I agree with Rhology, there were no "aha"sin the debate. In fact, though it is not about me (God's grace excels in my weaknesses), I would give my own performance / presentation a mediocre rating at best. It wasn't horrible; but on reflection evidenced a lot of rust. I was disappointed that Pacwa danced around so many issues, particularly during cross exam, which ate up far too much of my questioning time. On reflection I sense he did this purposefully to monopolize the time as much as possible. I let him go on far too long. There are many thing I wish now I would have said and done differently (a quotation from Augustine's view of what "this is my body" means to counter Pacwa's closing statement come to mind). But this kind of reflection is typical of these kinds of events.
The audience was indeed mostly Roman Catholic, which was another disappointment. And as is typical in these debates, the Evangelicals respected the "no applause" rule, and the Roman Catholics blatantly ignored it, applauding on several occasions when Pacwa happened to raise his voice to a new decibel. To them, it was clearly about making points, not about truth. Each time I got up to speak, I could see the grimaces, the pointing, the shaking of the head, and the laughter on the faces of so many of them--same thing I experienced in '99 with the San Jose debate against Matatics. I could also hear the grunting and groaning each time I made a point. Many Evangelicals approached me afterward and confirmed they had witnessed these same things. To be fair, a good number of roman catholics approached me post debate to say they enjoyed my presentation, and were very respectful--but the rabble is always present in these things.
The big thing for me was the quick adjustment I had to make at the last minute. I had prepared a PPT presentation organizing all my points, and had planned to work off that presentation during the evening. We arrived at the auditorium rather late and nothing was set up. There was a mad rush to get tables and chairs on the platform, as well as to set up the book stores. As a result, there was no time left for the coordinators to set up the projector. That left me to "redo" and reorganize my presentations on the fly while Pacwa was giving his opening statement. That resulting in my losing sight of several points I had intended to make, and at one point resulted in a lost quotation that acted as a foundation to illustrating rome's adherence to sola ecclesia. I recovered it, but that kind of thing can through you off when the video cameras are rolling. More later.
The audience was indeed mostly Roman Catholic, which was another disappointment. And as is typical in these debates, the Evangelicals respected the "no applause" rule, and the Roman Catholics blatantly ignored it, applauding on several occasions when Pacwa happened to raise his voice to a new decibel. To them, it was clearly about making points, not about truth. Each time I got up to speak, I could see the grimaces, the pointing, the shaking of the head, and the laughter on the faces of so many of them--same thing I experienced in '99 with the San Jose debate against Matatics. I could also hear the grunting and groaning each time I made a point. Many Evangelicals approached me afterward and confirmed they had witnessed these same things. To be fair, a good number of roman catholics approached me post debate to say they enjoyed my presentation, and were very respectful--but the rabble is always present in these things.
The big thing for me was the quick adjustment I had to make at the last minute. I had prepared a PPT presentation organizing all my points, and had planned to work off that presentation during the evening. We arrived at the auditorium rather late and nothing was set up. There was a mad rush to get tables and chairs on the platform, as well as to set up the book stores. As a result, there was no time left for the coordinators to set up the projector. That left me to "redo" and reorganize my presentations on the fly while Pacwa was giving his opening statement. That resulting in my losing sight of several points I had intended to make, and at one point resulted in a lost quotation that acted as a foundation to illustrating rome's adherence to sola ecclesia. I recovered it, but that kind of thing can through you off when the video cameras are rolling. More later.
), I really wanted to hear it. I think I'll load it into my iPod and listen to it during breaks tomorrow. Regardless of how you may think you did, I always learn from you, regardless of whether it is in writing, on your blog, or audio. I'm sure I'll glean some nuggets from the debate. Thx.