I used to love debates.
Something about entering the arena of opposing ideas ignited my curiosity. Like a kid going to a live sports event, I would eagerly grab my seat to listen as the propositions would ping-pong between yes and no, liberal and conservative, the idealized right and the demonized wrong.
I loved when the debaters were prepared, the conversations were well-structured, and the tone was civil, and I also loved when panelists got condescending and petty. It blessed my little grinch-sized, battle-rap heart.
But today’s debates have grown more vitriolic than my soul can handle. Despite my regular devotion to fiery discourse, most intellectual debates and lectures have begun to feel haughty, distant, and irrelevant.
They feel like performances where academics impress other academics or politicians demean other politicians about issues far from my porch. While the questions for debate seem important to them, it’s always disappointing when I feel like there is no genuine response to the questions I have.
I first noticed the shift in the early 2010s. Megachurch pastor Rob Bell released a book that sparked debate about views on heaven and hell, with implications on how we view the reach of God’s love. I remember a great commotion of public theologians and Christian thinkers scrambling to create an apologetic reply to the things he shared.
I also remember my disappointment in the gap between my concerns and those of the White Christian influencers I followed on social media. While they spoke and wrote passionately about Bell’s ideas, no one in my church, community, or barbershop seemed to care. The distance between what mattered to those in the debate and what mattered in my community seemed like a chasm too great to cross.
This is not to diminish the legitimacy of Christian debate or to say that the concerns of academics and politicians don’t find themselves in the minds and mouths of those in my community—but it does draw attention to how public apologetics and theological formation are approached.
Courage to Transform
My disappointment with debate is not only ideological but also practical. What if my passion for intense dialogue diminished because the issues keep getting farther away? While most theological questions transcend culture and ethnicity, what about those that don’t? What about the questions specific to geography, ethnicity, and tribes? It begs the biblical question, “Who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8).
Just when I was about to give up on debate altogether, I ran into a woman who had questions of her own. Lisa Fields, a trained theologian and Black apologist, started the Jude 3 Project from similar disappointments with public discourse.
She spoke of her “transformative experience” as part of a preaching cohort with people from more liberal universities who showed her blind spots in her conservative thinking. At this intersection of opposing ideas, Fields created Courageous Conversations as a platform for Black Christian experts from various progressive and conservative spaces to discuss the issues and ideas that mattered most to Black communities.
Discovering the Jude 3 Project felt like finding a jewel in my backyard. It was apologetics for the urban context by thinkers in the urban context. I no longer had to wait for my favorite thinkers to address the questions on my corner. The answers and the apologetics seemed customized for me.
Jude 3 Project and Courageous Conversations embody the elements of debate I long for and love. They give space for everyone: evangelicals, ex-evangelicals, pastors, and seekers to lament and mourn while still venerating the church and centering Christ. It creates a platform for honest critique of the only institutional solution to a dying world.
While the debates are intense and the conversations can get controversial, Fields never allows the values of the critics to outrun the compassion and truth of God.
On August 29–31, 2024, Jude 3 will host another Courageous Conversations gathering in Washington, DC. The theme for this year is modeled after Fields’ new book, When Faith Disappoints.
The conversations will range from trauma to triumph as experts express their ideas on navigating the valleys of life with faith in Christ. We will lament and grieve our losses. We will defend the intricate tapestry of Jesus’ bride. Courageous Conversations operates in the parallax of evaluation and esteem.
If God allows, we might also revive our love for deep and relevant debate that leaves us more motivated and inspired than when we began.
Sho Baraka is editorial director of Big Tent Initiatives at Christianity Today.
