The Rhetorical Situation of the Billy Graham Sermon

Reverend Billy Graham, one of the most well known evangelical preachers, has addressed his message with specific solutions aimed toward individual and societal problems, and has even used television broadcast technology to broaden his audiences. Three theories, the “rhetorical situation,” by Lloyd Bitzer, “generic constraints and the rhetorical situation,” by Kathleen Jamieson and “language is sermonic,” by Richard Weaver will be utilized to explore the questions, “How does Rev. Billy Graham define the specific exigence in relationship with the rhetorical situation? And, does he address the rhetorical situation by use of rhetorical discourse while following the sermonic genre or by using plain language that is sermonic? According to Lloyd Bitzer, “an exigence is an imperfection marked by urgency; it is a defect, an obstacle… (It) is rhetorical when … positive modification requires discourse or can be assisted by discourse.” Analysis includes three sermons from the Billy Graham Crusade (Classic) broadcast from the period of the 1960s-80s, which are currently broadcasted via the Trinity Broadcast Network. While Graham may change the main topics in his discourse and scripture for each sermon, his overall message is the same. Graham suggests the same exigence and offers the same modifications or solutions, which would make his rhetorical discourse an invitation for any rhetorical situation.