“AN APPEAL TO EMOTION”

An appeal to emotion is a rhetorical or persuasive strategy where the media personality, politicians, writers, or clergy seek to elicit an emotional response from the audience to convince them of a particular viewpoint or action.  We see this on the 24/7 news cycle, politicians on the campaign trail, newspapers, and clergy begging for money or an altar call.  This “appeal to emotion” focuses in invoking fear, pity, love, anger, or really any emotion to persuade the audience, rather than using facts of logical arguments.

This is a manipulation.  These emotional appeals are used by unintelligent people to influence the useful idiots’ decisions or beliefs by exploiting emotions rather than engaging with people with a rational decision-making process using critical thought.

The goal of the politicians, news media, and clergy is to by-pass rational thought.  Granted, in religion, faith is a huge factor and no level of rationality can dare explain it, nor any brain science.  However, clergy use this form of manipulation all of the time.  Essentially—emotion over sincere relationship with God.  Politicians replace God with government.  It is interesting to watch.

Vulnerability exploitation is huge in appeals to emotion.  Politicians, news, and clergy exploit people’s fears, insecurities, and desires, leveraging these feelings to sway opinions or actions to guilt people’s opinions or actions in a direction that the speaker can best control.

These emotional appeals distort reality and deal in exaggeration.  I see politicians and clergy distort the Constitution and Bible that lead and divide people to political parties and denominations—and this creates a BIAS.  Once someone has a bias it makes it so much harder for people to objectively evaluate information or alternative viewpoints.

This is why Jesus was so “matter of fact” in His delivery.  He used parables rather than hyperbole.  He rarely showed emotion.  He stayed on point with no deflection.  It is kind of hard to show “slight of hand” magic when He was calling Lazurus from the dead, and even the resurrection of Himself.  Simply not possible.

So, why does the media, political talking heads, and clergy do this?  Emotions are powerful, but never last for long, hence the desire for these agencies to perpetuate that emotion to maintain control and power.  Perhaps I am too sinical to fall for such probes and prods.  I want to see it, feel it, know it.  I assure you that I have seen, felt, and know God…but it wasn’t because of someone else.  It was because I went on the quest to find Him, know Him, and feel Him.  This is why God is so personal.  This is what makes God so real for me…as I made the choice to put myself on the side and desire Him to fill and fulfill me.

HIM, NOT ME.

Here is what I am seeing in the church.  Individuals sin on every side—republican, democrat, left, right, liberal, and conservative.nnI am not talking about individual sin right now...I’m talking about party platforms and their publicized moral trajectories that we see in the media every day and in the court rooms.

On foundational Christian ethical issues, the sanctity of life, sexual ethics, the definition of marriage, gender, the authority of Scripture and the Church, and the structure of the family, the far left has not merely drifted away…it has openly and brazenly redefined what Christianity is...and it seems to have no intention of aligning with historic Christian doctrine and practice.  This vapid appeal to emotion is only inclined to make people feel warm and gooey and not challenge the spirit.

Those new evangelical and even catholic doctrines are often treated as outdated, oppressive, or harmful.  While simultaneously acting like they care what scripture actually says about the poor, disenfranchised or the immigrant…there is a cognitive dissonance throughout the entirety of God’s church.

So for me, this isn’t a minor policy disagreement.  There is a theological fracture when the clergy is too afraid to preach on sin, hell, the rapture, abortion, death…they want to tickle ears to keep butts in the pew and money in the plate.