Persuasive Techniques: John Edwards

Persuasive Techniques The art of persuasion is a feature that can oftentimes, work to one’s advantage. In order to be persuasive, one must use persuasive techniques to convince a reader or listener to one’s viewpoint. Old sermons, such as Jonathan Edwards, “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God”, are written to drive home a message or to bring the sinful back to the church. Beth Chapman’s modern speech, “Stand Up for America Rally Speech”, is proposed to convince Americans to support the troops who are laying down their lives for our freedom.
The two authors use the persuasive techniques of repetition, appeal to emotion, through charged words and the appeal to reason, through common sense, in order to influence their listeners and persuade their audience that their viewpoints are correct. In “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” Edwards uses the persuasion technique of repetition. Edwards uses “…The wrath of god…” (110) many times which make the people feel uneasy and scared of their sinful ways.
He implies that God is furious with them and has them on the edge of hell. Beth Chapman also uses repetition with “…human shields…” (1). She feels that our troops go to war to fight for our country and celebrities are mentioning that they want to become “human shields” when they don’t do nothing. She is frustrated that all the “human shields” are the cops, military and other public authority while celebrities are mentioning that they want to help but they don’t really do anything.

Repetition is used to enforce the message and or get to the main point or idea to an issue. A technique that is found in both “Sinners in the Hands of An Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards and Beth Chapman’s “Stand Up for America Rally Speech” is emotional appeal. Jonathan Edwards describes “And now you have an extraordinary opportunity…” (111) by stating that the people still have a chance to be able to save his or her self and go to heaven.
He uses it to make the people in the church uncomfortable and feel guilty about their sinful ways. He stresses that they still have an opportunity to enter into heaven. Beth Chapman uses emotional appeal with this quote “…Fact that this country has been forced into war- innocent people have lost their lives…” (1). Beth Chapman uses this quote to approach the people that soldiers do all the scary, hard work and celebrities mention that they want to serve as human shields.
Another persuasive technique that both Jonathan Edwards and Beth Chapman use is analogy. Edwards says “And your destruction will come like a whirlwind…” (109). He compares your destruction with whirlwinds because whirlwinds are like tornadoes which cause destruction and damage. Beth Chapman also states “when the USS Cole was bombed, there were no movie stars guarding the ship- where were the human shields then…” (1) Her anger towards the movie stars is that they weren’t their serving as human shields.
Analogy is a technique where both Edwards and Chapman who often uses figure of speech for desired emphasis. Jonathan Edwards and Beth Chapman all employ a variety of persuasive techniques in their sermons and speeches. Their goal is to try and convince their listeners to agree with their viewpoint. Whether it is to scare churchgoers into rededicating themselves to God, as in Edward’s sermon, or to stand up for what you are fighting for the messages all produce intense emotional responses from the readers.