Sunday was criticized by the liberal clergy of the day. Left-leaning [[Leon Milton Birkhead]] called Sunday's theology "a [[mediaeval]] belief that Christianity somehow is a fire-escape from a future hell." In 1916 [[Unitarian]] minister [[Joel H. Metcalf]] said "I cannot see how any cultivated person can be other than terribly revolted by the extreme sensationalism, the coarse jokes, the super-slang, the bawd characterizations, the ribald Billingsgate, and the dancing dervish contortions of the revivalist, where perspiration seems to be confused with inspiration."<ref>[http://personal.tmlp.com/richard/1916.htm Liberalism and the Modern Revival], sermon by Joel H. Metcalf, Winchester Star (Winchester, VA), December 8, 1916</ref>
Sunday fascinated the liberal intelligentsia of the time, who often made him a target of their mockery. [[Sinclair Lewis]]' novel [[Babbitt]] includes a character named Mike Monday, "the distinguished evangelist, the best-known [[Protestantism|Protestant]] pontiff in America.... As a prize-fighter he gained nothing but his crooked nose, his celebrated vocabulary, and his stage-presence. The service of the Lord had been more profitable." In his novel, a visit by Monday is opposed by "certain [[Episcopalian]] and [[Congregationalism|Congregationalist]] ministers," whom Monday calls "a bunch of gospel-pushers with dish-water instead of blood, a gang of squealers that need more dust on the knees of their pants and more hair on their skinny old chests." Later, Lewis was to write [[Elmer Gantry]], a novel about an evangelical preacher with resemblances to Sunday. (Sunday in turn referred to Lewis as "Satan's cohort.")<ref>[http://www.bookrags.com/studyguide-elmer-gantry/intro.html Elmer Gantry study guide], bookrags.com.</ref>
[[C. E. S. Wood]] in ''Heavenly Discourse'' depicts Billy Sunday as going to Heaven, addressing St. Michael and God as "Hello, Mike. Howdy, Pardner," and offering to conduct a revival there: "I can pack heaven so tight the [[flea]]s will squeal, and all I want is the gate-receipts for the last performance." [[Carl Sandburg]]'s poem, "To A Contemporary Bunkshooter," attacked Sunday using demotic speech similar to Sunday's own.<ref>Sandburg, Carl (1916), ''Chicago Poems,'' [http://www.bartleby.com/165/54.html To A Contemporary Bunkshooter], online text at Bartleby.com</ref>