Cultural Rhetoric

On February of 2006 in Monterey California, Rick Warren gave a speech at the TED center about “A Life of Purpose”. Warren starts off by introducing himself as the author of  “The Purpose Driven Life” and goes on to say that he is often asked why so many people are still reading the book even several months or so later. The reason he gives is because the world is faced every day with “spiritual emptiness”. This kind of hit me; God is not physically present and often times it is hard to know that He is there. We long for Him and we have this “spiritual emptiness” that needs to be filled because without Him we really do not have a purpose. Rick Warren says that we live day to day saying, “I’m living”, but what happens is we wake up, go to school, come home, do homework, eat dinner, watch tv, and then go to bed. In the end nothing ever changes. What is the point of all that? What do we get in the end? What’s our purpose? There has to be more to life. The truth is, we DO matter, we DO h...

My church is in search for a preacher, but at the moment, John Mark Niehls has been preaching. On November 11th, he started a 4 week series titled “Called to Glory; Gender in the Eyes of God”. His purpose for this title is simply because traditional/biblical marriage has fallen apart since the roles of men and women have been misunderstood. The world has the wrong idea of who plays what role,and it is very important to understand each role in order to be able to give God full glory. He designed man and woman to work together, each having their own role, so that they can be unified as one and honor God in the way He deserves. John Mark did an excellent job throughout the four weeks of showing why traditional marriage and gender role is so important. He started off with week one talking about how the world has distorted the designed roles, that control has shifted away from allowing God to lead, and then he went on to mention why it is so important to try and resort back to the traditi...

This past Sunday afternoon, I was watching football and as the commercials came on, a lot of it just went in one ear and came out the other, but one in particular caught my attention. A Citizen’s Bank commercial came on and started off by saying “Dear fellow citizens” as a mom, who works at the bank, helps her daughter get ready for school. As the mom buttons up her daughter’s jacket, she goes on to say that she understands what it is like to not have enough money and to want to teach your kid how important it is to save. Throughout the commercial, they show the mom’s name badge and make it known that she is trustworthy. As she walks her daughter to the bus stop, she makes it known that if anyone has any questions about one deposit checking which “waives the monthly maintenance fee”, they can come to her. It then concludes by saying, “Sincerely, Samantha Parke, fellow mom and fellow citizen” with her name in the corner of the screen, allowing the audience to take note. This commerc...