Stephens Use Of Ethos Pathos Logos

Christianity’s View of the World’s Controversy

Rhetorical Analysis One

Matt Walsh published the article “No, Christianity Should Not ‘Welcome’ or ‘Include’ Your Sinful Lifestyle” publicly in response to an email he received from an anonymous person. The email he received accused Matt of being hateful, prejudiced, and exclusive to particular communities. Matt’s address gives Biblical evidence to support his claim that the homosexual lifestyle should not be included in the Christian churches and asks “What changed” (Walsh) within the doctrine taught in churches and when did this type of lifestyle become “ok”? He does, however, say that the churches aren’t excluding the homosexual community, but that the community is excluding itself from the

churches because the churches aren’t willing to change the doctrine in order to fit in with the world. At the end of the passage, he states that he isn’t fearful of the LGBT community, but that he tolerates the people included in that community and invites them to “come to Christ remorseful and empty handed.”
This article was a well written and composed piece meant to inform the public on current controversial topics.

Walsh’s intent of this article was to respond to a message he received and to show his view on controversy situated in today’s society. His use of pathos and logos is strong in this article. With biblical references and examples using those references, Matt gets a good grasp of ethos as well. A lot of the pathos Walsh uses comes from questions like “Do you want to leave your earthly pleasures behind, cut off whatever parts of your life are causing you to sin (Matthew 5:30), and die with Christ?” (Walsh). The logos comes from the extensive use of facts that he obtains from his ethos. For example, he states, “A sin is still a sin, and He instructs us to ‘go and sin no more’ (John 8:11)” when arguing that homosexuality may be considered a lifestyle in today’s standards, but not in the eyes of the Lord, and for one to come unto Him, one must drastically alter his or her way of life (Walsh). Walsh likes to use words such as ‘struggle’, ‘begging’, ‘pleading’, ‘hungers’, and other thought promoting adjectives to give his article the depth it needs to really hit the feelings of the reader. This pathos is strong as he places everyone in the same boat using the words ‘we’ and ‘you’ in such an extensive manner as he goes on to say that we, as individuals, have to fix our mistakes to become like Him in all that we do. The use of these words makes the reader ask themselves questions like “Am I good enough?” and “Where am I going in life?” Not only does Walsh use biblical references, but also quotes Chesterton and C.S. Lewis to establish that many authors out there have written against such a sinful lifestyle saying “… if we accept Heaven, we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell” (Lewis, “The Great

Divorce”).
The usage of ethos, logos and pathos Walsh uses makes this article an incredible read. Controversy is chewed up and spit out into an entirely new light as he counters arguments and insults he receives. Walsh did a great job to inform the public on this matter.

Ethan Campbell
Writing 2010
Alyssa Crow
25 October 2015
The Struggles Between Life and Religion
Rhetorical Analysis Two
Robert Kirby, a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune, wrote “How Much Pain does Your Faith Cause?” to show that faith can do incredible amounts of harm in a person’s life as opposed to the good faith can do for a person. Kirby relates the story of ‘Buddy’, a stalwart and worthy member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Buddy was a good young man, bright and spiritual, and eventually went on to serve a mission for the church. After his two year call, he arrived home and declared that he doesn’t believe the words of the church anymore and that he would become an atheist. Kirby asks about how a person of faith would view an atheist. Would that person be judged? Is he/she damned? Kirby later says faith shouldn’t get in the way of one’s life and loved ones.
Kirby uses logos and pathos in a way that constructs this article very effectively. The life story that Kirby gave for Buddy really does pull at the heart stings in a way that gets the reader to develop feelings of sympathy and sadness about the way others around him, especially his family, treated him after declaring he was going to be an atheist. Kirby doesn’t mean to pick on atheists, but just that he’s using them to make a point, a point that any change in faith can cause a rift in families. He could have used any other religion in the world to make this point. He asks questions that get a person thinking such as “Does your faith make you feel better about him, or is your belief in your theology a constant source of worry and sorrow for you now?” The questions get the reader to evaluate decisions that have been based on their faith and see what could have been done differently to accommodate for such a life-changing event. Pathos is strewn hither and thither throughout this article, but the end contains the most logos. Kirby uses several points to show that even a person who is devout in their faith can and may cause a lot of pain in the life of some one that is held dear to them. An example of this comes from an instance of family members ostracizing a sibling or a child on the premises of a disagreement in personal views. He also addresses the nonbelievers as well. “Another note: This also applies to nonbelievers who so firmly suppose they’re smarter than believers that they can’t relate to their loved ones anymore either” (Kirby).
Though Kirby makes effective use of logos and pathos to compose a great article, I disagree with a few points. Kirby states, “Religion… isn’t just divisive because we exclude and sometimes even kill one another over it. It’s also great at silently torturing loving relationships to death.” Yes, wars have been fought because of religious differences. Yes, there are people out there that chose to exclude people because of different points of view, but Kirby is making a general assumption that ALL religion is silently killing relationships in the world and that everyone who is religious is judgmental to those who aren’t affiliated with their church. He calls people out for being “idiots” that believe “in a plan/god/spirit that would condemn Buddy for being a wonderful human being but unfortunately not a believer” (Kirby). There is no plan regarding salvation in any religion that would condemn anyone for not believing in some type of deity. It is a good article, but is full of generalization.