White often engages in public debate, having participated in more than 150 public moderated debates, covering topics such as Calvinism, Roman Catholicism, Islam, Mormonism, the King James Only movement, Jehovah's Witnesses, and atheism. His debate opponents have included scholars such as Bart Ehrman, John Dominic Crossan, Marcus Borg, Robert M. Price, Joe Ventilacion of Iglesia ni Cristo and popularizers such as Dan Barker and John Shelby Spong as well as Islamic scholar Shabir Ally and South African Muslim apologist Yusuf Ismail.