Billy Sunday - Revision history

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2018-09-26T13:53:02Z

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BHathorn: /* Baseball player to preacher */

2018-06-04T17:05:30Z

Baseball player to preacher

BHathorn: /* Baseball player to preacher */

2018-06-04T17:05:18Z

Baseball player to preacher

DavidB4-bot: clean up & uniformity

2016-07-12T03:38:28Z

clean up & uniformity

Aschlafly: add category

2015-11-11T04:42:30Z

add category

Aschlafly: /* Preaching style */

2015-11-11T04:38:36Z

Preaching style

Aschlafly: /* Baseball player to preacher */ For many years Billy Sunday held the record for the most stolen bases in a season (95), until Ty Cobb broke it in 1915.

2015-11-11T04:16:41Z

Baseball player to preacher: For many years Billy Sunday held the record for the most stolen bases in a season (95), until Ty Cobb broke it in 1915.

TerryH: Reverted edits by HollisM (Talk) to last version by TerryH

2009-06-23T02:05:00Z

Reverted edits by HollisM (Talk) to last version by TerryH

TerryH: Reverted edits by JoshB (Talk) to last version by BMcP

2009-06-23T01:52:37Z

Reverted edits by JoshB (Talk) to last version by BMcP

JoshB at 01:51, June 23, 2009

2009-06-23T01:51:05Z

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 [[Image:Billysundaypose.jpg|right]]
 Sunday was unabashedly uneducated and spoke in the plain speech of ordinary people, a marked contrast to the dignified style of other [[minister]]s. This was unusual, even shocking at the time. [[School]]s trained students in elocution and [[rhetoric]]. Ministers and public speakers were expected to use formal, educated [[English]]. A 1920 book for English teachers bracketed Sunday with a humorist famous for introducing [[slang]] into written English:
-:...all of us enjoy baseball slang, and George Ade and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popular because they use these picturesque shortcuts that in many instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal expression.<ref>Hall-Quest, Albert Law (1920) ''The Textbook: How to Use and Judge it'', Macmillan, [http://books.google.com/books?id=a3bfVRnNovwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+%22george+ade%22 p. 22]</ref>
+:...all of us enjoy baseball slang, and George Ade and his rival in slang, Billy Sunday, are popular because they use these picturesque shortcuts that in many instances are destined to become the main paths of verbal expression.<ref>Hall-Quest, Albert Law (1920) ''The Textbook: How to Use and Judge it'', Macmillan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=a3bfVRnNovwC&pg=PA159&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+%22george+ade%22 p. 22]</ref>
 A 1907 profile tells of him retelling [[New Testament]] stories in his own style:
 :"Oh, but the [[Devil]] is a smooth guy! ... So the devil went out in the wilderness after the Saviour. Now, Christ was a man. He had all the attributes of a man. He was tired, he was hungry, he was lonely, just the way you and I would have been. And the Devil walks up to him and says&mdash;" [Here the preacher drew himself into ... a personification of the sneering arrogance of [[Mephistopheles]]...] "He says, 'Son of God, hey?'"
 The commentator notes that at the first meetings, local ministers had "looked at each other and were horrified," but were won over, and quotes one as saying
-:"The man has trampled all over me and my [[theology]]. He has kicked my teachings up and down that platform like a [[football]]. He has outraged every ideal I have had regarding my sacred profession. But what does that count, as against the results he has accomplished? My congregation will be increased by hundreds. I didn't do it. Sunday did it. It is for me to humble myself and thank God for his help. He is doing God's work. That I know."<ref>Denison, Lindsay (1907), "The Rev. Billy Sunday and his War on the Devil." ''The American Magazine'' '''64'''(5), September 1907, [http://books.google.com/books?id=8eYvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA451-IA2&dq=%22billy+sunday%22#PPA454,M1 p. 454]</ref>
+:"The man has trampled all over me and my [[theology]]. He has kicked my teachings up and down that platform like a [[football]]. He has outraged every ideal I have had regarding my sacred profession. But what does that count, as against the results he has accomplished? My congregation will be increased by hundreds. I didn't do it. Sunday did it. It is for me to humble myself and thank God for his help. He is doing God's work. That I know."<ref>Denison, Lindsay (1907), "The Rev. Billy Sunday and his War on the Devil." ''The American Magazine'' '''64'''(5), September 1907, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8eYvAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA451-IA2&dq=%22billy+sunday%22#PPA454,M1 p. 454]</ref>
 Billy Sunday gave his speech vigorous physical accompaniment. Sunday's "tabernacles" held audiences of about fifteen thousand people, to whom he spoke without any sound equipment. To one observer, his platform manners recalled those of the [[Broadway]] performer [[George M. Cohan]], and with good reason:
-:Needing to arrest the attention of an incredibly large number of people, he adopts various evolutions that have a genuine emphatic value. It is a physical language... Sunday gives to his words a drive that makes you tense in your seat. Whipping like a flash from one side of the table to the other, he makes your mind keep unison with his body."<ref name=tnr>"Billy Sunday," ''The New Republic,'' March 20, 1915, from ''The New Republic Book,'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=x7IiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA183&as_brr=1#PPA183,M1 p. 183]</ref>
+:Needing to arrest the attention of an incredibly large number of people, he adopts various evolutions that have a genuine emphatic value. It is a physical language... Sunday gives to his words a drive that makes you tense in your seat. Whipping like a flash from one side of the table to the other, he makes your mind keep unison with his body."<ref name=tnr>"Billy Sunday," ''The New Republic,'' March 20, 1915, from ''The New Republic Book,'' [https://books.google.com/books?id=x7IiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA183&as_brr=1#PPA183,M1 p. 183]</ref>
 A 1917 biographer referred to his "acrobatic preaching," saying "Sunday is a physical sermon. In a unique sense he glorifies [[God]] with his body."<ref name=ellis>Ellis, WIlliam T. (1917), [http://www.archive.org/details/billysundaymanan00ellirich Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message]; online text at archive.org</ref> A description of him in action says
 :He begins to dance like a [[shadow boxing|shadow-boxer]]. He slaps his hands together with a report like a broken electric lamp. He poses on one foot like a fast ball pitcher winding up. He jumps upon a chair. In the stress of his routine he may stand with one foot in the chair and another on the lectern. All the while he is flaying the "whisky kings," the German war lords, slackers, suffragettes, or the local ministry. And, if his story of the [[sinner]] come home to salvation fits the gesture, he may emphasize the moral by throwing himself on the floor with an outstretched arm groping for the home plate like a baserunner sliding safely in with a stolen run.<ref name=nytobit/>
@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 William T. Ellis wrote in 1914,<ref>Ellis, William T, ''Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message with His Own Words Which Have Won Thousands for Christ," John C. Winston Co., Philadelphia, 1914</ref> "Out in the Puget Sound country, where the sawdust aisles and the rough tabernacle made an especial appeal to the woodsmen, the phrase 'hitting the sawdust trail' came into use in Mr. Sunday's meetings." Ellis calls it a "luminous" substitute for "the older stereotyped phrases: 'going forward,' 'seeking the altar.'" and contrasts Sunday's approach with "the more conventional method, used by older evangelists, [of asking for] a show of hands."
-The [[Encyclopedia of Evangelism]] says that Billy Sunday would "invite&mdash;more often, taunt&mdash;his auditors to 'hit the sawdust trail.'"<ref name=ee>''The Encyclopedia of Evangelism,'' 2002, Westminster John Knox Press, [http://books.google.com/books?id=syUupeVJOz4C&pg=PA506&dq=%22hit+the+sawdust+trail%22&as_brr=3&sig=l8C08mCLjLPKvJp68kpRRbZhhvU#PPA12,M1 Altar Call]</ref>
+The [[Encyclopedia of Evangelism]] says that Billy Sunday would "invite&mdash;more often, taunt&mdash;his auditors to 'hit the sawdust trail.'"<ref name=ee>''The Encyclopedia of Evangelism,'' 2002, Westminster John Knox Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=syUupeVJOz4C&pg=PA506&dq=%22hit+the+sawdust+trail%22&as_brr=3&sig=l8C08mCLjLPKvJp68kpRRbZhhvU#PPA12,M1 Altar Call]</ref>
 ==Beliefs==
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 He favored women's right to [[vote]]. He favored sex education:<ref name=ames>[http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/residents_sunday.htm Famous Ames Residents: Billy Sunday], Ames Historical Society</ref> ("Prudery is no more a sign of virtue than a [[wig]] is of hair").
-He favored [[labor union]]s, but within limits: "It would be the greatest calamity of history if [[Eugene V. Debs]] ever became [[president of the United States]].... hell would hold a jubilee and [[heaven]] would hang a crepe on her door.... I have championed the cause of the union man all my life, but I'm dead against the radical in whatever form he may appear."<ref>Karsner, David (1922), ''Talks with Debs in Terre Haute,'' New York Call; [http://books.google.com/books?id=m0-D2Q74BxwC&pg=PA57&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA56,M1 p. 57]</ref>
+He favored [[labor union]]s, but within limits: "It would be the greatest calamity of history if [[Eugene V. Debs]] ever became [[president of the United States]].... hell would hold a jubilee and [[heaven]] would hang a crepe on her door.... I have championed the cause of the union man all my life, but I'm dead against the radical in whatever form he may appear."<ref>Karsner, David (1922), ''Talks with Debs in Terre Haute,'' New York Call; [https://books.google.com/books?id=m0-D2Q74BxwC&pg=PA57&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA56,M1 p. 57]</ref>
 ==Converts and financial success==
@@ Line 58: / Line 58: @@
 ==Criticism==
 A 1916 writer commented that
-:When people who have read Billy Sunday say he is irreverent, or frivolous, or that he is a poseur, or that (as some people seem to think) he is a mere financial adventurer or speculator in sermons, the most common reply one hears from people who have heard him is, "I thought so, too, until I went and listened to him and watched him." Then for a few minutes one hears the more or less helpless [[apologist]] for Billy ... trying to explain (like explaining the flavour of a [[raspberry]] to one who won't taste one).<ref>Lee, Gerald Stanley (1916): ''We; a Confession of Faith for the American People During and After the War'', Doubleday, Page, [http://books.google.com/books?id=dGgAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA537&dq=%22billy+sunday%22&as_brr=1#PPA537,M1 p. 537]</ref>
+:When people who have read Billy Sunday say he is irreverent, or frivolous, or that he is a poseur, or that (as some people seem to think) he is a mere financial adventurer or speculator in sermons, the most common reply one hears from people who have heard him is, "I thought so, too, until I went and listened to him and watched him." Then for a few minutes one hears the more or less helpless [[apologist]] for Billy ... trying to explain (like explaining the flavour of a [[raspberry]] to one who won't taste one).<ref>Lee, Gerald Stanley (1916): ''We; a Confession of Faith for the American People During and After the War'', Doubleday, Page, [https://books.google.com/books?id=dGgAAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA537&dq=%22billy+sunday%22&as_brr=1#PPA537,M1 p. 537]</ref>
 Some questioned the permanence of Sunday's "conversions." Following the famous 1917 revival in New York, the [[Federal Council of Churches]] found that only 200 of the 68,000 were permanent converts.<ref name=nytobit/> In 1921, a commentator wrote:
-:In spite of the thousands that have hit the sawdust trail, however, it is difficult to believe that more than a tiny proportion of his auditors are religiously affected by him. Very few give any signs of seriousness or "conversion." The great majority of those who hit the trail are merely people who want to shake his hand.... His audiences are curious to see him and hear him. He is a remarkable public entertainer, and much that he says has keen humor and verbal art and [[horse sense]]. But ... he leaves an impression of being at once violent and incommunicative, a salesman for [[Christianity]] but not a guide or friend.<ref>Hackett, Francis (1921), ''The Invisible Censor,''  B.W. Huebsch, Inc.; [http://books.google.com/books?id=ln1ixFuVoUsC&pg=PA23&ots=a2iRPCJG_X&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+shaking+shake+hand&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=hNWhl_TXHcL53rx0MTSo9CUmPHs#PPA30,M1 p. 30] (of reprint)</ref>
+:In spite of the thousands that have hit the sawdust trail, however, it is difficult to believe that more than a tiny proportion of his auditors are religiously affected by him. Very few give any signs of seriousness or "conversion." The great majority of those who hit the trail are merely people who want to shake his hand.... His audiences are curious to see him and hear him. He is a remarkable public entertainer, and much that he says has keen humor and verbal art and [[horse sense]]. But ... he leaves an impression of being at once violent and incommunicative, a salesman for [[Christianity]] but not a guide or friend.<ref>Hackett, Francis (1921), ''The Invisible Censor,''  B.W. Huebsch, Inc.; [https://books.google.com/books?id=ln1ixFuVoUsC&pg=PA23&ots=a2iRPCJG_X&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+shaking+shake+hand&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=hNWhl_TXHcL53rx0MTSo9CUmPHs#PPA30,M1 p. 30] (of reprint)</ref>
 Sunday's reply to such criticisms was "They tell me a revival is only temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good."<ref>[http://www.fbbc.com/messages/billys.htm Sayings of Billy Sunday]</ref> He felt that it was the local [[clergy|clergy's]] job to retain the people he converted: "If you are too lazy to take care of the baby after it is born, don't blame the doctor."<ref name="tnr"/>

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, was converted, and stopped drinking.
-In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6–7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
+In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6–7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman]], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
 By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in [[New York]] in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref>Lyle Dorsett, ''Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America'', Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 106-107.</ref> Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, was converted, and stopped drinking.
-In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6–7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist J. Wilbur Chapman, and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
+In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6–7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
 By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in [[New York]] in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref>Lyle Dorsett, ''Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America'', Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 106-107.</ref> Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, was converted, and stopped drinking.
-In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6-7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist J. Wilbur Chapman, and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January of 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
+In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6–7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist J. Wilbur Chapman, and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
-By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in [[New York]] in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref>Lyle Dorsett, ''Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America'', Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 106-107.</ref>Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.
+By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in [[New York]] in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref>Lyle Dorsett, ''Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America'', Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 106-107.</ref> Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.
 ==Preaching style==
@@ Line 43: / Line 43: @@
 He opposed [[dance|dancing]]: "You must want a lot of prostitutes or you wouldn't sow dances...  Somebody says to me: 'Mr. Sunday, are you going to include the [[square dance]]?' They all look alike to me. It does not take very long to cut the corners off. Sure it is harmful, especially for girls. Young men can drink and [[gamble]] and frequent houses of ill fame, but the only way a girl can get recreation is in a narrow gauge buggy ride on a moonlight night or at a dance. If you can't see any harm in this kind of thing, why I guess the Lord will let you out as an idiot."<ref>[http://www.biblebelievers.com/billy_sunday/sun12.html Theatre, Cards, and Dance], sermon by Billy Sunday</ref> He opposed [[cigarette]]s: "I say to you, young girl, don't go with that godless, God-forsaken, sneering young man that walks the streets smoking cigarettes. He would not walk the streets with you if you smoked cigarettes."<ref name=ellis/>
-He believed in a literal [[Hell]], and invoked it frequently in his sermons. He said "If we had more preaching on Hell from the pulpit, we would have less Hell in the congregation."<ref>[http://www.swordofthelord.com/archives/DangerofDelay.htm The Danger of Delay], sermon by Dr. Curtis Hutson (1934–1995)</ref>. In a sermon, he said "If you ever had any doubt about a literal Hell, a fiery Hell, where the wicked must remain forever, it would all vanish as I see Jesus Christ in [[Gethsemane]], agonizing because men would not accept Him and were going to Hell."<ref>[http://www.biblebelievers.com/billy_sunday/sun16.html Gethsemane], sermon by Billy Sunday</ref>
+He believed in a literal [[Hell]], and invoked it frequently in his sermons. He said "If we had more preaching on Hell from the pulpit, we would have less Hell in the congregation.".<ref>[http://www.swordofthelord.com/archives/DangerofDelay.htm The Danger of Delay], sermon by Dr. Curtis Hutson (1934–1995)</ref> In a sermon, he said "If you ever had any doubt about a literal Hell, a fiery Hell, where the wicked must remain forever, it would all vanish as I see Jesus Christ in [[Gethsemane]], agonizing because men would not accept Him and were going to Hell."<ref>[http://www.biblebelievers.com/billy_sunday/sun16.html Gethsemane], sermon by Billy Sunday</ref>
 He considered the [[theory of evolution]] to be "bunk, junk, and poppycock."<ref name=hartt>Hartt, Rolin Lynde (1923), "Deep Conflict Divides Protestantism," ''The New York Times'' December 16, 1923, p. XX5</ref> He once dismissed it by saying, "I don't believe in the bastard theory that men came from protoplasm by the fortuitous concurrence of atoms."<ref>Quoted in ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 132.</ref>
@@ Line 51: / Line 51: @@
 He favored women's right to [[vote]]. He favored sex education:<ref name=ames>[http://www.ameshistoricalsociety.org/residents_sunday.htm Famous Ames Residents: Billy Sunday], Ames Historical Society</ref> ("Prudery is no more a sign of virtue than a [[wig]] is of hair").
-He favored [[labor union|labor unions]], but within limits: "It would be the greatest calamity of history if [[Eugene V. Debs]] ever became [[president of the United States]].... hell would hold a jubilee and [[heaven]] would hang a crepe on her door.... I have championed the cause of the union man all my life, but I'm dead against the radical in whatever form he may appear."<ref>Karsner, David (1922), ''Talks with Debs in Terre Haute,'' New York Call; [http://books.google.com/books?id=m0-D2Q74BxwC&pg=PA57&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA56,M1 p. 57]</ref>
+He favored [[labor union]]s, but within limits: "It would be the greatest calamity of history if [[Eugene V. Debs]] ever became [[president of the United States]].... hell would hold a jubilee and [[heaven]] would hang a crepe on her door.... I have championed the cause of the union man all my life, but I'm dead against the radical in whatever form he may appear."<ref>Karsner, David (1922), ''Talks with Debs in Terre Haute,'' New York Call; [http://books.google.com/books?id=m0-D2Q74BxwC&pg=PA57&ie=ISO-8859-1#PPA56,M1 p. 57]</ref>
 ==Converts and financial success==
-He was financially successful, a point which his critics noted. It was his practice to keep the proceeds of the last day of his campaigns. He published his results measured both by numbers of converts and by dollars in thank offerings. Through 1916, he made over twenty appearances in cities ranging in size from small ([[Erie, Pennsylvania]]; [[Canton, Ohio]]) to large ([[Boston]], [[Philadelphia]], [[New York City|New York]]), and claimed a total of over 600,000 converts and $680,000 in donations<ref name=nytobit>"Billy Sunday Dies, Evangelist was 71," ''The New York Times,'' November 7, 1935, p. 1. Totals calculated from numbers in article.</ref> (equivalent to about $13 million today).<ref name=westegg>[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]</ref>. In 1920 [[Dun and Bradstreet]] estimated his worth at $1.4 million ($16 million today).
+He was financially successful, a point which his critics noted. It was his practice to keep the proceeds of the last day of his campaigns. He published his results measured both by numbers of converts and by dollars in thank offerings. Through 1916, he made over twenty appearances in cities ranging in size from small ([[Erie, Pennsylvania]]; [[Canton, Ohio]]) to large ([[Boston]], [[Philadelphia]], [[New York City|New York]]), and claimed a total of over 600,000 converts and $680,000 in donations<ref name=nytobit>"Billy Sunday Dies, Evangelist was 71," ''The New York Times,'' November 7, 1935, p. 1. Totals calculated from numbers in article.</ref> (equivalent to about $13 million today).<ref name=westegg>[http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ The Inflation Calculator]</ref> In 1920 [[Dun and Bradstreet]] estimated his worth at $1.4 million ($16 million today).
 ==Criticism==
@@ Line 62: / Line 62: @@
 Some questioned the permanence of Sunday's "conversions." Following the famous 1917 revival in New York, the [[Federal Council of Churches]] found that only 200 of the 68,000 were permanent converts.<ref name=nytobit/> In 1921, a commentator wrote:
 :In spite of the thousands that have hit the sawdust trail, however, it is difficult to believe that more than a tiny proportion of his auditors are religiously affected by him. Very few give any signs of seriousness or "conversion." The great majority of those who hit the trail are merely people who want to shake his hand.... His audiences are curious to see him and hear him. He is a remarkable public entertainer, and much that he says has keen humor and verbal art and [[horse sense]]. But ... he leaves an impression of being at once violent and incommunicative, a salesman for [[Christianity]] but not a guide or friend.<ref>Hackett, Francis (1921), ''The Invisible Censor,''  B.W. Huebsch, Inc.; [http://books.google.com/books?id=ln1ixFuVoUsC&pg=PA23&ots=a2iRPCJG_X&dq=%22billy+sunday%22+shaking+shake+hand&ie=ISO-8859-1&sig=hNWhl_TXHcL53rx0MTSo9CUmPHs#PPA30,M1 p. 30] (of reprint)</ref>
-Sunday's reply to such criticisms was "They tell me a revival is only temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good."<ref>[http://www.fbbc.com/messages/billys.htm Sayings of Billy Sunday]</ref> He felt that it was the local [[clergy|clergy's]] job to retain the people he converted: "If you are too lazy to take care of the baby after it is born, don't blame the doctor."<ref name=tnr>"Billy Sunday," ''The New Republic,'' March 20, 1915, from ''The New Republic Book,'' [http://books.google.com/books?id=x7IiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA183&as_brr=1#PPA183,M1 p. 183]</ref>
+Sunday's reply to such criticisms was "They tell me a revival is only temporary; so is a bath, but it does you good."<ref>[http://www.fbbc.com/messages/billys.htm Sayings of Billy Sunday]</ref> He felt that it was the local [[clergy|clergy's]] job to retain the people he converted: "If you are too lazy to take care of the baby after it is born, don't blame the doctor."<ref name="tnr"/>
 Sunday was criticized by the liberal clergy of the day. Left-leaning [[Leon Milton Birkhead]] called Sunday's theology "a [[mediaeval]] belief that Christianity somehow is a fire-escape from a future hell." In 1916 [[Unitarian]] minister [[Joel H. Metcalf]] said "I cannot see how any cultivated person can be other than terribly revolted by the extreme sensationalism, the coarse jokes, the super-slang, the bawd characterizations, the ribald Billingsgate, and the dancing dervish contortions of the revivalist, where perspiration seems to be confused with inspiration."<ref>[http://personal.tmlp.com/richard/1916.htm Liberalism and the Modern Revival], sermon by Joel H. Metcalf, Winchester Star (Winchester, VA), December 8, 1916</ref>
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 [[Category:Fundamentalism]]

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 ==Baseball player to preacher==
 [[image:Billysundaycard.jpg|150px|thumb|left|Billy Sunday on a baseball card]]
-His first career was as [[baseball]] player with the [[Chicago Cubs|Chicago White Stockings]] from 1883-7, the [[Pittsburgh Pirates|Pittsburgh Alleghenies]] in 1888-90, and briefly with the [[Philadelphia Phillies]].<ref>[http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sundabi01.shtml Billy Sunday statistics], baseballreference.com</ref> He was a well-known and notable player (though not stellar), famous for his running speed in the outfield and as a base stealer. He was clocked rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in footraces he beat out both the fastest runner in a competing baseball league and a professional sprinter.<ref>Those races were reported in the ''Chicago Tribune,'' Aug. 21, 1885 and Nov. 9, 1885. The races are discussed in ''Sunday at the Ballpark: Billy Sunday's Professional Baseball Career 1883-1890'', by Wendy Knickerbocker, Scarecrow Press, 2000, p. 42-43, 45-47.</ref> A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's [[Pacific Garden Mission]], was converted, and stopped drinking.
+His first career was as [[baseball]] player with the [[Chicago Cubs|Chicago White Stockings]] from 1883-7, the [[Pittsburgh Pirates|Pittsburgh Alleghenies]] in 1888-90, and briefly with the [[Philadelphia Phillies]].<ref>[http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/sundabi01.shtml Billy Sunday statistics], baseballreference.com</ref> He was a well-known and notable player (though not stellar), famous for his running speed in the outfield and as a base stealer. He was clocked rounding the bases in fourteen seconds, and in footraces he beat out both the fastest runner in a competing baseball league and a professional sprinter.<ref>Those races were reported in the ''Chicago Tribune,'' Aug. 21, 1885 and Nov. 9, 1885. The races are discussed in ''Sunday at the Ballpark: Billy Sunday's Professional Baseball Career 1883-1890'', by Wendy Knickerbocker, Scarecrow Press, 2000, p. 42-43, 45-47.</ref> For many years Billy Sunday held the record for the most stolen bases in a season (95), until [[Ty Cobb]] broke it in 1915.
-In the spring of 1891 Sunday resigned his Philadelphia Phillies contract of $3000 for 6-7 months of work for an $83/month job as "Secretary of the Religious Department" at the Chicago [[YMCA]]. Two years later he became an advance man for revivalist [[J. Wilbur Chapman]], and learned how to organize revival meetings. In January of 1896 he went out on his own and hosted his first revival meeting in Garner, [[Iowa]], and he was ordained as a [[Presbyterian]] minister in 1903.<ref name=cc>[http://www.christianchronicler.com/history1/fundamentalism_and_billy_sunday.html Fundamentalism and Billy Sunday], ''Billy Sunday Was His Real Name'', by William McLoughlin, University of Chicago Press, 1955, p. 8-11.</ref>
+A hard drinker off the field, in 1886 he was literally picked out of the gutter, drunk, by workers at the Chicago's Pacific Garden Mission, was converted, and stopped drinking.
 By 1914, he was a national celebrity, conducting campaigns in big cities which lasted many weeks and attracted tens of thousands of people.  In 1917, he conducted a ten-week campaign in [[New York]] in which 98,000 people accepted Christ.<ref>Lyle Dorsett, ''Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America'', Grand Rapids: Wm. Eerdmans, 1991, p. 106-107.</ref>Gale's ''American Decades'' says that by 1920 he was the best-known evangelist in America.

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