Before Billy Graham there was Billy Sunday, America's first super-evangelist. Gifted as a great orator, his voice could soar to the heavens as he poured the spirit of scripture across the American heartland. Once upon a time, the legendary preacher visited Jackson.
The revival was packed as expected but um, there was a rather disconcerting reason for the turnout as readers will immediately see.
That little feature buries what was a wonderful sermon.
6 comments:
Interesting. I enjoy these historical posts when you do them, Kingfish.
I don’t find anything disconcerting about the Klan being in attendance. Mr. Sunday is quoted in the newspaper article stating that he had never heard of anyone being molested by the Klan who was behaving themselves. I think this is generally a true statement. Despite all the condemnation by moderns of the Klan, it was nothing more than a form of local justice. We all see things happen around us that are difficult for the law to correct. Once upon a time, troublemakers were dealt with and the peace was kept. Men in communities didn’t put up with nonsense. There were abuses, I’m sure, just as there are abuses in the legal system. The instances of abuse don’t disqualify the institution, just as the existence of abusive parents does not disqualify the institution of the family.
I recall more than one old man years ago, who was either in the Klan, or knew people who were, state that people don’t realize that the Klan “got on way more white folks’ asses than they did black”. For fictionalized examples of this sort of thing, read some of Majorie K Rawlings books (author of The Yearling) about the Florida frontier culture.
The Klan, once upon a time, was nothing more than a more organized form of community justice. Today’s KKK bears little resemblance to the old Klan.
6:45 AM The Klan has been one of the most evil organizations in world history.
Well 6:03, dig a little deeper than wikipedia.
Yeah, no doubt their final incarnation included a bunch of violent thugs.
(And I'm glad they no longer exist in large numbers).
But "most evil in the world" ?
Not EVEN close.
6:56 PM The Klan and other white supremacy groups are the trash of the earth.
The reason so many have turned their back on this type of proselytizing is because behind the scenes, many of these "good" God-fearing men were monsters......Check out Robert Duvall in "The Apostle" for an example. He almost won an Oscar for it.
7:26 AM They call themselves mega churches now.
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