"Perfecting the Columbo Tactic" (Class 3 recap)

On Monday April 13th we met for our third class to study the book Tactics, written by Greg Koukl.

We started off the class with a short quiz on the topic of "Who was Jesus?" as a review of the On Guard material. Terrence went over the answers to our quiz from last time on the topic of morality and handed back our grades. Remember, each person's quiz grades will be summed from week to week to and there's a rumor that a prize will be given out to the person with the highest overall score at the end of the course! So keep studying. The quiz for next time will either be on Suffering (On Guard chapter 7) or Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? (On Guard chapter 8). 

Next we reviewed the lessons from our first session of the Tactics course and then started the new material from this second session. The topic this week was about "Perfecting the Columbo Tactic: Exposing a Weakness of a Flaw". 

This third step in the Columbo tactic involves careful listening, insight, and practice. It requires us to see the flaws in others' arguments and lovingly expose it.

No one likes to hear that they are wrong. So to soften the blow when exposing a weakness, use an indirect approach by starting with things like, "I'm just curious...", "Maybe you can clear this up for me...", or "Something about this bothers me...". Additionally, ask for permission to share an alternative way of thinking or asking if they think an alternative would work better to help ease into your challenge.

An example of this third step that we discussed was a response to the hypothetical challenge: "you shouldn't push your morality one me!" The flaw is that this challenge indicts itself. It is telling me what I ought to do (morality) which is the very thing it is saying not to do! So we want to help to other person see that contradiction. We could respond by asking if the person is making a moral claim in telling us what not to do in order to gently expose the flaw.

Finally we discussed what to do if someone uses the Columbo tactic on you. What if you are in the hot seat? First, stop the advance. Then regain control. And if all else fails just ask if you can think it over for a while and get back to the other person. 

The presentation from Monday is available digitally on the website here.

Next time we will meet on April 27th, same time, same place (starting at 6:45pm with coffee, desserts, and fellowship). Hope to see you there!