A SAD SIGHT

Of all the evangelists in American history, Billy Sunday was the most flamboyant and the one with the least content. He used no text. He didn’t even open a Bible. What he did instead was to use certain memorized phrases and word pictures that he gave out in Gatling-gun succession to keep the audience listening.

He said: "Lord save us from off-handed, flabby-cheeked, brittle-boned, weak-kneed, thin-skinned, pliable, plastic, spineless, effeminate, ossified three-karat Christianity."

His most famous quote concerns his life-long battle against sin: "I’m against sin. I’ll kick it as long as I have a foot. I’ll fight it as long as I have a fist. I’ll butt it as long as I have a head. I’ll bite it as long as I’ve got a tooth. And when I’m old and fistless and footless and toothless, I’ll gum it till I go home to Glory and it goes home to perdition."

As he got going with his message, he would sometimes throw off his collar, coat, and tie; he would roll up his sleeves; and adopt a pugilistic stance. He might shake his fists in the faces of local clergymen as he condemned the ineffectiveness of their churches or point an accusing finger at his audience as he recited a list of sins in the American society.

It was a performance, a show. As thousands of the mesmerized watched, Sunday, a former major league center fielder, would run, jump, throw invisible baseballs, hit imaginary home runs, slide for home plate, and shout like an umpire, “You’re out,” as he announced God’s judgment on the unsaved.

One reporter estimated that as he preached, Sunday traveled a mile during each sermon and more than 100 miles in every campaign. Indefatigable.

BUT THEN IT HAPPENED

But he began to preach on social topics and to blend his gospel appeal with Prohibition and honest government. His sermons were about draining the swamp and the evils of alcohol. His campaigns became crusades against social evils and in this way he went beyond his contemporaries and even his predecessors. He became more of a performer in his platform gymnastics, offering entertainment as a bait to lure in the unsaved.

During the First World War, Sunday invaded the major cities of the nation, attacking New York in 1917 at the peak of his career and the peak of the war fever against the Germany. President Wilson, who locking people up for criticizing the war, invited him to the White House to ask his personal help on behalf of the war effort because, as he said to Sunday, “You have the ear of the people.” He got that help and the ministry of the evangelist became a tool of the state

Thus, his evangelism was cemented to the state and that always changes the gospel into no gospel at all. His preaching dealt with how many gallons of beer America consumed, how much money the government would get from a tax on liquor and what a profitable industry the liquor industry was. He preached about the deleterious effects of the saloon--no food for the family, no money to pay the rent, children in rags. 

Billy Sunday sold hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of war bonds. His gospel morphed into "Take your stand for God and country." People responded to such appeals by multiplied thousands.

WHEN THE INEVITABLE CAME

But what happened when, inevitably, those two issues, Prohibition and WWI, were settled? What happened to Billy Sunday when Prohibition became the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and Germany surrendered. Billy Sunday’s work began to decline. He was a messenger without a message. The evangelist had made the mistake of becoming too contemporaneous, of identifying the gospel too closely with social issues which were bound to change. He put himself out of the ministry. He had become a Johnny one-note, the inevitable death-knell for a preacher.

By the time Sunday returned to Detroit for another crusade in 1934, the nation's grand experiment with Prohibition had ended. And, the lawlessness and excesses of that era left a bitter taste with many.

Sunday's 1934 campaign was a disappointment. He attracted small crowds and even smaller donations from Detroiters struggling through the depths of the Great Depression. This time he only collected $2,000.

WHAT BILL SUNDAY FORGOT

Paul said, “I preach Christ and Him crucified.” He commanded Timothy, “Preach the Word.” Those texts came to have no impact on Billy Sunday. His messages became devoid of biblical content and the gospel got wrapped in the American flag.

At the end, Billy Sunday was a sad sight to behold.