Christian teen debaters think, speak on their feet

Christian teen debaters think, speak on their feet
500 homeschoolers from 34 states compete in national championship
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© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com

BELTON, Texas – In stifling central Texas heat, and amid raging thunderstorms and tornado warnings, hundreds of well-dressed, well-coifed, homeschooled teenagers from 34 states competed in the national championships in debate and speech with top winners coming from as far as California and Virginia.

It was the culmination of a year of local and regional tournaments around the country for the National Christian Forensics and Communications Association – a growing organization producing articulate young citizens and highly sought-after recruits for some of the nation's top colleges.

The NCFCA debate league was founded in 1995 by Christy Shipe and her father, Michael P. Farris, head of the Home School Legal Defense Association, or HSLDA, and chancellor of Patrick Henry College. Shipe saw a need for a forum in which homeschoolers could participate in competitive forensics and collaborated with her father for a solution.

The solution took the form of a league specifically designed for homeschooled students, and was originally called the "HSLDA Debate League." The league was fathered by Farris' organization at its inception, but when it began to take on its own identity due to exponential growth, Shipe and Farris knew it was time for the organization to mature. It was separated from HSLDA and renamed the "National Christian Forensics and Communications Association" in 2001.

In the last five years, according to NCFCA President Michael Larimer, the number of participating families has tripled. The organization now retains over 2,000 affiliate families. As each family often contains multiple participants, the real number of competitors is closer to 5,000, with clubs and debaters located in 45 states across 10 regions.

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