The Art of Persuasion

The above comic is just an illustration of a question I have been thinking lately while putting this blog together. Are we, as a society, loosing the art of oral persuasion? I have come to ask the question more and more as I have closer contact with people from all different walks of life, in all different countries. I am astounded at the amount of personification a simple telephone conversation can convey.

I know someone reading this is going to say that it is unfair to judge a person just by the way that they talk. But is it really? We all have heard that the first impression is the worst one to have to change. Linguistics is an art form, and it is one art form I am afraid we are loosing. I have a few reasons to think why:

The propagation of electronic media, such as the internet and blog sites such as this, has caused a large increase in antisocial behavior. One could argue that sitting at a computer and instant messaging each other is a conversation, but it is not meaningful. Speech is used to convey meaning and to show emotion. I feel that my four year old son will be more computer literate in the next few years, than I will ever be.
Our society is increasing valuing individualism vs. communal behavior. Going to church is no longer held in as high of esteem as it was, family activities such as games and family outings have been relegated to the past in much of today’s society. We know, as a society, that the two biggest things that shape and influence our growth and values are the family, and religion. Both of these have been given less and less value. We now see church as a place of entertainment and not as a place of enrichment and spiritual growth.
Increasing cynicism and questioning of motives of anyone in a position that requires oral persuasion, i.e. politicians, pastors, leaders of large companies and so on. This reputation is earned because of the sins of the few, not the sins of the whole. If you ask just about anyone today what the overall trust is that they have in politicians and CEO’s you are probably going to get a pretty low vote of confidence. I do not say the same about pastors because I do not feel I should speak for the many hard working pastors out there, though, a precedent has been set in the minds of the masses.

I do not write this without having put a little bit of thought into what I think us, as Christians need to do to remedy this situation. I have been reading a book called The Government of the Tongue by Richard Allestree and I think he sums it up pretty well:

“BY what hath been said, we may define what are the grand Uses of speech, viz. the glorifying of God and the benefiting of men. And this helps us to an infallible test by which to try our words. For since everything is so far approvable as it answers the end of its being, what part soever of our discourses agrees not with these primitive ends of speech, will not hold weight in the balance of the sanctuary. It will therefore nearly concern us to enter upon this scrutiny, to bring our words to this touchstone: for though in our depraved estimate the Eloquence of Language is more regarded than the innocence, though we think our words vanish with the breath that utters them, yet they become records in God’s Court, are laid up in his Archives as witnesses either for, or against us: for he who is truth itself hath told us, that By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. Mat. 12. 37.”

I believe that as Christians we have got to teach our children not only how to act as a Christian, how to believe as a Christian, but also how to think and persuade and teach in a way that is honoring to God. I believe we are in a cultural war that our generation, and the next, is going to have to fight diligently and with great fervor. We need to raise children who are able to provide not only the eloquence, but the witness to a generation that God is good and he is the only one who can save our souls.

Let’s commit ourselves to having family meals together, going to church together, and living life together as a family. Ball games are important, and so are piano and ballet practice, but in the end, our job as parents and members of the older generation is to exhort and to mold our children into Christ like character. The best way to do that is to model it ourselves.

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