Do evangelical ministers train to have southern/Texas accents?

[Feanor]

I’m jjust curious because this seems universal. Even those not from the south or preaching in Texas have this feature. I don’t get it.

And why is it “Read YOUR bible” and not "Read the Bible?’

Just musing here.

 

[grampben]

Define ‘evangelical minister’.

Southern Baptist? Independent? Low Church Anglican? Presbyterian? Lutheran?

All of these are evangelical, and it is silly to say they all speak the same way.

‘Read your Bible’ - i dunno, more personal maybe. Sort of like 'you know you own a Bible, why DONT you read it? I’m not sure…

 

[Feanor]

I’m talking CBN, TBN, televangelists, AOG, Church of Christ, tent revival type things etc. More of the bible literalists.

These types of churches would be fairly nill on ceremony- big on preaching- almost exclusively.

Some of these ministers aren’t even from these regions that’s what is peculiar to me.

I mean I have heard ministers from a completely DIFFERENT COUNTRY speaking this way.

Hope this helps.

 

[grampben]

I’m talking CBN, TBN, televangelists, AOG, Church of Christ, tent revival type things etc. More of the bible literalists.

These types of churches would be fairly nill on ceremony- big on preaching- almost exclusively.

Some of these ministers aren’t even from these regions that’s what is peculiar to me.

I mean I have heard ministers from a completely DIFFERENT COUNTRY speaking this way.

Hope this helps.

Hmm I can’t stand televangelists! Maybe because of the more firey tone of the southern accent? Or because they are often marketing themselves to the proverbial Bible Belt?

 

[With_Questions]

I’m jjust curious because this seems universal. Even those not from the south or preaching in Texas have this feature. I don’t get it.

And why is it “Read YOUR bible” and not "Read the Bible?’

Just musing here.

Darn. Another one of our secrets disclosed. There must be a leak in the evangelical illuminati.

But you found us out. At all evangelical colleges they have a semester long “Southern Accent” course that all ministerial candidates are required to take. That is where all evangelical ministers get their southern twang. It is quite a difficult course actually, my wife had to work to get a ‘C’ in it.

If you go into any Baptist of Aog church in any part of the country you should hear the pastor preach in a perfect southern accent if he has been trained properly by this course.

For example in my AOG church in Vermont, the pastor (who was born in Maine) regularly preaches in a perfect southern accent. Neat isn’t it.

 

[mabibleteacher]

Okay, are you seriously asking that question?
The answer is no. Evangelical ministers come in all forms, just like any other church leader. It may appear that there are alot of them that come from the south because culturally, the south accepts more charismatic types of worship than other parts of the country. The northeast for example has a history steeped in Puritanism which is very staunch and proper. Evangelical or charismatic forms of worship are not as readily accepted. So therefore, people who are called to that kind of worship would more naturally be drawn to other areas where they can feel free to express their faith the way they want freely.

Read YOUR Bible emphasizes the personal nature of the relationship that God wants to have with each person. The Bible is referred to as “the living word” which leads us to believe that God Himself is contained in the Word and therefore demands a personal relationship.
It also implies taking ownership of the scripture and making it personal to you rather than just a book you read for information or entertainment.

 

[BlestOne]

Read YOUR Bible emphasizes the personal nature of the relationship that God wants to have with each person. The Bible is referred to as “the living word” which leads us to believe that God Himself is contained in the Word and therefore demands a personal relationship.
It also implies taking ownership of the scripture and making it personal to you rather than just a book you read for information or entertainment.

Pardon me… no offense intended, but I believe in a communion of believers… he isn’t my personal God… He is Lord of ALL. Yes, we have an intimate but not personal relationship… I guess this probably doesn’t make sense to you about as much as a personal relationship doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe we can clarify this to each other?

The way I personally see it…
Jesus did come to earth, was born, preached and died for my salvation… just like he did for yours… so along that vein I have no claim as personal… but… we are commanded to take Jesus into our hearts and he will reside in ours… intimate…
so… back to the Bible… Jesus is The Word… yes, we both agree on that, right? And Jesus’s teachings are recorded in the Bible right? But where I have problems is in the ownership thing… Yes I read and study scripture and yes daily… but I am not seeing the ownership relevance… the Bible belongs to the whole world. We all hope to share in being a part of the body of Christ right? So how does this relate in your mind? More after I hear what you have to say… Maybe this is just a semantics thing.

 

[John7]

Darn. Another one of our secrets disclosed. There must be a leak in the evangelical illuminati.

But you found us out. At all evangelical colleges they have a semester long “Southern Accent” course that all ministerial candidates are required to take. That is where all evangelical ministers get their southern twang. It is quite a difficult course actually, my wife had to work to get a ‘C’ in it.

If you go into any Baptist of Aog church in any part of the country you should hear the pastor preach in a perfect southern accent if he has been trained properly by this course.

For example in my AOG church in Vermont, the pastor (who was born in Maine) regularly preaches in a perfect southern accent. Neat isn’t it.

…those southern vowels are tough to get. Y’all have a good day now, ya hear.

 

[Publisher]

When I lived in Nashville, the Clerk of the Meeting where I attended spoke with a Midwestern accent…most of the rest of us spoke with California or New York accents…only one or two Southern twangs in the small Meeting of Friends.

 

[mark_a]

I’m jjust curious because this seems universal. Even those not from the south or preaching in Texas have this feature. I don’t get it.

An authentic southern accent cannot be taught in a classroom.

You either got it ya don’t.

I absolutely cringe when I hear a fake southern accent (usually from Hollywood).

 

[Feanor]

OK So no one has seen this- I must admit that many evangelicals I have seen have been on television.

However I have picked up that some were not born in the south and indeed I have heard at least one who was born and raise in an entirely different country.

I suspect that this cadence is somehow adopted.

Take a look at CBN or TBN.

 

[ericka1701]

Some evangelical ministers learn how to preach from hearing other ministers preach… there usually isn’t a requirement for them to have attended seminary, and I know of a few individuals who started preaching after just standing up in church and said they were called to preach. I know in my case I have to be very careful about how much BBC I watch, because I will invariably end up speaking with an English accent for a few days and not even realize it (not that it’s a bad thing… I happen to really like English accents… Just everyone else here in East TN thinks that I’m bonkers when I do that). Since most of the evangelical ministers the “newbies” watched and listened to were most likely from the south, they absorbed the accent and when preaching, will slip back into that accent.

I don’t know… maybe???

God Bless!
Ericka

 

[mystified]

Y’all got a point. But Ah’d lak to heah a priest with a gooo ol’ Irish accent agin.

 

[Georgia]

As a man whose family tree includes several ancestors who came in second place in the Late Unpleasantness, as polite society still called it when I was young, of 1861-1865, I have to get in on this one.

Southern accents cannot be easily learned; there are too many subsets with varying cadences and pronunciations. Hollywood has been the worst offender, followed only by so many TV preachers. Think of the butchery Dan Aykroyd did to accenting his character in “Driving Miss Daisy.” I love the movie, but he would have been better had he stuck with a flat speech pattern. I find that fake accent distracting every time I watch that movie. I am from a town in Georgia that had two very distinct accents at the time of my youth. There is no way that I could have been on the north side of town, the area where the blood was very blue, and not have been recognized as a being from the other side of the tracks, the wrong side. No outsider would have ever figured out that “hard” was “hahd” on the north side of town and was “harrrrrd” on the south side.

Many TV preachers do seem to copy one another. Notice how many end sentence-completing words with “uh” as in “words-uh.” Maybe it sounds more dramatic. Others seem to throw in gratuitous Southern in the course of their shows. None are convincing to me.

Maybe it is target-marketing. Maybe it is an attempt to be the next Billy Graham.

 

[mardukm]

I’m jjust curious because this seems universal. Even those not from the south or preaching in Texas have this feature. I don’t get it.

And why is it “Read YOUR bible” and not "Read the Bible?’

Just musing here.

I can personally attest that I have seen MEXICAN preachers, WITH a Mexican accent, preach with a southern twang in their voice in CALIFORNIA. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.

Blessings,
Marduk

 

[puzzleannie]

reminds me of the Right Stuff, which opined that all astronauts had to adopt the West Virginia accent of Chuch Yeager, the iconic test pilot

 

[mabibleteacher]

Pardon me… no offense intended, but I believe in a communion of believers… he isn’t my personal God… He is Lord of ALL. Yes, we have an intimate but not personal relationship… I guess this probably doesn’t make sense to you about as much as a personal relationship doesn’t make sense to me. Maybe we can clarify this to each other?

The way I personally see it…
Jesus did come to earth, was born, preached and died for my salvation… just like he did for yours… so along that vein I have no claim as personal… but… we are commanded to take Jesus into our hearts and he will reside in ours… intimate…
so… back to the Bible… Jesus is The Word… yes, we both agree on that, right? And Jesus’s teachings are recorded in the Bible right? But where I have problems is in the ownership thing… Yes I read and study scripture and yes daily… but I am not seeing the ownership relevance… the Bible belongs to the whole world. We all hope to share in being a part of the body of Christ right? So how does this relate in your mind? More after I hear what you have to say… Maybe this is just a semantics thing.

No offense taken! I enjoy the sharing of ideas.
Let me see if I can explain the concept of “personal relationship” as I believe.
When we understand the nature of God, that is God’s personality, we understand that He is all things to all people. He can be that way, He’s God. Since all people are different, each person’s relationship with God is unique to them. It’s personal.
If you and another person have a mutual friend, each of your respective relationships with that person are different because each of you are different. Does that make sense.
Personal relationship is the sense of owership meaning understanding that God is there for you in a personal way that is unique and different from anyone else.
In the garden of Eden, before the fall, God had an intimate (i.e. personal) relationship with Adam. They walked and talked together in the garden. After 'the fall:" man was no longer able to have that intimacy because sin kept us from that intimate relationship with Him. When Jesus came and died, making a way for our sin to be forgiven, God did that so we could, once again, have that intimate (personal) relationship; each and everyone of us.
Maybe our idea of the words intimate and personal are different? The way I see it is that anything that is intimate IS by nature, personal. How can it not be?
Does that make more sense?

 

[BlestOne]

No offense taken! I enjoy the sharing of ideas.
Let me see if I can explain the concept of “personal relationship” as I believe.
When we understand the nature of God, that is God’s personality, we understand that He is all things to all people. He can be that way, He’s God. Since all people are different, each person’s relationship with God is unique to them. It’s personal.
If you and another person have a mutual friend, each of your respective relationships with that person are different because each of you are different. Does that make sense.
Personal relationship is the sense of owership meaning understanding that God is there for you in a personal way that is unique and different from anyone else.
In the garden of Eden, before the fall, God had an intimate (i.e. personal) relationship with Adam. They walked and talked together in the garden. After 'the fall:" man was no longer able to have that intimacy because sin kept us from that intimate relationship with Him. When Jesus came and died, making a way for our sin to be forgiven, God did that so we could, once again, have that intimate (personal) relationship; each and everyone of us.
Maybe our idea of the words intimate and personal are different? The way I see it is that anything that is intimate IS by nature, personal. How can it not be?
Does that make more sense?

I dunno, maybe the word personal to me infers ownership and almost seems like ownership of God…and not the relationship. I do agree however with the Adam and Eve analogy… except that after Christ came and died for our sins, we can still screw up that intimate relationship by sinning… which is why Catholics have confession or reconciliation… to repair that relationship with Christ. I guess we both mean about the same thing using the words intimate and personal… except I just kind of get hung up on the ownership aspect… our relationship with our Savior is not an ownership it is a cooperation and submission to His will not ours. Maybe I feel that way because of the way “personal” gets bantied around and over used… please don’t think I am saying you do this, but I have seen way too many excuses for sinning in the name of “My” Jesus doesn’t have a problem with it why should you? Kind of stuff…kwim? I guess it is a way loose interpretation of all things to all people that I worry about.

I haven’t always been the best person in the world… nor am I now… but what I have learned is that obedience to God’s will is not a minimalist thing… true love goes all the way… and definitely not a one time pronouncement or prayer… it is like a marriage… to keep it going and flourishing, we must always work at it. I am not saying you don’t… I am thinking of the street evangelists…

“Are you Saved?” Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?" “Have you said the sinners prayer?” Like these came off a grocery list… Said the sinner’s prayer… check… Accept Christ as Savior… check… ok I am saved… whew… don’t gotta worry about that anymore… now what do I want to do?

I know this isn’t the majority of Christians… but these are the ones you remember because they are so pushy and confrontive… These are the things Catholics… well at least this one have problems with. If even St Paul wasn’t assured of his salvation, how can we be? It’s like saying on your wedding day that you will never get divorced… nobody gets married with that expectation… but 5-10 yrs down the road… we are older and wiser… maybe we are divorced, maybe we are still together, but we know how much work goes into the relationship. It is more about maturing and spending a lifetime learning and falling in love with the Lord… trusting, and yes submitting our wills because we know he loves us back and would do everything in our best interest… that isn’t personal… thats intimate. All our thoughts and dreams and prayers that we share… intimate… Seeing us for who we are deep down and still loving us… intimate. But personal… nope… we share our love for our Lord by passing it on… We help feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit those in need… we are sharing him because we trust that he can and will help. Didn’t he say that when we do these things for the least amongst us, we do it for him? How can one not share such love? That to me isn’t personal…that is communal or family… which is what everything the Father talks about in the OT and Christ shows by example in the NT.

 

[mabibleteacher]

I… except that after Christ came and died for our sins, we can still screw up that intimate relationship by sinning… which is why Catholics have confession or reconciliation… to repair that relationship with Christ.

I guess we both mean about the same thing using the words intimate and personal… except I just kind of get hung up on the ownership aspect… our relationship with our Savior is not an ownership it is a cooperation and submission to His will not ours. Maybe I feel that way because of the way “personal” gets bantied around and over used… please don’t think I am saying you do this, but I have seen way too many excuses for sinning in the name of “My” Jesus doesn’t have a problem with it why should you? Kind of stuff…kwim? I guess it is a way loose interpretation of all things to all people that I worry about.

I haven’t always been the best person in the world… nor am I now… but what I have learned is that obedience to God’s will is not a minimalist thing… true love goes all the way… and definitely not a one time pronouncement or prayer… it is like a marriage… to keep it going and flourishing, we must always work at it. I am not saying you don’t… I am thinking of the street evangelists…

“Are you Saved?” Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?" “Have you said the sinners prayer?” Like these came off a grocery list… Said the sinner’s prayer… check… Accept Christ as Savior… check… ok I am saved… whew… don’t gotta worry about that anymore… now what do I want to do?

I know this isn’t the majority of Christians… but these are the ones you remember because they are so pushy and confrontive… These are the things Catholics… well at least this one have problems with. If even St Paul wasn’t assured of his salvation, how can we be? It’s like saying on your wedding day that you will never get divorced… nobody gets married with that expectation… but 5-10 yrs down the road… we are older and wiser… maybe we are divorced, maybe we are still together, but we know how much work goes into the relationship. It is more about maturing and spending a lifetime learning and falling in love with the Lord… trusting, and yes submitting our wills because we know he loves us back and would do everything in our best interest… that isn’t personal… thats intimate. All our thoughts and dreams and prayers that we share… intimate… Seeing us for who we are deep down and still loving us… intimate. But personal… nope… we share our love for our Lord by passing it on… We help feed the hungry, clothe the poor, visit those in need… we are sharing him because we trust that he can and will help. Didn’t he say that when we do these things for the least amongst us, we do it for him? How can one not share such love? That to me isn’t personal…that is communal or family… which is what everything the Father talks about in the OT and Christ shows by example in the NT.

When we “take ownership” of something, it means that treat it as if it belonged to us. Companies use that phrase to encourage people to treat their job as if they own the company.
Taking ownership of our relationship with God means that we treat it with the utmost importance. I think because we tie the word ownership with the concept of not sharing that you might have trouble with it. But I think you understand that this isn’t what I mean.

Confessing our sin and asking for forgivness is necessary to keep our relationship with God growing and developing. If we don’t do it, our relationship will suffer, but I hope you understand that it does not take away our salvation. Jesus died for all sins (past present and future) for ALL people (of all denomination) that accept Him. We don’t go to confession and ask forgiveness because we’re afraid we will go to hell if we don’t. We do it because we recognize that we have done things that saddens God and we want to change ourl lives to please him.

Obedience to God comes out of a desire to please God because we love him. Much in the same way we do (or don’t do) things for our spouse because we love them. I just told a story to my 9th grade today related to this. We were discussing why we choose not to sin. I told them that when I was first married, my husband and I had different ways of doing things. One issue that became a problem was folding the bath towels (you can laugh…it’s trival I k now) I did it one way, he did it another. But because he loves me (or maybe because I whine louder than him) he changed the way he folded the towels. He does it the way I like because he wants to please me.
Our obedience to God should be the same. It should be out of a genuine desire to strengthen the relationship, not out of fear of punishment.

There are all types of Christians. A Christian is simply a believer and follower of the teaching of Christ. You can be a christian and be catholic or lutheran or whatever. But if you believe the Bible is the true word of God and that Jesus was God sent to earth to die for our sins so we can be restored in our relationship with God, then you are a Chrisitian.
There is a purpose for those street Evangelist. And yes, they break it down to a short list like that but isn’t that was Jesus did for us too? Salvation is not complicated. We only make it that way by adding rituals and details that have nothing to do with the conditons of our heart.
If we only followed what Jesus told us were the two most important commandments, the world would be perfect. Everyone loved God with all their heart, soul, mind and spirit AND loved each other, then there would be no war, no problems, no poverty nothing…
Jesus knew how simple it would be to live according to His will and He was trying to tell us that. We’re the ones that make it complicated

 

[Phillipos]

I believe it all resorts back to the “personal” aspect of many protestants faith. Its all about me and Jesus. My church. etc… Thus, its no longer the Bible. It’s your Bible.

Plus, it becomes a thing of habit. When I was a pastor I always told the congregation to turn in their Bibles because

1. It sounded more proper, gramatically speaking
2. Its what I heard other pastors say so I just repeated.