Rhetoric Is All the Rage

Ironically, rhetoric is a hot topic among writers right now, be it professional journalists, topical bloggers, keyboard warriors, or hometown conversationalists. I say ironically because Webster’s main definition of rhetoric is “the art of speaking or writing effectively … as a means of communication or persuasion.” So, basically, communicators on every level are currently buzzing about the art of persuasive communication, especially when it comes to politics.

During a recent video panel segment of Fox News’ Special Report, Emily Compagno, co-host of Outnumbered, poignantly voiced to host Bret Baier what I believe are the current feelings of most everyday Americans on the topic of political rantings from both sides of the aisle.

“It’s frightening,” declared Compagno. “And it seems to me that violence has all of a sudden become the exclamation point on political rhetoric.”

I concur, but I still wonder why the current mainstream media buzz is centered so pointedly on rhetoric. Is this hot topic just a passing trend due to the volatile events that have taken place in our world over the past few weeks? Or is it another rhetorical ploy playing out at an opportune time, in order to persuade vulnerable people to think (and act) in a certain, desired manner?

In other words, is rhetoric just culturally relevant fodder for today’s conversation, or is it much more sinister than that?

While searching for answers to those questions, I discovered another interesting irony when I went to our nation’s two top online news resources and googled the word rhetoric.

Both sites, one known as conservative and the other labeled liberal, had pages and pages of stories containing my keyword: rhetoric. Granted, the political bent was obvious on both websites, with the opposite camp of each site being discussed as the culprit behind the dangerous rhetoric flooding our culture, rhetoric that is supposedly triggering all the violence we are witnessing each day.

One site covered a variety of possible problems with the current rhetoric, including a congressional discussion on wrestling with political rhetoric, the inflammatory rhetoric targeting immigration officials, as well as that which is aimed at judges, and how the president’s rhetoric fosters violence.

But after taking a deeper dive into the first couple of pages offered by each of the two news sources, one particular news site offered an overwhelmingly singular reason behind the “dangerous” rhetoric currently permeating our culture.

Any guesses on the identity of that common denominator? Yep, that’s right! President Donald J. Trump was suggested as the main voice of volatile verbiage presently fueling the violence in America.

In fact, in light of my keyword search, the first five stories offered to me by this website centered on the president’s political overreach, his varied rants, and three separate takes on his recent speech to the United Nations.

Most of these five articles and others in my word search from this site basically reiterated the same thought as the one from September 13, titled “Trump ramps up rhetoric against ‘radical left’ in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s killing.” Basically, the consensus is that our president is the problem behind America’s trouble because he uses “the Left” as his scapegoat: “We’re dealing with a radical left group of lunatics, and they don’t play fair, and they never did.”

It's not these exact words or any of the rhetoric within these Trump-bashing stories that bothered me. And let me also confess that it usually takes a lot to shock me when it comes to mainstream media. But this cursory glance at our nation’s two top sources for daily online news was extremely revealing to me because I quickly recognized the current buzzword of the day is rhetoric for a good reason – a very divisive reason, apparently.

Granted, words do matter.

In fact, the Bible tells us point blank in Proverbs 18:21 that the power of life and death rests in man’s tongue. It also adds a straightforward warning that those who love this power will eat its fruit.

In other words, as the well-known idiom (that comes from this verse, by the way) says, “Be careful what you say because you might have to eat your own words.”

America as a whole is definitely eating its own words right now. Or as the Bible more succinctly taught us in Galatians 6:7, we are reaping what we have sown for far too long.

So, here I sit, in front of my keyboard, writing words, or rhetoric, if you will, that will hopefully help us transform the lifeless seeds we have been sowing into more hope-filled words of love and life.

But my words, the words of President Trump, Emily Campagno, or any other person sharing their opinions openly and honestly – or even words cunningly disguised in persuasive rhetoric hold no real answers for the problems plaguing our nation. At best, our words are empty and devoid of anything that can promise hope.

In reality, we have no answers, outside of Jesus. That is the bottom line of our current cultural dilemma. He is our only hope.

Now, that may sound naïve or even ridiculous to you, but your doubt or disagreement does not negate the truth of who Jesus Christ is and the singular hope found in Him alone.

He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father except through Him.

That is the only rhetoric that really matters. Therefore, it is the rhetoric upon which I am building my life. And with every stroke of my keyboard and every word of rhetoric I type, I pray that you will do the same.

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