I really haven’t witnessed a famous person speaking in person. I have however, watched several speeches on television. The most recent is the President of the United States, Barack Obama. I want to describe the surroundings in which I viewed his inaugural speech. It was a big auditorium; all of the audience members were excited about this event. So the mood of the audience I was in was something I hadn’t experienced. There was something in the air that day that I just can’t describe. It was somewhat of a combination of excitement, hope, relief, and openness of what was to come. The theme of Obama’s campaign was “Change” and we were already for change and this allowed him to build community with his audience. Listening to him speak, I realized that he is a peoples president. He speaks in terms that all of his audience can comprehend which fit the occasion. I am not sure if was the atmosphere, the occasion, or actually witnessing this part of history and the words spoke from this man who is the first minority president to lead our country. I believe they are all factors because I believe I will remember this for the rest of my life.
I viewed a televised sermon from Evangelist preacher Rick Warren. I believe that it is important to mention the sermons are meant to be viewed for television. For those of you who have never heard of him let me give you a little insight. His theology is very anti-gay and last year it came out that he had engaged in asking for sexual favors from a male parishioner as well as purchasing crack cocaine. I knew this before I viewed one of his sermons. My own personal judgment had been made before I even heard him speak, my attitude, beliefs, and values that I had were a major factor of my impression of his sermon. The audience-speaker relationship had already been compromised. I also have to factor in that his sermon was filmed before all of this came out in the media. His sermon was one of the most longest and hard to endure that I have ever watched. Nothing he said made me change my views but it did make me question religion. I kept thinking what a hypocrite as I watched and listened.
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Hi SJSU Educated Fool,
ReplyDeleteLike yourself, I have never watched a really good speech in person. The most recent one I've watched on the Internet was President Barack Obama's speech during this inauguration. I must say that I experienced excitement, joy, hope, patriotic, and feel like we are going to embark on a new journey that we have never been on before. It was a symbol of a new change.
Regarding Rick Warren, I never knew that he committed in such remorseful and disgusting acts that contradicted the meaning of a pastor or the meaning of a Christian leader. That is saddening to me because leaders have such an effect on their followers so you would expect that the leaders would be morally good themselves or even practiced what they preach. I never knew that there were so many distasteful information on him (true or not, I don't know but I wouldn't be surprise if they were.) Anyways, I watched his sermon and prayer during the inauguration and I actually really liked it because he stuck to the core values of being a Christian and a follower of God(Christ). We all should be praying for our country no matter what God we pray to. The content of Rick Warren's speech was good, the delivery was excellent, he spoke slowly and calmly. As far Rick Warren himself, I am surprised to read what you wrote about him and I can only hope that he makes decision brings the greatest benefits to his listeners.
Signing out.
Events Dreamer
Obama is a great speaker. I guess we compare him to our last president who gave good speaches most of the time but not to the degree where people were touched and related to every message like history and meaning were being created. Another factor is the pre speech emotions and support that the country and world gave Obama leading up to the inauguration. A speaker can truly perform at a higher quality when people are behind you with everything that you stand for and hope to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteAs for your comment on preacher Rick Warren. I dont know to much about this guy but from what i do know and what you are mentioning is that a person like this is speaking with a lack of support and is under alot of scrutiny. This can lead to an audience that has mixed emotions and mostly someone that is not a entertaining speaker. I to would prefer to listen to someone who is talking about better and more truthful ideas.
I agree with DrewSJSU that a speaker does perform at a higher quality when the people listening are supportive of the message. Obama had a lot of supporters ranging from actors, sports figures, politicians, and CEOs. However, when he was speaking- it felt like he was speaking to the average person. I think that makes his a great speaker.
ReplyDeleteAdditionally, I think what you said about Rick Warren really relates to this weeks content on credibility. The audience needs to believe that their speaker, especially a religious figure, is truthful and morally good. I understand that nobody is perfect, however to judge people so harshly about their sexual orientation and then engage in it, is very hypocritical and discredits his credibility. The sad thing is that whenever he speaks now, his audience will have a hard time identifying and complying with him because of his actions.