Should an Evangelist's Pay for a Revival be $33,194, a Cadillac, Several Bags of Gold, Asks Editor, March 5, 1920

From the editorial page of The Independent, Elizabeth City, N.C., March 5, 1920, W.O. Saunders, Editor.

Sunday’s Pay

Billy Sunday pulled down a check for $33,194.24, a Cadillac automobile, several bags of gold and smaller gifts too numerous to mention, as his pay for the eight week’s revival which he concluded in Norfolk last Sunday. If the original apostles of Jesus could have done anything like that, they would have carried all the Kings, Princes and potentates of their day along with them, and Jesus, instead of adorning a scaffold on a trash heap outside Jerusalem would have lived to ripe old age in a place on the Sea of Galilee.

But why condemn Billy Sunday for his money getting? He is preaching a rich man’s religion, a religion of high finance and commerce. The class of people to whom he caters and whose sins he washes away can afford to pay extravagantly for his work. And why shouldn’t they? What is $33,144.24 to a lot of money-making people? Some families alone spend more than that on a summer vacation. If they valued crowns in glory half as much as they value their mundane pleasures, Mr. Sunday would pull down $10,000 where he now garners $10 bills.