Lux Debate Club exists for three purposes:

1. to glorify God and enjoy his blessing;
2. to educate and train middle school and high school Christian students in the principles and techniques of critical thinking, logical argumentation, debate, public speaking, research and teamwork, as well as important academic topics, such as government policy and current events;
3. to pursue and achieve excellence in performance and competition.

Our First Purpose and Reason for Existing: To Glorify God and Enjoy His Blessing

The first and foremost goal of Lux Debate Club, and our most important reason for existing, is to glorify God and enjoy his blessing.  In this pursuing this goal, we take our cue from the first question and answer of the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

What is the chief end of man?  

Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

Glorifying God, and enjoying his blessing, does not happen in a vacuum.  It doesn't happen accidentally.  We must be intentional and thoughtful about it.  In the context of debate, we believe glorifying God and enjoying his blessing especially entails a thoughtful focus on integrity, excellence and kindness.

Integrity

In middle school and high school debate, many of the judges are not experienced debaters themselves.  They tend to be parents of students participating and/or members of the community - often friends of the families involved.  And most of them have not studied the debate topics and do not have in-depth personal knowledge of the topics.  Thus, it's relatively easy for experienced debaters, especially "smooth talkers," to trick judges by misrepresenting evidence and communicating half-truths or outright falsehoods.  The temptation to cut corners with integrity is especially powerful in debate, in circumstances in which students must think and react quickly and when the difference between winning and losing is oh-so-close and invitiations to national championship tournaments are on the line.  And factor in the fact that championship performance in high school debate can win acceptance to, and even lucrative scholarships for, America's top universities, and the temptation to play fast and loose with the truth - or at least cut corners with integrity - becomes very powerful yet insidious.

Standing tall and looming large over this temptation, however, are Jesus's words, "What shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul?"  And what shall it profit a high school student if he or she wins a national championship and garners a full ride scholarship to an Ivy Leage school but sacrifices his or her integrity?  Some things are more important than winning.  Living with integrity is one of those things.  In Colossians 3:9, the Apostle Paul exhorts us, "Do not lie to one another."  We believe this is a moral mandate that all Christian high school debaters should vigilantly strive to obey at all times.

Dishonesty in debate can occur in various ways, such as: (i) misrepresenting evidence by taking a quote or statistic or data point out of context to distort its meaning; (ii) misquoting evidence; (iii) stating an outright falsehood; (iv) allowing an error in fact to stand without correcting it; or (v) hiding or withholding evidence in order to keep the judge or a debate opponent in the dark about an important issue in the debate round.  Tricks like these may help debaters win debate rounds, but they will cause the debaters that delpoy such tricks to lose their integrity.  It's not worth it.  But because of the pressure to win, the temptation to cut corners with integrity is powerful and insidious.  Therefore, Christian high school debaters should be ever vigilant to guard their hearts and minds against these temptations. 

Excellence

We also believe that an attitude of glorifying God entails pursuing excellence in all we do.  In debate and speech competition, we believe this means putting in the hours of requisite study to do our homework and be prepared.  As a fundamental precept of integrity, we don't want to fake it in a debate round - that's dishonest.  But we also don't want to be shown to be unprepared.  We want to be thoroughly knowledgeable of the topics of debate and discusion.  That requires the hard work and discipline of preparation - there is no way around it.

Christians should be leaders in society - leaders in government, leaders in business, leaders in academics, leaders in media, leaders in banking, leaders in communities.  And we should lead with excellence - diligence, due care, professionalism.  Our goal is for Lux Debate Club to be a training ground in excellence for future Christian leaders - leaders of our community, state, nation and world.

"Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."  (I Corinthians 10:31)

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might."  (Ecclesiasties 9:10)

"Render service (or, work hard) with goodwill, as to the Lord, and not to man."  (Ephesians 6:7)

"Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if anyhthing is worthy of praise, think about these things."  (Philippians 4:8) 

Kindness

Debate is competitive.  It's not for the weak of mind nor faint of heart.  A debate round between strong competitors can feel like mental "hand-to-hand" combat.  Under such stress and duress, it's easy for emotions to get out of control and for frustration, irritation and even anger to take control and cause competitors to act in ways that are not becoming - especially not becoming of Christians.  Christian high school debaters should be constantly on their guard against such negative emotions and strive to keep themselves composed and controlled and display an attitude of compassion, graciousness, gentleness and kindness at all times.

"Christ ... suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps. He committed no sin, neither was any deceipt found in his mouth.  When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to rigtheousness.  By his wounds you have been healed.  For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls."  (I Peter 2:21-25)

"Jesus said, 'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'"  (Luke 23:34)

"The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness.  God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will."  (II Timothy 2:24-26) 

“God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”  (James 4:6)

"Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for 'God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'"  (I Peter 5:5) 

Our Second Purpose and Reason for Existing: To Educate & Train Christian Students

The second most important goal of Lux Debate Club is to educate and train middle school and high school Christian students in the principles and techniques of critical thinking, logical argumentation, debate, public speaking, research and teamwork, as well as important academic topics, such as government policy and current events.

The purpose of Lux Debate Club is not to win debate rounds, obtain trophies, win tournaments and win national championships.  It's really not.  It is imperative to keep the big picure in mind.

Martin Luther said, "The devil is God's devil," meaning that God is control of the devil - not the other way around.  And we say that California is God's California; New York is God's New York; Texas is God's Texas; the United States of America is God's USA; and planet Earth is God's world.  God is in control.  God's will will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.  God's kingdom will grow, and like the mountain of Daniel's vision, it will fill the whole earth.  Our desire is to be God's servants, to be his stewards, to help advance his kingdom in this world.  Our vision is to train Christian students to become change agents in this world for the LORD, to have a redeeming influence on our culture, and to take back California, New York and Texas, and the United States, and the whole world for Christ and his kingdom.  Our vision is not of high school graduation and scholarships to elite universities.  Our vision is of students growing into men and women who bring God's truth and light to this world throughout their lifetimes and have a multigenerataional impact.  Post tenebras lux!

Our Third Purpose and Reason for Existing: To Pursue & Achieve Competitive Excellence

The third goal of Lux Debate Club is to pursue and achieve competitive excellence.  But it's not about winning - it really isn't.  It's about the process.  It's about the discpline.  It's about the character development.

Winning is nothing.  Trophies are trinkets.  They have literally no intrinsic value and their only representative value is a sign of achievement.  But winning is not the achievement on which we are focused.  Instead, we are focused on the pursuit and achievement of excellence in all we do.  Thus, we are right back at goal number one: to glorify God and enjoy his blessing.

Eric Liddell is a modern Christian hero.  He was a Scottish gold medalist runner in the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.  At the Olympic games, Liddell refused to compete in his best event, the 100-meter sprint, because the qualifying rounds were held on the Lord's Day, the weekly Sabbath.  Liddell, as was his custom, attended corporate worship in church, instead.  (Eric Liddell knew the meaning of "never on Sunday" decades before Truett Cathy popularized that term.)  Instead, Liddell competed in the 400-meter sprint, which was not his best event, and, unexpectedly, won the gold medal in that event.  (Eric Liddell is the subject of the Oscar-winning 1981 film Chariots of Fire.)  Liddell is famous for, among other things, this quote: "I believe God made me for a purpose.  But he also made me fast.  And when I run, I feel his pleasure."  This is a beautiful quote, and it captures the desire we have for our students to feel God's pleasure as they follow a disciplined process of diligent work and study and the pursuit of excellence, with integrity, humility and kindness.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling theword o f truth."  (II Timothy 2:15)

Of course, when excellence is achieved, trophies and championships will come.  But those trinkets are not what's important - they're more of a distraction than anything else.  The process is what is important.  The preparation for a life of serving the King of kings is what is important.

Membership Information - Our Organization & How to Join

Lux Debate Club is located in beautiful Bell County, Texas, about an hour north of Austin.

We support students in competitive speech & debate tournaments in the National Christian Forensics & Communication Association ("NCFCA"), the Christian debate & speech league.  Membership in our club is open to Christian students, ages 12-18, whether in homeschool, private school or public school.  (We also have a juniors program for younger siblings, ages 8-11!)  If you are a Christian family in Bell County or any of the neighboring counties in central Texas, we'd love to talk with you!  (A signed statement of agreement with the Nicene Creed by at least one parent is a requirement for membership in our club.)

Cost: 

The cost to join Lux Debate & Club is $400 per family per academic year. 

Full scholarships / fee waivers are available to families experiencing financial hardship.  (If this is your situation, please don't be shy - let us know, and we'll be happy to accomodate you and do this in a discreet, private way that respects your privacy and dignitiy.  We're here to serve the LORD - don't let money get in the way!)

If you are interested, email us at luxdebateclub@gmail.com or call 408 203 7981.  We look forward to hearing from you!