William Ashley Billy Sunday

"Faith is a warrior invading the enemy's country and burning every bridge behind,
for it expects to live there. Faith makes no provision for relapse. Faith is going to the
goal for a touchdown. Faith will put the ball over the fence in the last half of the ninth
inning, score 3 to 0 against you, bases full, two men out and two strikes and three balls
called on you."
William Ashley Billy Sunday began his career in the public eye as a professional baseball
player, but he ended it as one of the most prominent and enigmatic evangelists in America in the
early 1900s. He was known not only for his evangelism, but also for his social influence in
implementing the prohibition of alcoholic beverages, as well as his support of the war effort during
World War I. With his colorful approach and fiery sermons, Sunday won many to faith in Christ and
used his status as a public figure to speak a message of morality to American society.
On November 19, 1862, Billy Sunday was born in Bina, Iowa. Only a month after he was born,
his fathera solider in an army camp in Patterson, Missouridied tragically of pneumonia. Now
widowed, his mother was faced with the grim prospect of raising three sons alone. Sunday spent
most of his childhood in poverty, and when he was thirteen, he was sent to an orphanage in
Glenwood, Iowa, along with his older brother. Eventually Sunday ran away from the orphanage,
worked a series of odd jobs to support himself, and moved to Marshalltown, Iowa. It was there that
he discovered his first great love. Billy Sunday excelled as an athlete, and whatever spare time he
could find, he played baseball for the local team. One afternoon the celebrated player and team
manager Cap Anson came to watch Sunday play and soon after signed him on to the Chicago
White Stockings. Sundays fame grew with his skill, and he was acknowledged as the champion
sprinter of the National League. Over the course of eight more years, Sunday would play for
Pittsburgh and Philadelphia teams, setting records and enjoying the blessings God bestowed upon
him.
During his baseball career, Sunday was invited to attend a service at the Pacific Garden
Mission in Chicago. One night in 1886, Sunday decided to give his life to Christ, and he began
attending services at the Mission regularly. Two years later he married Helen Thompson, and in
1889 Helen gave birth to a baby girl. Even though he had everything he could ever wantfame,
wealth, and familySunday knew he was missing something in his life. In 1891, he decided to
devote more time and energy to the Young Mens Christian Association (YMCA) and accepted a job
as the secretary of the religious department. Hed been stealing bases, but the Lord was ready for
him to steal souls for Gods Kingdom.
Evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman, who often held revival meetings across the country, visited
Sunday in 1894 and offered to hire him as an assistant. With Chapman, Sunday got his feet wet in
the world of evangelism. In 1896, Chapman decided to begin pastoring a church and left his
nationwide ministry, and Sunday struck out on his own. During the first week of his revival
meetings in Garner, Iowa, one hundred people accepted Jesus Christ, and this was just the
beginning. In 1903 he was ordained as a minister by the Presbyterian Church, and Sunday began
his ministry in earnest.
Sunday found that his success as a professional athlete had already made him a household
name in the Midwest and the East, and his background in baseball provided him with a rich store of
images, metaphors, and stories he could sprinkle throughout his sermons. He also was known to
throw imaginary baseballs, hit homeruns, and slide into home while he preached to further
underscore his message. Sundays energy in the pulpit was contagious, and both men and women
found Sundays masculine Christianity appealing. He considered himself a warrior for Christ, and
challenged men to be real men who could stand up and give battle to the devil. He despised
the notion that a Christian could be considered a sort of dish-rag proposition, a wishy-washy,
sissified sort of galoot that lets everybody make a doormat out of him. Sunday embodied a virile,
blunt, and brawny Christianity and declared, Let me tell you the manliest man is the man who will
acknowledge Jesus Christ.
Along with this emphasis on rugged manliness, Sunday encouraged new converts and
seasoned saints alike to support the American war effort in buying bonds, conserving resources,
and enlisting in the military.

As most popular evangelists of his day, Sunday was not without his critics. He knew little
about theology and had no oratorical training. Mainstream journalists critiqued Sundays
willingness to call people to a faith that church critics claimed he knew nothing about. Sunday was
also attacked for his business-like manner in running his revivals, and the sizeable income that
resulted. Nevertheless, Sundays appeal to America was undeniable. Many Americans found
Sundays success story truly inspiring. I have butted and fought and struggled since I was six
years old. If ever a man fought hard, I have fought for everything I have ever gained, Sunday
would sometimes remark in his sermons.
Sunday continued to travel across U.S. In 1917, Sunday embarked on a ten week campaign
to New York, and over 98,000 people came to trust in Jesus Christ. In his later years his popularity
began to wane, as technologies and national attention began to shift from big tent preaching
after World War I. Nonetheless, Billy Sunday remained in demand as a speaker and preacher until
his death in 1935.