Corrie Ten Boom tells a story in her book The Hiding Place about when she was young and asked her dad a question about a topic that was beyond her innocence and years. She recounted,
"[My father] turned to look at me, as he always did when answering a question, but, to my surprise, he said nothing. At last he stood up, lifted his traveling case from the rack over our heads, and set it on the floor.
"Will you carry it off the train, Corrie?
"I stood up and tugged at it. It was crammed with watches and spare parts he had purchased that morning.
"It's too heavy, I said.
"Yes, he said, and it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, wth knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger, you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you."
I Cor. 8:9 (NLT) "But you must be careful so that your freedom does not cause others with a weaker conscience to stumble."
At WSR, we understand that many speeches that are impactful and important *may* contain information or portray scenes that, while true, contain themes and/or words that are not appropriate for all ages and audiences.
Examples of this include, but are not limited to: stories of torture or imprisonment (even Christian ones), stories involving topics like suicide, drugs, violence, or abuse (even if they are part of a Christian testimony), examples of modern day slavery/trafficking, or stories involving any kind of vulgar language.
We are not trying to close every loophole in this short explanation, rather we are asking our competitors to err on the side of caution in a spirit of Christian love. With this in mind, if there is ANY REASONABLE POSSIBILITY that a speech may contain words, themes or scenes that may not be appropriate for every age and maturity level, the competitor is required to give a speech disclaimer before beginning their speech regardless of the age or number of peope in the room.
The speech disclaimer is as follows: “This speech may contain content not appropriate for all audiences."
If there appear to be any children in the room, please give them and their parents a moment to choose whether to exit before continuing.