Sermon Tone Analysis

Frederick Douglass

Former slave and leading abolitionist Frederick Douglass often used the Bible to inspire others to fight for abolition, and used language from the Bible, like Psalm 137:1-3 and Romans 10:8 to describe the plight of slaves.

Psalm 137 is unique in the Bible.

The only one out of 150 psalms to be set in a particular time and place, it relates to the Babylonian Exile—the period between 587-586 B.C. in Israel’s history, when Jews were taken captive in Babylon and the Jerusalem temple was destroyed.

Its nine verses paint a scene of captives mourning “by the rivers of Babylon,” mocked by their captors.

It expresses a vow to remember Jerusalem even in exile and closes with fantasies of vengeance against the oppressors.

The Babylonian exile served as a crucible, forcing the Israelites to rethink their relationship to Yahweh, reassess their standing as a chosen people and rewrite their history.

The exile story, which echoes through the Bible, is central to the major prophets, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Lamentations, and Isaiah.

And the aftermath of exile, when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and allowed the Judeans to return to Israel, is narrated in books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington, founder of the Tuskegee Institute and its Bible training program, often gave lectures to his students.

His urged them to read their Bible daily, and taught on the Ten Commandments, including "Honor Thy Father and Mother" and "Thou Shalt Not Steal."