Rhetoric, in turn, is one of the most central aspects of teaching the gospel. Rhetoric and persuasion can be found throughout gospel teachings. Whether preaching as a missionary or just simply giving a talk in sacrament meeting, people use the gospel in attempts to change others' lives.
As a missionary, one's main goal is to convince investigators to live by gospel teachings and standards. By simply promising investigators blessings and a better life, missionaries use rhetoric everyday. A missionary's ultimate goal is to change an investigator's point of view, ultimately convincing them of the truthfulness of the gospel. The very basis of the church is molded upon the idea that people can influence and persuade others in order to help them progress spiritually. Similarly, when one gives a talk in sacrament, or bears his or her testimony, his or her main objective is to communicate to the audience his or her own feelings and beliefs. The speaker, by sharing personnel stories and beliefs, tries to influence the congregation to see the gospel from his or her point of view. As a result, the most engaging stories, testimonies, and talks are often the most influential upon listeners. On the other hand, speakers that don't intend to communicate a message are generally boring and don't accomplish anything.
Lastly, while much of the church involves persuasion, the other major portion involves the desire to come to meetings, lessons and classes to be further educated in the gospel. One's desire to further his or her own understanding of the gospel is yet another example of the other side of rhetoric. While generally only considered the act of persuasion, the receiving side of rhetoric can be the most influential part of the church. People attend meetings to learn, be persuaded and to mold their own personnel beliefs in hopes of making themselves better people.
Rhetoric in the church is used to persuade people to live the gospel as well as to help people define their own beliefs and ideals more carefully. Whether out of personal motivation or not, rhetoric will continue to remain an important part of not only the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but religion as a whole.
I like many of the things you point out, like how our church is molded upon rhetoric. However, I feel like you fail to recognize that while the use of rhetoric is important, it loses its power when not done in conjunction with the Spirit. Rhetoric is only as powerful as the Spirit. If a person tries to use rhetoric to convert someone to our gospel without the Spirit, rhetoric loses is persuasive aspect. This is only in regards to religion and missionary work. Without the Spirit guiding, rhetoric is just language.
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ReplyDeleteYour analysis in the third paragraph as to why we would choose the desire to go to church and understand principles, is shoddy. You don't even juxtapose good rhetoric vs. bad rhetoric and why we would choose the good. The temptation of temporal pleasure is often more appealing than eternal! Further, you fail to recognize the decadence of skepticism and rejection in spiritual matters. Better insight into the distinction of how we appeal to good rhetoric instead of bad rhetoric would be nice. Engagement as the method good rhetoric uses is a moot point at best. More often it is used by the earthly lure of temptation and sin, because the spirit (which is not recognized very well in your analysis) is more subtle. In the third paragraph you also project the assumption that people want to be progressive in their understanding of the church. This is fundamentally untrue. As a matter of fact this is often what makes people fall away from the church. Look at the rhetoric there. Your examples can't even hold up because they deconstruct the exact problem you try to build up.
ReplyDeleteAustin, wanting to progress does not make people fall away from the church! In fact, personal progression, also known as "the perfecting of the saints" is part of the church's mission here on earth!
ReplyDeletePersonally, I thought you (you, being the author, not Austin) did a great job pinpointing where and how rhetoric is used in the Gospel. Like Spencer, I think you need to point out that rhetoric is dead without the Spirit to back it up (I think you try and do this in the end where you talk about personal desire, but it needs to be more clear where people's motivation comes from). The most convincing rhetoric is often against the church, because you can appeal to logic and jusr say there is no proof of God. Also, your main ideas were good, but you need some more specific examples. Everyone has probably had experiences with the speaker who has no point and rambles on for eight minutes, but if you gave a specific time this happened to you it would seem more real and less hypothetical. Little typo: personal stories not personnel stories
I really enjoyed you point on how the receiving end of rhetoric is the most important. It is true that no matter what a person says, it is all about how the listener responds. This is where agency comes into play. Great ideas!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, I will definitely make sure I analyze both sides of the argument more fully next time. I will also make sure and mention the spirit for it does play a key role
ReplyDeleteAustin.... That was so harsh! I thought he brought some really good points to the table. Ben, I really love your example of missionary work mixed with rhetoric. It's so true that missionaries use rhetoric every day out in the field. If they didn't know how to use the right rhetoric, no one would ever listen to them, thus leading to fewer baptisms and a halt in one of the most important works in the Church. Good work.
ReplyDeleteI liked your point that even a person's desire to go to church meetings is a type of rhetoric. I think most of us perceive rhetoric as "bad," but your post made me think that even though the use of rhetoric can have good or bad motivations and intents, rhetoric itself is not evil; it's just a means of communication.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the comments on this post, I agree with Haley's complaint that Austin's comments were harsh. I think what happened is he disagreed with you on several points, and then attempted to tear apart your argument simply because he disagreed with you. I don't think you made a perfect argument, but I think you made a strong one, that does not suffer from many of the complaints that were made.
ReplyDeleteI like what you said about the "receiving" side of rhetoric. It reminds me of one of the chapters in Boyd K. Packer's book "Teach Ye Diligently"--the church is not just about what does it give to me, what can I gain from sacrament meeting, from someone else's lesson, but rather taking on the attitude "what can I give?" How can I use this to help others. For President Packer you can be a poor or a good receiver of the lessons and blessings and rhetoric of the church.