A thoughtful reader sent me a copy of Billy Sunday the Man and His Message by William T. Ellis and I was so astounded by how perfectly the the author sums up the negatives about Billy in his first chapter (while touting them as positives) that I wanted to share it with all of you.
To that end, I’ve done an audio recording of the first chapter.
It’s interesting to note a couple things about Billy Sunday’s approach to “preaching.” He uses no text. He doesn’t even open a Bible. What he has instead are certain memorized phrases and word pictures that he gives out in rapid-fire succession to keep the audience engaged. It’s not about Jesus, it’s all about getting people to sign on the dotted line.
If we wonder why preachers in the IFB movement these days have such strange ideas about what it means to “preach the whole counsel of God” we need look no further than these early days of performance preaching by a pantheon of pandering populists.
Here’s a quiz question from an A Beka Book 3rd grade quiz.
In case you’re wondering they think the correct answer to #7 is “true.”
Phil Kidd gives it his best shot.