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Live Debate

The Duke Of Marshall

The Duke Of Marshall

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Ladies and gentlemen,
Just wanted to give everyone a heads up and let everyone know that I will be taking part in a live debate that will be streamed over the internet on the subject of plural marriage. The link is below. The debate will be streamed live on January 24th at 6:00pm and will also be available for on-demand viewing after that. The participants will be myself and Allen W. McDaniel from Florida. For those in the Asheville, NC area or who will be in the Asheville area at the time are more than welcome to attend and be a part of the live studio audience.

The debate format will consist of opening statements by each participant, followed by submitted questions from the moderator with approximately 2 minutes response time, and ending up with closing statements from each participant. If you would like to submit a question to be considered for inclusion in the debate, please email your questions to debate@soundbytes.biz The deadline for submitted questions is Tuesday January 22nd.

http://www.soundbytes.biz/debate/
 
The questions asked by the moderator during the debate will consist of questions submitted before hand by anyone who wants to submit a question for either the pro-plural marriage side (aka moi) or the pro-monogamy only side. Don't feel obligated to submit a question though. I'm sure we'll have plenty to come through during the next week.
 
I submitted 3 questions.

Can you tell me more information about Allen W. McDaniel ? He is a Christian? What is his faith? Is he a part of any organization? How did he come to this debate?
 
Is this the guy? http://www.allenmcdaniel.com/info.htm

I really get upset when people talk about themselves all the time, and don't give any credit to God for His work in and through their lives. This guy's info page is all about what he did. Four paragraphs about himself and his ministry, not a single mention of God, Jesus Christ, or any glory to God. I hope this is the guy you are talking about, as he seems in need of a good humbling. :lol:


Allen has been preaching the Gospel since the mid 1970's in a Spirit-led ministry that has ranged from the streets of New York City, Los Angeles and Miami to the streets of London, Paris, Havana, Caracas, Cartegena and Jerusalem—to the jungles of Central America and Africa.

In addition to having started churches in the U.S., Allen and his wife Alice have also started Christian schools (pre-K through 12th grade) and many Bible study groups across the country. Allen also serves on the Board of Directors of an accrediting body for Christian schools.

He has preached and taught in churches of more than a dozen different denominations throughout the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean Africa and the Mid-East. Since 1993 Allen has also combined his knowledge of the Word with his extensive experience in business and has been conducting seminars and workshops on Biblical principles in the workplace both for churches and for businesses.

Allen is a published author, The Master's Call, and is currently writing The Attitude of the Righteous, the first book in a new teaching series entitled Simple Truths for Complex Times. Please browse through this site for more information about his minstry.



OK, so I found one page ( titled "special notes") that actually gives God some credit for making him so awesome....
Really, I shouldn't pick on the guy. Here is a good quote:
I really dislike this web site because...
it causes me to focus on me rather than the Lord. My desire is to have a heart like John the Baptist, saying of Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease”
 
cnystrom,
I don't know too much about him, but I have met him several times and he's always been very polite and respectful. So I'm really not expecting anything to get heated or disrespectful. I do know that he has been mostly in the UK and some in Europe here lately setting up home study groups and churches.

The way he came to this debate is really none of his doing. Here at work everyone knows how I feel about plural marriage and various other topics. The guys in the office kept ragging me about it and Mr. McDaniel was supposed to be here last November. Well, before that, the guys in the office would always tell me things like "Just wait till Allen gets here. We'll have a debate and he'll set you straight." Unfortunately this was unbeknownst to Mr. McDaniel. They thought that a threat of putting me up against a preacher that they greatly admired would cause me to shy away and somehow run for cover. Well, as anyone who knows me will tell you, I hardly ever back down from something like this. So as time went on, so did the discussion about having a debate with Allen about plural marriage. I never backed down and kept welcoming the discussion.

So since we're a company that does streaming video for churches, the white house, state department, major tv networks, etc, the guys in the office thought they could raise the stakes and get me to back back down. They announced that instead of a debate just between us here in the office with Mr. McDaniel, that they would then set up a professionally produced live televised debate between Mr. McDaniel and myself streamed over the internet. But yet again, I stood my ground and welcomed the event. So last Tuesday they announced that Allen had finally had his surgery through the VA and was recovered enough that he would be visiting one of the guys here this week. So they decided to have have the televised event this Thursday the 24th. Well two of the guys here in the office had to go to DC last Thursday to setup and televise the inauguration. They should be coming back tommorrow, Tuesday, and we should be getting everything ready and setup on Wednesday and Thursday. So the set may not be the prettiest thing you've ever seen, but the content should be pretty good.

The crew on the back end is going to be fairly great. The boss here is an Emmy Award winning producer. His son who also works here is of the same caliber and will be doing a lot of the main setup. We've got a guy who used to work for the Billy Graham association doing the audio and the camera guy is very experienced as well. So regardless of how the set looks, the production quality should be pretty good.

Anyways, back to the point. Mr. McDaniel was "volun-told" more than "volunteered" regarding this debate, but he welcomed it and agreed to it all the same. Ever since the guys in the office started talking about the debate, I kept insisting that they tell Allen about the subject so that he could study up himself. Nothing against Mr. McDaniel personally, but after all, this is not really something they teach in seminary or give sermons in church on. The guys in the office kept insisting that Allen knew his stuff and that there really wasn't a need to really inform Mr. McDaniel of much. They said he wouldn't have any problem. So most of what I know about Allen is what the guys in the office have told me.

ChrisM,
Yes, that's Allen. You can also find him on http://www.bibletalk.com/info.asp where he and his wife do an online video ministry/study. His facebook is https://www.facebook.com/BibleTalk?fref=ts , Google+ https://plus.google.com/103660655297185321462/posts , and YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/awmcd?feature=watch . To be honest, I've never watched any of his videos, so I have no idea yet of what to expect from him.
 
So Allen does or does not know that he is debating about polygamy? If not, then you don't have a debate really. If he isn't prepared and you have had years to prepare then it just isn't fair. Of course, he may think that what he does know is enough to beat down silly poly man, and then he could claim it was a setup. I hope then that he has the info, and we will be watching if possible. Thanks for the update.
 
ChrisM,
Yes, he knows the subject is regarding plural marriage. Now whether or not he's studied up or not is on him. He should have known since November, so we'll see if he's studied or not. I made sure to insist that he study since they first mentioned him for a debate. Not to toot my own horn or nothing, but I've studied plural marriage for approximately 12 years now. Most mainstream christians really haven't given it more than a passing glance from a nightly news story. The part I think that really gives me an advantage is all the great people I've met and come to know over the years. Knowledge is one thing, but practice and/or testimony from others is another. As Isaac Newton said "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." I came across the information, Yahuweh gave me the understanding, and all of you guys have given me the experience. I'm only where I'm at today and understand what I do because of the many blessings of Yahuweh and the experiences and testimonies of all the great people I've met. At the very least, the latter is something that gives me, or better put "us", an advantage.
 
Thanks for the clarification. I figured I was reading it poorly. I agree, even those who may have considered the topic before generally come to quick conclusions to agree with what they already think and what society generally accepts. These don't know how to deal with passages such as the parable of the 10 virgins, the Titus and Timothy passages about elders and the use of the Greek words that don't say what people hope they say. I would give him a freebie and offer a copy of "Why do you believe that?" which is about enough to make the casual reader drop dead at these very simple things that most Christians have no idea about, let alone have studied in depth to an exegetical conclusion.

This is gonna be fun...
 
Just a friendly reminder that the plural marriage debate between Allen McDaniel and myself will be happening tommorrow at 6:00pm EST. Anyone in the Asheville, NC area is welcome to attend in person or if you're not able to be there you can watch the debate live at the page below.

http://www.soundbytes.biz/debate/
 
Nicely done, Todd!

Did McDaniel really end with "It's true the Bible doesn't explicitly condemn plural marriage. If I had written it I would have put that in there." ?? Wow. Good thing he's not God.
 
Thanks guys. Wasn't really the "here's my point and here's the evidence to back it up" type of situation I'm used to engaging in. Thank you guys and everyone else for all your prayers. The current count is 113 for the live viewing. We'll see about the on-demand.
 
We're finishing up the encoding and what not on the recordings, but I'll post an update here tomorrow when it's online and ready for viewing.
 
November 15th, 2005:
As far as 'against what the Bible is trying to teach us' I have to ask why are the authors, and ultimately the author (God almighty) so glaringly stupid? Mind you this is a rhetorical remark. You would have me believe that God spends thousands of years in direct contact with Polygyny and never get's around to banning it. It's practiced all throughout the scritpures, and he just forgets, right."
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And you actually got your opponent to say it.
 
Just finished watching the debate. Thank you for posting it Todd.

My thoughts on the final closing comments: If God's perfect plan for us was the garden and that is what we should all be striving for, then why was he wearing clothes to the debate?
 
Well done Todd, it was a less contentious discussion than I expected, I got the feeling that Allan's rather close to understanding scripture correctly already. All he needs is to be shown that God can have plans for others that are not the same as for him. The thing I found most fascinating was that Allen said straight up that the Bible does not condemn polygamy. Not what I expected! This concession by your opponent was the most valuable outcome of the entire debate.

He has a good attitude towards polygamy in missionary work, better than most in the church. It's good to see.
 
The other question I had was: did the conversation continue after the cameras were turned off and if so what was discussed and where did the conversation go?
 
eternitee said:
My thoughts on the final closing comments: If God's perfect plan for us was the garden and that is what we should all be striving for, then why was he wearing clothes to the debate?
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How do you click "like" on here?
 
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