First off, I am not an expert in speech or body language, but I am and have been a good observer of people for many years. On that basis, I think I may have something to contribute.
First, a little background. As a kid, I was raised in a God fearing church going family. We attended the Pentecostal Church of God on a very "religious" basis. My grandmother was a very devout church goer and her brother was a church minister. If you have read the book Elmer Gantry or seen the movie, that is "exactly" what my preacher great uncle was like. At a very early age I developed a distinct dislike for him. I guess I was ahead of my time. To my young mind, he looked very dishonest and seemed to be a first class con man. This seemed to be born out by the attitude of the people who he preached to. They seemed ignorant, superstitious and very gullible. The worst part was when they gave him money they could not afford when their own kids need food and shoes. I think you get the idea. He had a hard time keeping his pants up too.
As I watched him clearly take advantage of these church going people I also saw his methods and style. I compared his to other preachers and found that they all had a common trait. No mater what they said or how outrageous it was they said it in a loud voice with the conviction of God himself. I think you have seen preachers like the late Billy Graham hold a stadium full of followers spell bound, so you know it can be done. There is a new guy on the block that is just as good at this type of con and that is preacher Orsteen. I recently saw a clip on TV where he had over 10,000 followers in his mega church at one time, all seemingly spell bound. Getting the idea now? Both Graham and Orsteen claimed to speak to God directly and claim to know what Moses was thinking when he received the tablets on the mount. 100% BS, but presented with such conviction that the followers seemed to eat it up.
In all the churches that I have been in, the preacher sits up higher than everyone else and talks "down" to them. I have never seen anyone challenge the claims of a preacher. There seems to be so much peer pressure among the followers that if anyone stepped out of line, all the preacher would have to do is nod to a few trusted followers to take the person aside and show them the "error" of his ways. You know that this is how it works. Preachers can't stand the light of day shining in on what they are saying or claiming. Given that the preacher is so sure of his position, they see no reason to honestly discuss the opinion of others. They feel deep down that there must be something wrong with the person or he or she would not have such a wrong position. They attack the "person" not the person's position. The church put Galileo in jail because he said the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around as taught by the church. Notice the parallel?
If in a discussion with the preacher, a follower seems to be drifting away, notice how the preacher wants to "touch" the person. It seems that the preacher's words carry more weight when they are touching the follower. Notice a parallel here?
There is another observation that I am sure you have noticed about preachers and that is the pace and tone of their speech. I notice the significance of this when Rap music first started or when the boxer Clay used to make up poems before one of his fights. In Rap, the rate of the words coming is a little too fast for the average person to analyse and study the content of the speech. The next word comes too fast. The other thing is that there is just enough riming to make your mind try to anticipate the next word. All of this is directed at keeping your full attention. The rapper wants to totally control "you" as you try to listen so that his words have the greatest impact on your mind and without you having to think much about the truth or logic of what is being said. People from New York City speak faster than most of the country and used to get on my nerves when I had to listen too them. It is much the same for southern speech. Notice how you can be manipulated by more than the words in the speech. Have you ever read an Obama speech? How impressed were you?
Notice how different the speech pattern of a preacher is when he is addressing a funeral party? It is slow and low. The art of preaching and conning simple people is one of mans oldest industries. It came right after the first one, but it is almost like the "chicken and egg" argument.
The final point in my observations of preachers is that they have over the years accumulated a whole book full of good sounding almost meaningless platitudes and cliches. You know what these are. Obama's speech's are full of platitudes and cliches that have multiple meanings that are all different between individuals in the audience. Note that Obama attended the Rev Wright church in Chicago for 20 years. I think we all agree that Obama is smart and if so why would you not expect that he picked up on the techniques of his very good friend and pastor, Rev Wright. Martin Luther King was no slouch either. I think you have heard some of his speeches. Read one some time and see if you don't also agree that it is more presentation than content.
Now look at Obama. Does he meet all the point above? He is a tall good looking guy too. Did you ever buy a car from a short ugly person? I did not think so. When you take all this together, you have our President Obama, nothing more nothing less. As I said in the beginning how at a very early age I developed a distinct dislike for preachers so you must know why I distrust Obama. He is the perfect con man. I can only judge him by what I see on the outside. If he is honest on the inside, that is for him alone to know.
