Dear Student Preacher, I am writing this letter to address my concerns with the statements made at the social gathering

I attended on August 25th, 2013. I am a Christian and grew up in a home that believed in God and went to this meeting with the intentions of getting involved with something I am familiar with. As the crowd started to sing songs and listen to worship I began to feel like I was becoming a part of something and thought I perhaps had found a little bit of home in Charlotte. However, I soon began to feel uncomfortable when the student who was preaching went on a rant about coexist stickers because Christians coexisting cannot be achieved due to his belief that a Christian God is above any other religions God. As others began to stand up, cheer and clap for him, I stood there pretty shocked at what I had just heard. To say that different religions in the world are incapable of coexisting while stating that your god is above others is not only arrogant, but also pretty close to discrimination. In the world we live in today, there are several different types of people and to be able to live together cohesively we have to respect varying beliefs; even if they are not in alignment with our own. Coexisting is not just about bringing different religions together, but becoming one as a human race. Perhaps because I was brought up in a place filled with diversity my views on the situation are different. Believing that one entity is higher than another has been the source of many problems around the world including: Women being viewed as less than Men, Caucasians being viewed as greater than African Americans, Heterosexuals viewing themselves as normal opposed to Homosexuals. We must look at our history and decide as a society to move past oppression rather than moving further into it. Coming from a family of different religious backgrounds I know firsthand that not everyone you encounter in your life is going to believe in the same things you do. It doesnt make them less than you, it simply makes them different. Going throughout your life teaching people to believe that they are superior to others is creating a world of hatred and ignorance. I think its important for people to watch what they say because in this life your word is sometimes the only thing you have. I believe people need to be more open-minded, because everyone has the right to believe in what they choose. It is also important to know that the things one says, no matter how small, can end up having a domino effect on how you view other things in your life as well. As a person who supports equality the statement made on August 25th bothered me and I challenge you to be more aware of the things you say within a large setting. As you may have noticed, I am not alone in my feelings because others felt the same and did not return to the Church because of it. Living in the 21st century we need to realize that the only way to move forward in a diverse world is to coexist. Sincerely, Myrlene Reid

Complaint Letter Analysis

In this paper I tried to be as straight to the point as I could be as well as trying to be understanding. We live in a world filled with diverse people with different beliefs and I dont want to force someone to believe in something simply because I do. However, I do want the student preacher to be aware of how their statement was perceived by myself and others who were in the crowd that night. This is a touchy subject and I wanted to treat it as such and focus more on the statement itself, how I perceived it, and what I wanted out of writing the letter. My audience is the man who gave the sermon I attended. Although I do not know him personally or really know much about him, I felt as though his statement was something that made me stop and think. It made me think about how sometimes we go around saying things and teaching people to think a certain way that may not profit the world in the future. We have to come together as different people not separate, which is not a very good look for the future if you ask me. I wanted to tell him what I thought about what he said and hopefully make him aware of what I think the consequences of thinking that way could be. I incorporated ethos with the overall tone of the letter. I wanted to make sure that I got my point across, explained why I believed in it, and at the same time, told him what I wanted him to think about for the future. I wanted the tone of the paper not to have an attitude as if I felt I was completely right in my thinking because it is just my opinion. Writing it that way would have completely defeated the purpose of why I was writing the letter in the first place. I wanted to show him a different viewpoint and why I believe in it. Im not trying to persuade him to think a different way, because honestly we are all entitled to our own personal opinions. I just think he needs to understand that statements like the ones he made can be extremely negative and push us

further back in the world instead of forward. I want him to think about what he said and maybe in the future develop a more open mind to possibilities of coexisting. I used logos to try and explain how coexisting is the only true way we can advance together as a human race. We have to be able to live together and advance as a society. We cant do this going in with the attitude that it would simply never work. Now we are all different and we all think differently, come from different backgrounds, and have a different way of looking at things, but I think we have to work together because we live on one planet. Even if people, like this student preacher, dont believe its possible we have to at least try. Like I stated in my paper, there have been so many problems in our history that have stemmed from a lack of willing to work together as humans and teaching one group of people that they are superior to another. I used pathos to express how these types of comments can be hurtful, especially since we live in a world with such vast diversity. I used a lot of feeling words like: shocked, uncomfortable, arrogant. I wanted to convey how I felt while listening to him speak and what I felt about what he actually said. What I believe may not be what others believe, but I think its important to express your beliefs so they can be discussed. I also used effective language when explaining how his type of thinking just cannot exist in order to move forward as a society. We have to be respectful and understanding, it doesnt mean we have to give up what we believe and cow down to someone elses beliefs, we just have to have open minds and listen. I tried to emphasize the idea of us all living together on the same planet and how we cant continue to categorize people with whose superior and whose not. Overall, in this paper I wanted to get across how we may not all be the same, but we only have one place to live, and whether we want to or not we have to coexist. Different types of

people are a good thing and makes where we live so interesting. We can all believe in different things, worship differently, and look different, but were all human. The mans statement sparked something in me and my complaint letter aims at trying to get him to be willing to have an open mind and not deeming things wrong because they are simply different.