Elder Tad R. Callister is the Sunday School General President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He recently spoke at General Conference - a meeting held by the LDS leaders for those wanting to learn more and to draw closer to Christ - which was viewed by thousands. I will be analyzing the talk he gave at the Saturday Afternoon session of the October 2014 General Conference titled, "Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of Their Children." and his 2011 talk, "The Book of Mormon - a Book from God."In this most recent session (October 2014) Elder Callister spoke about the role of parents, and how they should be teaching their children not only how to have self-discipline and gain knowledge, but how to draw closer to Christ. He is qualified for this topic, as he and his wife have six children and 25 grandchildren.
In his 2014 speech, he started with a story about a man and tied it in to his topic: Parents should be better teachers. He had a very soft-spoken voice and tone, like he was lovingly criticizing the parents of the LDS church. Most of his talk were stories showing how parents magnified their calling and went above and beyond to teach their children. He showed the impact made, but he also used humor to keep the audience invested. In other words, his pathos kept the audience invested with his stories as well as provided ethos to talk about this subject and logos to create the "OH YEAH!" moments. He also provided ethos by quoting scriptures and relating the LDS scripture (the Book of Mormon) to today's times through the Stripling Warriors.
His soft tone and gentle way of pushing parents to step up is very different from his talk from 2011. He starts off this talk declaring boldly the truth about the Book of Mormon, with most of his talk being quotes from this scripture providing logos about his point. He also uses an example that is easy to be understood about two dots and a single straight line.
Elder Callister's tone in these two speeches are very different in approach, but both leave the audience/reader with a personal reflection on their life and a deeper appreciation for him. He knew that he shouldn't be as bold to parents about their parenting because that makes them defensive. Elder Callister understands his audience and knows how to best appeal to them and their lifestyle, while still getting his point across.
October 2014, "Parents: The Prime Gospel Teachers of Their Children"
October 2011, "The Book of Mormon - a Book from God"
I like when General Authorities know what kind of tone is needed for the topic they're speaking on. This seems to be another rhetorical element that they are very good at using, to adapt their tone to the subject matter and to the audience they are speaking too.
ReplyDeleteI think this talk goes well with Jeffrey R. Holland's address. Holland spoke to an audience of the poor within the church, while Elder Callister's anecdote commends a poor mother who blessed her children with her diligence and faith. Both talks manage to inspire secondary audiences in addition to the primary one they chose to address
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