I presume that many of you atheists who have debated the bibles more contentious subjects such as slavery and stoning have been met with the reply "You took it out of context!" I have experienced this myself and it usually intuitively seems like a cheap cop-out. So to help refine my own ability to debate such subjects with specifics I ask the following (not necessarily in the formal order or structure I put them in):
1) Your first argument in a nutshell (whether it being pointing out how the bible advocates slavery or murder)
2) The theists counter argument "You took it out of context!" (IE. how some of the practices in the old testament aren't relevant to the new testament)
3) Your counter-counter argument (sorry for the double negative)