Dear Eleventh Grade, This year, we will learn to pay attention to the ways that rhetoric is used in society around us. We will see it employed in political speeches, advertisements, news bulletins, and maybe even in our churches! People try to persuade us to do or think or believe what they want in almost every area of our lives. You may even, without knowing it, use rhetorical techniques to talk to your friends or your teachers or your parents. Rhetoric is not a bad thing, but it is important to be aware of when rhetoric is being used so that we can discern whether it is being used to manipulate us or promote truth, beauty, and goodness. Requirements Each quarter, you will be required to write one blog post (250-500 words) describing an instance in your life where you saw or heard rhetoric being used. Be sure to include: Where you saw/heard rhetoric used. What the speaker/advertisement wanted to persuade you to think, believe, or do. Whether their argument was reasonable
So this Wednesday I was at my youth group and one of the leaders Josiah gave a very good sermon. The sermon was about forgiveness. This sermon made everyone there have a different point of view on forgiveness. His sermon gave me a different point of view on forgiveness because it is personally hard for me to forgive. Say if you trusted someone with something that is not able to be shared with others and they went behind your back and told people. Then those people told their friends and eventually the whole school knew. It would be hard to forgive them afterwards because you trusted them and they broke your trust. So this sermon made me realize that it will be hard to forgive, but it is the right thing to do because Jesus died on the cross to show us that he forgave us of all our sins. Jesus went through a violent death all to show how much he loves us and that he forgives us. Forgiving is going to be a struggle for everyone no matter what the situation is. I do think that his sermon w