Blog Entry #2

Barrack Obama’s speech, “The Connection Between Faith and Politics” contains various rhetorical strategies used to persuade and/or sway the audience.  Barrack Obama’s use of diction adds to the rhetorical appeal of ethos, further validating him as a reliable source of information, as he is an very important figure in America.  He starts by utilizing the strategy of an anecdote, “I want to give you an example that I think illustrates this fact”.  He tells the story of his 2004 General Senate Election verses Alan Keyes.  Alan discriminated against Obama’s opposing religious views, which set up for the point of Obama’s entire speech.  Obama also utilizes the rhetorical strategy of pathos, as he tells the story of Alan Keyes claiming, “Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."  This makes people feel Obama’s frustration towards the issue.  He also uses the strategy of logos by inputting statistics, “90 percent of us believe in God, 70 percent affiliate themselves with an organized religion, 38 percent call themselves committed Christians, and substantially more people in America believe in angels than they do in evolution.” This further validates his point of majority of America being religious.  Obama also uses the strategy of transition words to make the speech run smoothly.  Although many strategies are utilized the main ones are ethos, logos, and pathos, which make his speech very persuasive and swaying.

Blog Entry #1

Barrack Obama’s Speech, “The Connection Between Faith and Politics” which was delivered at the Call to Renewal’s Building a Covenant for New America Conference in June of 2006, expresses his views on religion and politics in America.  He briefly discusses controversial political topics such as poverty, abortion, and welfare, and  then quickly moves on to his main point that no issue will ever be solved until Americans can become more religiously tolerate of other peoples views and beliefs.  He refers back to the U.S. 2004 General Senate election where he ran against Alan Keyes.  In the debate, Mr. Keyes claimed, "Christ would not vote for Barack Obama because Barack Obama has behaved in a way that it is inconceivable for Christ to have behaved."  This statement really bothered Obama.  He felt as if just because he did not hold the exact same Christian views as Mr. Keyes, that he was being discriminated against and Jesus would shun him.  America is full of diversity, and since everyone comes from different religious backgrounds, not everyone will have the exact same beliefs.  He emphasizes the fact that people of all religions can be positive contributing members of societies, and Americans need to learn to accept others differences.  He expresses his belief that no religion is superior, and every American is equal, as that was the founding idea that this country was built on.  Obama reiterates the fact that until America’s tolerance for different religious backgrounds progresses, the opposing political parties will never be able to come to an agreement, and none of these issues will ever be resolved.  He concludes his speech with his prayer for America that one day, “we can live with one another in a way that reconciles the beliefs of each with the good of all.”