The Social Gospel movement, part 1

"The great ends of the church are
the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind;
the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God;
the maintenance of divine worship;
the preservation of truth;
the promotion of social righteousness;
and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world."

_United Presbyterian Church of North America, The Book of Order Chapter 1 Preliminary Principles, 1910

This is the first of a two-or-three-part post about the Social Gospel movement in history, and the ways and extent to which it's relevant to the timeless truth and blessings of the Christian gospel. I also hope that, for myself and for anyone who reads this, I can clarify why I would adopt the term "social gospel" (lowercase letters) for this blog.

The Social Gospel movement, with capital letters, refers to a mostly Protestant Christian movement around the turn of the last century. You could say it lasted until Prohibition (one of its more dubious achievements), but you could also argue that its essence lasted until the American Civil Rights era in the 1960s. Maybe, just maybe, part of its legacy was continued by the hippie Jesus Movement into the 1970s, although at that point we can say with some certainty that it was more of a derailed train. At any rate, the quotation above, which is still part of PCUSA's denominational constitution, can be considered the Social Gospel's unofficial manifesto.

Actually, the Social Gospel was no single organized campaign and had no official (or even central unofficial) leaders at the time. It was more of a consciousness among what we'd now call Evangelical Christians. A consciousness of what, I'll talk about more tomorrow; but anyhow, this consciousness grew out of the rapidly changing (and often deteriorative) social conditions of the Industrial Revolution. It came at a time when the awkwardly maturing United States was becoming a nation of activists; political Progressivism was the trend and the Muckrakers were prominent on the front-page news. By contrast, the Social Gospel was not primarily political. It was first and foremost concerned with the Kingdom of God being ushered in, not only into the individual, the church, the family and the home, but into all areas of society.

True Christianity has always cared for physical and social ills like Christ did, but I think there are a few reasons for this sudden reemergence around 1900. The new growth of cities meant the growth of urban decay, and more desperation meant more social breakdown. In addition, I believe it wasn't so much that humanity suddenly got worse (individuals have always been sinners and societies always corrupt), but it probably became much more noticeable for a couple of reasons. First, perhaps because (owing to America's Christian ancestors and an agricultural society) up until the late 19th century families were generally nuclear, small communities generally cared for their needy members, and cooperation rather than competition was generally preferred. Industrialization and urbanization changed much of that. Second, perhaps also because Social Darwinism had begun to challenge the basic assumption that the weak were to be cared for rather than weeded out.

Basically, though not all Americans were Christians, American society had previously tended to operate on originally Christian values. When industrialization swept though, traditional mores were disrupted, and suddenly it became apparent to Christians that much of society was going, literally and figuratively, to hell. Social pathogens stopped laying dormant, no longer held back by conventional courtesy but unleashed by the madness of modernity, and began to ravage their way though society in a new way. Christian mobilization no longer seemed optional but crucial.

If this sounds kinda like the present era, that's because... it is kinda like the present era. And it is probably like many eras before it. Throughout history there have been societal and moral shifts, often followed by conscious Christian efforts to restore and heal.

I think there's a lot to be learned from the Social Gospel movement about how God's people can powerfully introduce restoration and healing and justice today. More on that later. I also believe there were some things about the Social Gospel that were unhealthy and led to a distortion of the gospel itself, which can serve as a warning to us. More on that later too.