Billy Sunday
For almost a quarter century was a household name in the United States. Between 1902 when he first made the pages of the New York Times and 1935 when the paper covered his death and memorial service in detail, people who knew anything about current events had heard of the former major league baseball player who was preaching sin and salvation to large crowds all over America. Not everyone who knew of the famous evangelist liked him. Plenty of outspoken critics spoke of his flashy style and criticized his conservative doctrines. But he had hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of loyal defenders, and they were just as loud in their praise as the critics were in their criticism. ...
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trivialized the Christian message and at worst he was a disgrace to the name of Christ (Dorsett 2).
There are elements of truth in both of these views. He was often guilty of oversimplifying biblical truths, and at times he spoke more out of ignorance than a heavenly viewpoint. He was also a man with numerous flaws. He spoiled his children, giving them everything that they asked for. He put enormous responsibility on his wife, burdening her with many aspects of his ministry. He always noticeably sought the applause of the crowd for his own praise. He often confused the will of God with his own social and political agenda. He even sometimes compared the gospel of Jesus Christ with special interest and American foreign policy.
Nevertheless, was a sincere man whose life was fundamentally changed by his response to an evangelist�s call to repent of his sins, to believe that Jesus Christ died in his place for those sins, and to follow Christ in thanksgiving by ...
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the lives of countless men and women of all social classes, helping them escape various forms of personal bondage and find freedom in the gospel. And if he did not convert all of urban America to his brand of Christianity, he at least played a major role in helping to keep conservative biblical Christianity alive in this century (Dorsett 3). To understand fully why he thought, lived, preached, and teached the way he did, we should look at his upbringing and conversion experience.
William Ashley Sunday was born on November 19, 1862. His father, a union private, would die of pneumonia just five weeks later, three days before Christmas, in a cold, damp army tent in the Missouri ...
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Billy Sunday. (2008, October 20). Retrieved November 30, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Billy-Sunday/91752
"Billy Sunday." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 20 Oct. 2008. Web. 30 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Billy-Sunday/91752>
"Billy Sunday." Essayworld.com. October 20, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Billy-Sunday/91752.
"Billy Sunday." Essayworld.com. October 20, 2008. Accessed November 30, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Billy-Sunday/91752.
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