"I thought I did Awful" Breaking Down The Oxford Debate w/ Rev. Calvin Robinson

so Oxford yeah who asked you um what was the so I got asked by the Oxford Union to come along and I said okay so who's going to be on my side because the proposing side was this house believed in same-sex marriage in the church and I was like that's that's a big topic yeah and I was just you know I'm a new Deacon I only left summary last year I got ordained in Peter tied so I'm I'm brand new I thought this is you know quite appropriate for me to be honest I have a high profile sure but I'm not I haven't been a theologian for that long um so I said you know who's going to be on my side can we get my principal but he was busy he would have been fantastic um Dr Ian Paul was on my side uh very low church but very good on scripture uh very good on the Greek so for those who aren't aware these are kind of team debates is that right so you have four people on the proposing side four people on the opposing side and what actually happened was and we heard this at the union that every Catholic bishop in the country I've been invited to be on the opposing side decide that I was on not one of them accepted again head in the sun shame on them and we were against three Bishops sorry shame on them if they don't hold to the church's teaching not shame on people who choose not to engage in a debate because they simply no because they need to stand up for the truth man it's their job to defend their faith even if they were to do it if they would if they were going to defend marriage poorly they shouldn't be Bishops yeah because the Bible says that a bishop should be a good teacher okay right yeah no I I I see what you're saying all we have to do is defend holy matron yeah that's that's right it's not bloody rocket science is it it's sort of like when people try to confuse the topic of abortion by talking about how complicated it is like no no just don't kill innocent people it's all right fair enough yeah but we were against three bishops from the church of England which was the saddest thing so so the Bishops are fighting for heterodoxy and there's little me a newbie Deacon and and a theologian on the other side and we both get um so they had three Bishops and one student and we had me and Dr Ian Paul and two students was there any part of you that thought I might not take this when it was offered yes yes I didn't I don't think I actually wanted to do it but I felt a duty to do it yeah I thought if I don't do it no one else is going to do it they'll get another student in there and actually I'm so thankful that I did because the two students on our side argued for the proposition rather than the opposition they got up there and said we don't believe in this but we're gonna have to try and make a debate basically capitulating because they didn't want to get lynched by the work Moss yes just weak weak and feeble and poor Debaters actually if they wanted to be in a debating Society they should learn to debate for any arguments that's the whole point of debating you can play Devil's Advocate if that's what you're doing so we had six against two and and the arguments you know one of the Bishops said we don't follow the Bible in terms of divorce we don't follow the Bible in terms of contraception why should we follow the Bible in terms of marriage I'm like no the fact is that most Christians get their heads around all sorts of prohibitions in scripture for example what Paul says quite clearly about women not praying with their heads uncovered and not speaking in church it's very difficult to reconcile these passages with women leading worship let alone being ordained the same is true of course of the remarriage of divorcees which Jesus specifically prohibits but most in the church now accept as something which is not desirable but is something we have to countenance I'm like no this is that's my argument we should be following the Bible in terms of all of these things yes this is the mistake the goodness sake it was it was demoralizing but so I've done a debate at the Cambridge Union before and I you could see the physical agitation of them hearing the truth they hated it this was on colonialism actually and you could see that demons uh being afraid of the truth but at the Oxford Union it was silent you could hear a pen drop that was a different sort of hostility that was you could feel the negativity in the air like it was a light to match the place was set on fire um and that all the floor speeches so students can get up and make a make a speech to joining the conversation it's not really much of a debate everyone just makes a speech uh all of the floor speeches were like yes threesomes yes polygamy because I said you know if we're gonna get rid of the uh heterosexual element of marriage why not get rid of the monogamous settlement of marriage too why you know if two men is marrying his love why not three men why is that not more love and people like yeah yeah it is a stop pause here and say this was Thursday's favorite part can you reenact this for us so somebody didn't somebody like you said why not three men isn't that better and like one of the students yelled something and you yelled back at him uh shame degeneracy do you disregard the heterosexual aspect so why not the monogamous aspect too if love is love as we keep hearing who's to say that three men loving each other is not more love the two men loving each other [Music] I was like that's amazing I didn't even think that was just a natural spark of reaction but God yeah it was not nice and I came out of that feeling more depressed than I have about anything else I honestly thought that I'd failed I'd failed in the debate because the numbers spoke for themselves or pretty much all of the students voted for the proposition we didn't give we I think we got two digits out of all the students I thought I'd let God down I thought I'd let the church down and let myself down I was horrified by it um I was spiritually drained you crushed it and but this is it like weeks later it goes online and everyone great people like yourself saying well done I'm like well thank you I didn't expect any of that I remember I went to my college in Oxford the day after my principles like how did it go Calvin I was like still lost just when it goes on I don't watch it interesting and so this is the thing that when we are praying to be used as a vessel yeah God does that and we might not recognize it but he works through us and we have to be open to that I once heard a priest say Lord use even my bull crap as manure for their growth yes use it all yes isn't that beautiful I take great confidence I love that because I accidentally speak a lot of bullcrap so please Lord use all of it gee that's amazing and that does just go to show doesn't it how easily we are influenced I mean you seemed to be influenced by that negative uh response you got yeah such that you thought I failed but then you know those of us who try to hold to the truth maybe in a town that's completely against us we start to think well maybe I'm wrong like it is it is easy to be a coward well it's also that we need that affirmation ourselves that's our own sin we're like we need that feedback yeah like you mentioned earlier we have our phones and we we like to go as likes we like to get the viewers on the numbers going up and stuff like that it's the same so I would have liked to have seen people like yes he's right and voting in favor uh that's my personal sin but one of the reasons I always wear this collar is that we don't know who we're witnessing to we don't know whose Hearts we're touching we don't know who who we're leading to Christ and maybe it's not our job to know yeah you know so often I go on the tube and I always make a point of wearing my collar and people who are low church are actually against it a lot of people on my side of the Divide are like you know that's that's too Catholic or that's two whatever and the number of people who've approached me afterwards said you know I was having an awful day or I've had an awful week or you know my wife is in trouble or something serious and I saw I saw you I looked up I saw your collar and I have not said anything to them because we're silent on the tube in London and they're like I looked up and saw your call and I was filled with the presence of the Holy Spirit or was it reminded yes the Christ is comforted in my suffering or something lifted over me in that moment then that's just this that's nothing to do with me whatsoever that's just this reminding them of him and this is why I think it's so important that we we have to remind ourselves that it's not about us and we might never ever know how we're making an impact in people's lives by being used as a vessel yeah hey thanks for watching that clip would you like this beautiful very high quality definitely not made in China not that there's anything wrong with that pints with Aquinas beer stein for free sent to your door would you also like a copy of the Jill sent to your door four times a year this is the points with Aquinas newspaper by the way if you do go to matfred.locals.com and become an annual supporter for any amount we'll send you that stuff for free and you get a bunch of other free things in return you'll get more information by going over to mattfred.locals.com thanks

Channel: Pints With Aquinas

Views: 47,757

Keywords: aquinas, catholicism, catholic, pints with aquinas, matt fradd, theology, debate, religion, st. thomas aquinas, thomas aquinas, philosophy

Id: jMpgWgs5bnw

Length: 8min 44sec (524 seconds)

Published: Tue May 23 2023