Barry C. Black has been the Chaplain of the U.S. Senate for over two decades. On October 23, 2020 he virtually delivered a speech to the World Conference of the Professional Speechwriters Association titled Releasing the Power of Responsible Rhetoric. It was published on pages 19 to 22 of the January 2021 issue of Vital Speeches of the Day magazine. He said that:
“Immaturity and childishness speak first, then understand what has been said, and then think about the consequences of what has been said. Spiritual maturity reverses it: Think, understand, speak. Think of what needs to be said or written. Understand the impact that it could make. And then write it or speak it. Strive for spiritual maturity.”
And, in the first paragraph on page 20 he gave a historical example from a speech by Martin Luther King, Jr.:
“And on and on again, he was emphasizing normalcy never again. But Mahalia Jackson, a much better speechwriter, had heard Martin speak time and time again, and she can be heard in the background saying, ‘Tell them about the dream, Martin!’ He plowed on. Now is the time, now is the time… ‘Tell them about the dream, Martin!’
Wyatt Walker and others had realized they had labored through the night writing this wonderful conclusion so that Martin wouldn’t tell them about the dream. But as he reaches the point for the peroration, there’s a pause. And Martin flips over the manuscript and goes rogue.
I say to you today my friends, that despite the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.
And the rest is history. The speech is not known as ‘Normalcy – Never Again.’ It’s known as the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech.”
At the web site for the C. S. Lewis Institute you can also find an eight-page pdf of his speech titled Praying Your Way Through Life’s Challenges.
The floral cross was adapted from this image at Openclipart.
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