An Attempt of Holding onto what is Left of Christianity: The Social Gospel Movement

Sadly, societies are rarely ever rated successful based on how happy and healthy their citizens are, where more importantly the success is determined by their level of economy. In the early stages of this nation life was simple, your wealth was based on your slaves, and you barely had to do anything. It was during the 1800’s when industrialization came into play, slavery had found its end, and it was time for a revolution of power, appreciation and consideration of whom was now going to be active citizens of an equal nation.
The Social Gospel Movement was an introduction of how the people of this growing nation should be recognized and put into practice as long as fairness was going to be taken into account. “In the very existence of every church there should appear the freest offer of the gospel’s divine power (Mathesin, Doc 88).” This power was to no longer enable those who have once been enabled by a master, this power was to convince them of their worthiness as they too can work just as hard, regardless of The Christian Interdependence of Capital and Labor. Where they explain, “rich and poor are intended by nature to live at war with one another (Mathesin, Doc 89),” with this the Social Gospel attempts to renew all that has taken a turn for the worst.
Our current society is only a continuance of the first industrialization era, it is something we have continued by ways of all physical items.
“ the social gospel is the clearness and insistence with which it sets forth the necessity and the possibility of redeeming the historical life of humanity from the social wrongs which now pervade it and which act as temptations and incitements to evil and as forces of resistance to the powers of redemption (Rauschenbusch, 1917)”
As we all take notice every moment throughout our lives the social wrongs that pervade and the temptations that many times have lead to bad endings, maybe a social gospel reconstructed to assist with modern day times would not be so bad.
Lastly, ‘what would Jesus do? (Mathesin, Doc 90)’ It took one brave man to interrupt a sermon in order to get his question answered with only some sighs, which eventually erupted into a worldwide questions of, what would Jesus do? Today one can flip a page in a book, magazine, or even click on an internet link and read a tragic story of those dying in tragic ways and simply ask themselves, what would Jesus do? Almost makes one wonder about the possibilities of equality that could come with every politician being a ‘good Christian’ and asking themselves every time before their vote was to be cast on a bill, what would Jesus do?

Resources
1. Robert R. Mathesin, Critical Issues in American Religious History: A Reader (2nd Revised Edition). __Baylor University Press, 2006.
2. Rauschenbusch, Walter. ‘A Theology for the Social Gospel.’ Louisville, KY. 1917 Reprint Knox Press __1997.