Mark Twain is reputed to have said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” In that spirit, it is worth remembering evangelist Billy Sunday’s face-to-face 1918 encounter with the great influenza pandemic while conducting a revival crusade in Providence, Rhode Island. He claimed, “I can preach the devil influenza back to hell faster than medicine or science.” It raises the question of our religion’s place in the midst of a pandemic.

Here is the video of the April 26 service Old Time Religion.