Would you rather be scared into submission or moved to submit? Both are very effective as I will show. Jonathon Edward’s “{Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, describes his views of a vengeful God and man as sinners. Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” is known as one of the most motivational speeches ever given. I would like to begin by describing what these two powerful speakers and speeches have in common, and will include their differences as well.Edwards and King both are very powerful speakers. They know how to capture their audience’s attention merely through words. Both King and Edwards wanted people to change their ways, though not for the same reason. They both put all they had into their speeches making them very emotional speakers. With their words they painted pictures of what they wanted the people to think of as they listened. Although they had much in common in terms of speaking they had even more differences. For example: King tried to motivate people, tried to make them feel good about equality. While Edwards hammered at his congregation using guilt and fear to get them to accept the Lord. Edwards portrayed God as being a less compassionate God than most people picture him as. “God has so many different, unsearchable ways of taking wicked men out of the world and sending them to hell...”“...natural men are held in the hand of God, over the pit of hell...” are vivid examples Edwards used to scare his congregation. Edwards described man as loathsome weak people and they owed a great deal of reverence to God. Edward’s opinions about man were so straight forward and strong that he even included mere children in his views of pathetic and evil man: “...the foolish children of men do miserably delude themselves in their own schemes and in their confidence and in their own strength and wisdom...” His phrases were fierce, ...
