The exigence of my speech “Faith, Truth and Tolerance in America” is whether and how religion should influence government. The constraints become fairly obvious as soon as I began re reading this speech. Edward Kennedy opens saying “..people in Washington were surprised I was invited to speak here-and they were even more surprised when I accepted.” While this is not specific as to what the issue is, that shows a complication in audience. One of the main constraints (a divider) between him and the audience is the fact he is catholic and they are Baptist. This leads him and his audience of college students from the Liberty Baptist College to have different religious and political beliefs. Because of these constraints, it is inferred that their motives may have initially been contradictory to what he was about to share At the same time there is common ground.

Both the students and Kennedy do not want religion to be used as a tool for politicians. They also do not want politics being used to try to push certain religious beliefs on the public. This desire would help motivate them to agree with what he is asking. The occasion is not sharing his thoughts with a University. It is safe to assume it is not a commencement speech or anything of the sort. Lastly is the practical judgment. Kennedy is calling on his audience to complete four steps in order to help answer his exigence. The first step is to respect the integrity of religion itself. The second step is to respect the independent judgments of conscience. The third step is when religious values are applied to rhetoric we must respect public debate. The fourth and final step is that we must respect the motives of those who exercise their right to disagree.