when discussing any particular topic is that the Catholic Church has a two-thousand year history. During this time there have been great saints in the Church including Doctors of the Church who have written extensively on hundreds of topics. St. Thomas Aquinas, who is one of the main theologians of our faith, wrote many more words than the Bible. For example, his Summa Theologiae contains 3x more words than the entire Bible. On top of these writings, we have papal encyclicals, bulls, and other letters. Plus there are thousands of writings by saints throughout the centuries. These all make up our Catholic heritage and it is wonderful. However, when it comes to discussing any particular thing, it just means Protestants have millions of pages to distort and use as "proof" for their purposes. Things are distorted, not contextualized, etc. Often, writings are outright misquoted. Catholics are then forced to give an account for every word that has been written and defend it.

On the other hand, Protestants get off easy here once again. We cannot just bring up something a random Protestant once said about a topic and use it for a "gotcha" moment. The person to whom we are speaking can simply dismiss anything they can't explain or that they disagree with. They just say oh he doesn't represent real Christianity or I don't have to listen to him or her, he's not the Bible, etc. For example, I could say the prosperity gospel preached by Joel Osteen is wrong and a Protestant will simply say oh yeah doesn't matter, I don't listen to Osteen. On the other hand, when a non-Catholic brings up something a particular pope said or wrote, a Catholic can't simply dismiss it. They are once again forced to defend, perfectly, whatever that particular pope may have said.

Can Catholics win a debate with Protestants?
The answer to this question is clearly yes. We've seen great success from the likes of Jimmy Akin and Tim Staples in this area. I think in order to be successful in this area, you must be aware of some tips and strategies.

Be Ready and Be on Offense
Don't always put yourself in a defensive position trying to prove all Catholic doctrines. As much as possible, take the offense. For example, if a Protestant is asking about where something is found in the Bible, perhaps turn the tables by asking where the Bible says everything must be found in the Bible. I'll talk more about this in a moment. You should probably have a few major topics to bring up along these lines. Think about where the conversation could lead and be prepared. Have pointed questions ready that you can grill your opponent with.

Bible Alone
One major thing that must be corrected immediately is the Bible Alone proposition. Do not accept it at face value. Unequivocally, when entering into a debate with a Protestant, there will be an immediate underlying assumption that all correct Christian beliefs must be clearly stated in the Bible, otherwise they are false. Dispute this proposition immediately. You can ask rhetorically how we know the books that belong in the Bible. Who compiled the Bible? If the Bible doesn't have a table of contents, how do we know what belongs? Protestants will present parts of the Bible which refer to the Scriptures as being of great value, as well as verses saying no one should alter the Bible in any way, etc. But there is no list of books that belong in the Bible actually found in the Bible. Don't give in on this point. Otherwise you just go on the defensive. Tell them that Jesus Christ did not give us a Bible, he gave us a Church and that Church is the bulwark of the Truth. It's important to note that no teaching in the Bible, properly understood, contradicts Catholic teaching. The Bible is a Catholic book and there are many verses which prove the Catholic faith. All I am saying is to not accept the initial premise of Bible-Alone.

Stick to One Topic
I can't stress this enough. As alluded to earlier, the rapid-fire or machine-gun-fire questions are a favorite tactic employed by anti-Catholic debaters. They may simply present a laundry-list of issues they have with the Church to create a sort-of slam dunk moment because it's so overwhelming. Or they may bring up a subject they think is pretty solid, but when an informed Catholic begins to respond effectively, they simply switch to another topic. Don't worry, they think, they have dozens of these topics from which to choose. They keep switching from one to another until inevitably the Catholic opponent admits ignorance on a subject and they declare victory.

Force your interlocutor to stick to one topic until you are done discussing it. If they bring up a new topic, ignore it and just keep talking about the initial one.

Is there any point to debating Protestants?
Is there any point to debating with Protestants? 99% of the time I would say there is no point. For the most part, Protestant debaters are only interested in overwhelming you with massive amounts of text and when you don't respond to each and every objection, they simply declare victory. It's a pointless exercise. It's perhaps best to just wish them well and let them know you are not interested in debating.

There is however the 1% of the time when a person's main priority is not to debate as such, but to acquire information for their genuine curiosity. They want further information and want to truly discuss your faith. If an honest Protestant just wants to discuss, I don't have a problem with that. But that is rarely the case. Recently I posted a Youtube comment asking if anyone would like to discuss the Catholic faith and someone expressed interest. So I opened the dialogue. He asked me what I thought were the main differences between Catholics and Protestants. I answered. But then he responded clearly looking to debate me on the subject. I was a little let down that he approached me under false pretenses, but as mentioned, people not simply looking for the mic-drop moment are rare.

Conclusion:
I would say for the vast majority of the time, it is best not to engage in debate with anyone on the topic of your Catholic faith. Answer questions charitably but if it devolves into walls of anti-Catholic text, it's best to leave it at that, wish that person well and not return to that conversation.

Let me know what you thought about this article and your own experience in debating. Have a great day!