How to really preach truth to power

Sam Smith - In recent years, I have increasingly wondered what has happened to the great minister, rabbis and priests we had in the 1960s. Is running a church too much a fundraising activity to allow ethics and action to thrive? How do offer a socially-significant sermon in an age of Trumpists?

This article by Jeffrey Salkin addresses this issue well, including this quote from Reinhold Neibuhr:

Preachers who are in danger of degenerating into common scolds might learn a great deal from H_____'s preaching style. If he wants to convict Detroit of her sins he preaches a sermon on "the city of God," and lets all the limitations of this get-rich-quick metropolis emerge by implication...People do not achieve great moral heights out of a sense of duty. People must be charmed into righteousness. The language of aspiration rather than that of criticism and command is the proper pulpit language.