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Abigail Lafferty
Professor Russell
LIBA 102
29 March 2015
An Outlook on Religion as a Persuasive Mechanism
In the movie Footloose, the main character Ren gives a powerful speech toward the end
of this 1984 film, where he seeks to persuade the town council to approve a senior prom in a
town where dancing has been outlawed following a tragic accident after a high school prom. He
hopes to convince them through rhetorical strategies such as appropriate appeals to ethos and
logos, as well as employing kairos and conveying the correct decorum for this situation. Rens
speech was incredibly well planned because he knew his audience and what they would respond
to best. His final monologue demonstrates how much religion, especially when focused in such a
small community, can affect our perceptions of certain situations and skew our opinions away
from what is most logical. This makes it an extremely powerful rhetorical tool, when you use it
correctly. Religion being used in this way can be especially convincing if you employ proof
texting as a strategy when forming an argument to achieve your endgame. Religion can be
employed in rhetoric in a way that regards many different scopes, including gender, cultural
activities like dance, government, and popular culture.
The movie Footloose was actually inspired by several towns across the country that had
outlawed dancing, just like in the movie. For example, Elmore City, Oklahoma and the events
that occurred here were basically a real life version of the movie. In Elmore, there were city-wide
bans on dancing, and the teens had to fight to put on a high school prom (Smith). This city was
actually the one that the movie was specifically based off of. The reasons in the movie for the

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laws against dancing were dramatised a bit for the film, because in the real life story many of the
people just did not believe in dancing, and they saw it as a sin because of their views and, more
importantly, their interpretations of the bible (Smith). This was also the case in a town called
Anson, Texas. The town council was made up almost entirely of members of the Church of
Christ (Sandage). This, for the young people in the town, meant that the people making the
decisions were very conservative, and likely to use their faith as their reasoning for denying any
idea that is proposed, if they feel like it it threatens their ideals. In real life examples, as well as
in the movie, religion is the main reason dancing has been outlawed, and it is the reason it was so
difficult to appeal these laws. With religion being something that is so deeply ingrained within
most people, it can be difficult to change someones opinion on something so seemingly
fundamental to who they are. In the Footloose monologue, Ren uses religion to his advantage by
proof texting, which is selecting a specific bible passage to prove a point. He is made aware of
these passages by his love interest, the preacher's daughter. He employs this strategy by using
the bible passages that portray dancing in a positive light. His speech cators to his audience in a
very specific way because he knows that the extremely traditional town council would not
respond well to different approaches, and that he would have to discover what would make these
people hear him out. Even though the authority of the town council stemmed from religion,
similar instances have occurred through this same type of authority that has not stemmed from
religion.
A movie that was very similar to Footloose came out around the same time called Dirty
Dancing. The plots in both movies are similar, but the conflicts in both movies arose from
different motivations. Dirty Dancing was a movie about dancing, and how the dance aspect
affected the theme of the movie (Colmenares). Common themes between the movies are teen

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rebellion, music and dance, and a somewhat forbidden romance (Colmenares). Both movies had
a climax where the main male character gave a speech and had a big finale dance number. The
motivations for the speeches were slightly different though, because in Footloose, it was to be
allowed to dance, and in Dirty Dancing, it was to be able to dance the way you want. The
settings of these movies were also very different. The setting for Dirty Dancing was at a country
club for the wealthy, and the setting for Footloose was in a small, very religion oriented town.
Despite this, the two movies had much in common when it came to the authority figures.
Although the motivations and the endgames appear to be different, the authorities in both movies
display similar characteristics; even though onlys one groups is explicitly religiously motivated.
The authority in Footloose, as stated above, came from religious opinions, however, in Dirty
Dancing, the authority came from the overseers of the country club. The reasons for both for
these movies being considered classics today is because they are so similar in this aspect. This
shows that the religious aspect is not the only aspect that Ren had to overcome. He was going up
to argue in front of grown men in a town he just settled into, and this is how the movies are
similar. They both are facing some degree of risk for the actions they have taken to reach their
goal, but deem it a worthy cause, therefore they give it their all. Over the years, religion has
been at the foreground of people's motivations and explanations for their actions, and this is
unlikely to change, as the basis of religion is that it has been around since the beginning of time.
Religion has had to adapt over the years to reach the masses. In 1984, when the movie
Footloose was made, everyone was exposed to religion when they went to church on Sundays,
and it was socially irresponsible not to attend services. Now religion has to take on new forms in
order to affect everyone who is not going to church on a regular basis. Technological advances
are a big reason for this shift (Mahan). The internet, for example, is now able to reach nearly

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everyone, and they can get a lot of their information that way, as opposed to having to go to any
gatherings. Religious aspects are in a lot of the things we are being exposed to, and often times
we do not even realize it (Mahan). This is religion in rhetoric at work right now in music and tv
shows. In Footloose, religion was blatantly used to try to persuade the town council in a reverse
psychology method, and it ended up having the desired effect because they gave in and allowed
the seniors to have their dance. In the 1980s, this genre of movies was fairly popular. Movies
like Flashdance and Dirty Dancing had similar themes, and the plots and character developments
could all be roughly predicted from an outline given in an essay called Dance, Culture, and
Popular Film. The writer of this article Jade Boyd, describes how all of these movies either
follow a similar storyline, or the characters tend to take on some of the same features. The
movie will almost always end in a final dance or audition where dance becomes a prize that
outweighs everything else, and whatever authority there is, it is usually challenged through dance
(Boyd). This is how the movie Footloose plays out, as stated above. However, the reason for the
conflict about dancing in this movie has to do with religion specifically even though it relates in
many other aspects. Boyd explains that men tend to be more reasonable and level headed, so
Ren, the main character, has to be the one to appeal to the town council. He appeals to them in a
way they would respond to with his use of proof texting, and because he is a man, they tend to
value his opinion more than they would if the gender roles were reversed. Since it is a highly
religious town, Ren knew that his best chance of convincing them would be to employ the one
thing they believe in above all else for his own benefit.
This same reasoning has been employed in many different situations as well. Religion
plays a large role in politics, the same way it did in Footloose. Although there are not supposed
to be laws that are based religious beliefs, those same beliefs are often used as reasons for

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supporting or not supporting certain laws or actions. Weather it is in the forefront of our minds
or not, religion used in rhetoric is all arounds us. Religion is all over the way we see America,
displayed in phrases like In God We Trust. This unavoidable truth means that knowing how to
employ religion into one's rhetoric is a very important skill, because people subconsciously trust
in a higher power when they arent being explicitly asked if they do (Lunceford). For people
who do not agree with not only the religion itself, but those who disagree with the way it is being
employed, it shows that when judgments are made based on political myths, the consequences
for those who do not meet the standards of those myths can be drastic (Lunceford). This is what
happened in Footloose preceding the final speech. Ren was given a lot of trouble for his
opinions, because some people thought that his actions did not coincide with the way the church
deemed a fit way for a young man to be behaving. Even when a person doesn't want it to, or
they dont go out of their way to incorporate religion into their lives, it is often there regardless.
Therefore, one has to accept that it is a big part of other people's lives, so it is impossible to act
like it doesnt exist for any one person.
Religion is something that is very prominent in the lives of a lot of people, and if one
happens to be religious, they may see things through that specific lense, including but not limited
to, the power of persuasion (rhetoric) of a specific gender and how they use their power. This is
why using religion as a rhetorical tool can be extremely effective. Giving someone a new
perspective on their own views will cause them to rethink the decisions they've made in the past
that they might not have given a lot of thought to, because when it comes to religion, much of the
decision making that stems from it tends to be second nature. The Footloose Speech gives an
example of how using religion as a rhetorical tool can provide an excellent basis for the

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monologue. This technique has been used in many different ways, and for many different
purposes throughout history.
The motivations might not always be what one would expect though, when someone is
banning a certain practice, like dancing, on religious grounds. Religion is not only something
that is based on internal beliefs, but it is rooted in such a community of people that one worships
with, that this aspect becomes just as central to Christianity in America as the Bible (CorbinReuschling). A persons congregation is central to how they practice religion, and also to how
they behave as a result of it. Religious groups can tend to, when they get together, bring out the
extremes in each other, and if only a few voices disagree, they will not be included, or they will
be looked at differently. For example, someone might not agree with his congregation about
something, but out of respect for the group, and to keep peace, this person will just follow along.
In the movie Footloose, all of the members of the Town Council, and of the local church, egged
each other on, and as the movie progressed, so did their opinions. A group of like minded people
will always encourage and bring out the extremes in each other (Corbin-Reuschling). This is
shown when they all get together to burn books they deemed inappropriate at the local high
school. In the beginning of the movie they just discussed their disapproval, but by the end they
were shown taking drastic measures to prevent children from reading these books. The preacher
in the movie, who is the spiritual leader of the town, did not agree with the actions of some
members of his congregation. He was eventually the one who gave in and let the teens throw the
dance. Religious congregations can make people give up their own views a little bit so they can
fit in, and they look at it as a sort of duty or obligation to their community (Corbin-Reuschling).
The speech given in the movie Footloose is a perfect example of how effective religion
can be used in persuasion. Right before the speech, the preacher said explicitly that nothing he

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said was going to change his mind, and then once he brought up Ecclesiastes in the Bible, you
could see him demeanor change and he become more open to what he had to say. Rhetoric is the
art of speaking, and using religion as a tool in this art can be one of the most persuasive forms of
speaking. Religion has holds on many parts of peoples lives, so when using it to make a point
or an argument, a persons argument is aided greatly.

Annotated Bibliography

Footloose. Dir. Herbert Ross. Prod. Lewis J. Rachmil and Craig Zadan. By Dean
Pitchford. Perf. Kevin Bacon, Lori Singer, John Lithgow, and Dianne Wiest. Paramount
Pictures, 1984. DVD.

Boyd, Jade. "Dance, Culture, And Popular Film." Feminist Media Studies 4.1 (2004): 6783. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 4 Mar. 2015.

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Smith, Michael. "Oklahoma town inspired original 'Footloose'." Tulsa World (OK) 16
Oct. 2011: Newspaper Source. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.

Sandage, Scott A. "No Dancin' In Anson: An American Story Of Race And Social
Change." Journal Of Social History 31.4 (1998): 964-967. Religion and Philosophy
Collection. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.

Colmenares, Angela, and Camille McCutcheon. "The Time Of Our Lives: 'Dirty Dancing'
And Popular Culture." Journal Of American Culture 37.2 (2014): 259-260. International
Bibliography of Theatre & Dance with Full Text. Web. 6 Mar. 2015.

Mahan, Jeffrey H., and Bruce David Forbes. Religion And Popular Culture In America.
Berkeley, Calif: University of California Press, 2000. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost).
Web. 6 Mar. 2015.

Lunceford, Brett. "Rhetoric And Religion In Contemporary Politics." Journal Of Contemporary

Rhetoric 2.2 (2012): 19-29. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 19 Apr.
2015.
Corbin-Reuschling, Wyndy. "Trust And Obey": The Danger Of Obedience As Duty In
Evangelical Ethics." Journal Of The Society Of Christian Ethics25.2 (2005): 59-77.
ATLA Religion Database with ATLASerials. Web. 8 May 2015.