Malcolm X's speech "The Ballot or The Bullet" was given out as a sermon. A
lot of people who heard him speak would say otherwise though. He spoke as if
he were right in the room beside you, addressing you in particular, even
though there were hundreds, sometimes thousands, that would come to hear
himspeak. According to the book; however, Malcolm X's speech did not fit to
the true mode of a sermon. Malcolm X was was not a typical preacher, so his
speeches could not really be interperted as sermons in the true literal form.
In some ways, there are points that would go under the category of a sermon.
But there are other points that would not be conisdered to fit the fromat of a
The book gives out 5 specific parts of a definitive sermon. find quote There
is 1) a disclaimer, which clears the preacher from taking responsibility for
the sermon by saying it is from the mouth of God, 2) a theme, which is a
statement about life as drawn out from specific Bible readings, 3) the literal
& the broad interpretation of the Biblical word, 4) the message, the formulaic
body of the sermon, and 5) the closing statement, usually an open-ended
conclusion leading to the next part of the church service, being the sermon
for next week. Malcolm X's speech "The Ballot or The Bullet" does not follow
The way Malcolm X delivered himself towards the end of his life lead me to
believe that none of his later speeches could really be called a "true"
sermon. Most of his material did not really focus on God, especially after
his founding of the Black Nationalists. This point further discredits any of
his speeches from being actual sremons. I personlaay think that these
speeches are not sermons but inspirational talks that incite and motivate
people more than inform them about God. God is a very important component of
a sermon, and without that, a speech cannot really be recognized as a ...