Preparedness and it relationship to fairness

Christian’s Wombat Banner Concept Drawing

A couple of things happened last night that lead me to think about preparedness and its relationship to fairness.  First, Kelly and I listened to a debate last night between two scholars on the historical evidences for the resurrection of Christ.  Second, Lorena and Christian went to a meeting for which Christian had spent several days preparing.  It was not a particularly positive meeting, but it turned out to be quite educational for all of us.

There is a fellow named William Lane Craig who has Ph.D.’s in philosophy and theology from the best universities in the world.  He does not believe exactly what we believe, but as a scholar of the Ancient Near East specializing in the time and place of Jesus while he was on this earth, there is none better.  He has participated in many debates about the history of Jesus, the existence of God, Christian particularism, and other scholarly topics.  Neither his atheistic opponent nor the moderator of the debate who took the side of the atheist were prepared for Dr. Craig.  Craig won the debate and $2001 for the charity of his choice for two reasons.  Truth was on his side and he was wildly better prepared than his opponents to represent the truth through kind, gentle persuasion and firmness in the face of obfuscation.

I have heard the man a number of times.  Every time, he not only wins his debates technically, but persuades others to at least consider his way of thinking, both because of the strength of his arguments and because of his gentle, firm spirit in dealing with aggressive and even rude opponents.  I think there are two reasons that he can maintain such a spirit.  First, the truth is on his side.  Second, he is just way more prepared than his opponent.  In this debate and virtually every other debate I have heard, when the opponent sees that he is losing, he tries to change the subject.  Last night the subject was “Did the Resurrection Really Happen?”  At least two times during the debate, Dr. Brian Edwards, Craig’s opponent tried to change the subject.  The first time he tried to disprove the existence of God; This was not the topic of the debate.  The second time, he tried to debate original sin; Again, not the topic of the debate.  Both times though, Craig was ready.  He was better prepared than his opponent on those topics, too.

Christian has always been very good about getting ready for things.  The first time it really came up as a topic was when he was in the second grade.  The teacher asked each of the students to prepare an oral report for the class.  We talked about it and I showed him how to use index cards as props for his speech.  On his own, he wrote up many cards and was able to give a wonderful speech without a hitch.  As is his modus operandi, he spent several days researching and preparing materials for last night’s meeting.  He learned a lot about the subjects and was prepared to help others learn about the subjects.  He was the only one that did any preparation at all for the meeting, and with the exception of one little friend, all his preparation was ignored, disdainfully by some.

How do you explain that the preparation combined with the right spirit will almost always win if anyone is really paying attention?  How do you explain that those times when it does not win does not mean that the preparation and the maintaining of a kind, humble spirit was not worth the effort?  Unfairness happens.  It will continue to happen in the future.  We do not need to like it, but we do need to keep working and keep a right spirit, especially when it is not fair.  That is what William Lane Craig did.  More importantly and under the most extreme of all experiences, that is what Jesus did.  They both won in the end and so will Christian.