Billy Sunday
For almost a quarter century Billy Sunday 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.
Whether people stood for or against the Reverend William A. Sunday, they all agreed that it was difficult to be indifferent toward him. The religious leader was so extraordinarily popular, opinionated, and vocal that indifference was the last thing that he would get from people. His most loyal admirers were confident that this rural-breed preacher was God’s mouthpiece, calling Americans to repentance. Sunday’s critics said that at best he was a well-meaning buffoon whose sermons vulgarized and 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, Billy Sunday 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 worshiping and obeying him. Following this spiritual rebirth, the convert became deeply devoted to Jesus Christ. A devotion manifested in living out many of ...
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...ee baseball seasons stood up at the street preacher’s invitation and abruptly announced to his teammates on the curb, “Boys I bid the old life good-bye.” Billy considered going down during the invitation but did not. After several days of agonizing over this Billy went back to the mission and decided, “With Christ you are saved, without him you are lost” (Sunday “Satan” 4). He “committed” his life that night to a cause that he saw was more important than any baseball game ever played.
Despite becoming largely famous after being traded to Philadelphia, it would be the results of that decision at the Pacific Garden Mission that the world would remember Billy Sunday for. Some applauded Sunday and his methods; others did not. But there is no question that Sunday’s sensational career was a phenomenon Americans would not soon forget.
Works Cited
Dorsett, Lyle W. Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America. Grand Rapids: W.B. Eerdmans Pub, 1991.
Ellis, William T. Billy Sunday: The Man and His Message. n.p., 1914.
Sunday, Billy. Billy Sunday’s Sermons. Omaha: Omaha Daily News, 1915.
Sunday, Billy. Face to Face With Satan. Knoxville: Prudential Pub, 1923.
The thesis of this book is that George Whitefield (1714-1770) changed the nature of Christianity by promoting and conducting mass revivals that exploited the weaknesses of institutional Christianity.
Most people live in capitalist societies where money matters a lot. Essentially, ownership is also of significance since it decides to whom the money goes. In present days, human tissues matter in the scientific field. Rebecca Skloot, author of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, shows how Henrietta Lacks’s cells have been used well, and at the same time, how they have been a hot potato in science because of the problem of the ownership. This engages readers to try to answer the question, “Should legal ownership have to be given to people?” For that answer, yes. People should be given the rights to ownership over their tissues for patients to decide if they are willing to donate their tissues or not. Reasons will be explained as follows.
In the 1700’s the Puritans left England for the fear of being persecuted. They moved to America for religious freedom. The Puritans lived from God’s laws. They did not depend as much on material things, and they had a simpler and conservative life. More than a hundred years later, the Puritan’s belief toward their church started to fade away. Some Puritans were not able to recognize their religion any longer, they felt that their congregations had grown too self-satisfied. They left their congregations, and their devotion to God gradually faded away. To rekindle the fervor that the early Puritans had, Jonathan Edwards and other Puritan ministers led a religious revival through New England. Edwards preached intense sermons that awakened his congregation to an awareness of their sins. With Edwards’ sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” he persuades the Puritans to convert back to Puritanism, by utilizing rhetorical strategies such as, imagery, loaded diction, and a threatening and fearful tone.
David Walker was “born a free black in late eighteenth century Wilmington,” however, not much more information is known about his early life. During his childhood years, Walker was likely exposed to the Methodist church. During the nineteenth century, the Methodist church appealed directly to blacks because they, in particular, “provided educational resources for blacks in the Wilmington region.” Because his education and religion is based in the Methodist theology, Methodism set the tone and helped to shape the messages Walker conveys through his Appeal to the black people of the United States of America. As evident in his book, Walker’s “later deep devotion to the African Methodist Episcopal faith could surely argue for an earlier exposure to a black-dominated church” because it was here he would have been exposed to blacks managing their own dealings, leading classes, and preaching. His respect and high opinion of the potential of the black community is made clear when Walker says, “Surely the Americans must think...
The Second Great Awaking consisted of new applications of religion that deviated from rationalism, which sparked promotion of democracy and freedom. The message of salvation rather than condemnation was evident in this movement as spoken by Charles G. Finney. He sought to remove sin from reformed churches and organize sinners to unity and freedom (Doc B). This practice showed the crucial democrati...
Jonathan Edwards's sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is moving and powerful. His effectiveness as an eighteenth century New England religious leader is rooted in his expansive knowledge of the Bible and human nature, as well as a genuine desire to "awaken" and save as many souls as possible. This sermon, delivered in 1741, exhibits Edwards's skillful use of these tools to persuade his congregation to join him in his Christian beliefs.
He was a man whose very words struck fear into the hearts of his listeners. Acknowledged as one of the most powerful religious speakers of the era, he spearheaded the Great Awakening. “This was a time when the intense fervor of the first Puritans had subsided somewhat” (Heyrmen 1) due to a resurgence of religious zeal (Stein 1) in colonists through faith rather than predestination. Jonathan Edwards however sought to arouse the religious intensity of the colonists (Edwards 1) through his preaching. But how and why was Edwards so successful? What influenced him? How did he use diction and symbolism to persuade his listener, and what was the reaction to his teachings? In order to understand these questions one must look at his life and works to understand how he was successful. In his most influential sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”, Jonathan Edwards’ persuasive language awakened the religious fervor that lay dormant in colonial Americans and made him the most famous puritan minister of the Great Awakening in North America.
A majority of these individuals are linked through commonalities of their childhood as well as their personality traits and behaviors. The serial murderer’s personality is an intricate recipe of biological, environmental and social circumstances. Though early abuse can cause feelings of aggression and delinquency, childhood experiences alone cannot be to blame. Many people are abused early on as children, and never become killers. Similarly, biological issues, such as brain abnormalities, as we as certain personality disorders would not individually create a murderer. Rather, a distinctive combination of psychological issues, impairments in the brain, and personality disorders help mold a brutal serial killer. Killers cannot be simply born into this world, but under the right circumstances, they will be created.
All throughout history, the world has seen the affects of great men who have made it their life’s goal to further the word of God. There have been pastors who travel all around their nation preaching at every church they can find. There have been pastors who have had to hold services in secret or else be imprisoned for the rest of their lives. There have been missionaries who have risked their lives to bring the gospel to the most remote places of the world. There have been astounding Christian authors, who have written some of the most compelling books to ever hit the best-seller list. However, there is a man who has taken part in all of these extraordinary tasks; a man whose entire life revolved around the Bible. Not only was he known in his hometown of Bedford, London but in all of Europe and all throughout Asia. (In fact, one of his books sold 200,000 copies in the first three days in China alone (Sadler).) This man, John Bunyan, has influenced the lives of many people all over the world. In fact, John Bunyan’s life, works, and struggles have proven to be some of the most influential in Christian history to this point; his writings have also pioneered the way for theological allegories.
Serial killers are defined to “be driven by instinct and desire to kill.” In a study done in 2000, Dr, Richard Davidson says, “people with a large amount of aggression – in particular people who have committed aggressive murders or have a social disorder – have almost no brain activity in the orbital frontal cortex or the anterior cingulated cortex while activity in the amyglade continued perfectly. The orbital frontal cortex and the anterior congulated cortex control emotional impulses while the amyglade controls reactions to fear.” Davidson concludes his research claiming that although environment can and will affect a serial killer’s thoughts, it is a killer’s genetic makeup that inevitably creates murderous thoughts.
Brown, Raymond. A Crucified Christ in Holy Week: Essays on the Four Gospel Passion Narratives. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1986.
The Hundred Years War took place between France and England between the years 1337 and 1453, which is ironically one hundred and sixteen years. The war was fought over a couple issues, which include, an English King wanting to claim the French throne and also because the French king Phillip VI wanted to own territories
Jacobs, Jane. "12-13." The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House, 1961. N. pag. Print.
Writer and member of the 1920’s literary movement, Langston Hughes, in his autobiographical essay, Salvation, elucidates the loss of innocence and faith due to the pressure of accepting a concept that he has yet to acknowledge. Hughes’ purpose is to describe his childhood experience of the burden to be saved by Jesus, resulting in his loss of faith. He adopts a solemn, yet disappointing tone to convey his childhood event and argues the unqualified religious pressure.
... war effort. “The English crown became increasingly in debt, indeed when Henry V died the crown had a deficit of £30,000 and a debt of £25,000.” The French maintained their focus throughout the war. They had a simple goal that of evicting the English from France. The French were ill served by their leadership during most of the war with the exception of Charles VI, who chose the right strategy for his reign. One of the main reason's for France's eventual victory was the simple fact that France was too large nation for the English to defeat. Realistically, the English never had much hope of defeating France and the English conduct of the war was such that France would stay outraged and continue to fight. One of the largest factors in the overall English defeat in the Hundred Years War was their loss of focus in the strategy they employed during the course of the war.