I’m sure many of us by now have heard preachers often found outside of Willard, the Hub, or somewhere downtown and seen the white “The World is Ending” van with its bullhorn accompanied speaker creeping up Shortlidge. A few weeks ago I was waiting to cross College Ave when I noticed a man waving his Bible around and shouting, “SINNERS will go to hell...UNBELIEVERS will go to hell...WHORES will go to hell…” As I was watching him, he paused and we made brief eye contact. It was cold--one of those days where I often feel like I’m fighting a losing battle against the wind and oh! there goes my scarf again--so I looked at him and said, “Aren’t you cold?” He glared at me. “YOU will go to hell.”
Now, I’m not here to blast anyone’s personal beliefs, but when I think about it, this man used rhetoric in the least effective way I can possibly imagine. He wasn’t talking to any of us, but rather was talking (or shouting) at us. He did make an appeal towards pathos, probably hoping to instill in us a fear of hell, but this also proved to be unsuccessful, at least for me, because his use of ethos was nonexistent. All I could think of as he told everyone around him that they were going to hell was Who is he to tell us this? How do I know how morally upright this man is? Maybe he is a sinner, an unbeliever, a whore. The very fact that he was screaming at all of us simply hurt his ethos.
We’ve also learned about how important it is to connect with your audience. After all, if your audience isn’t listening to you, what’s the point? This is another mistake this preacher made. He didn’t try to create any sort of closeness with his “audience;” if anything, he pushed them even farther away by speaking down to them and acting condescending. In today’s world, religion can be such a hot topic, and one must be careful how they phrase their words if they want to convince someone. Perhaps his words will hold sway over someone else, but for me, “You’re going to hell” just doesn’t cut it.
This may be one of the greatest things I've heard in a long time. I think people who preach idiotically are just making all religious people look band and are turning people like me off to organized religion even more. Fact of the matter is, "a perfectly good Christian" could pass him and he'd tell them they're going to Hell too.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I don't like when people try to push religion on others. It's completely arrogant and ignorant. I have a stern belief in my religion and to be judged so randomly doesn't make sense.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post -- and a sad one, too, I think. I agree with Roxie's statement. He isn't considering his audience, and even if they might have taken him more seriously if he had used a different approach, his audience is very unlikely to consider him when he reduces his message to shouting and accusation.
ReplyDeleteThis is a lose-lose situation for all involved, unfortunately.