Rebirth of Social Gospel Movement

During Social Gospel movement of the early twentieth century Protestant Christian churches focused their strength on instilling the nation with Christian Ethics. It was a call for socially aware religion that focused on the social problems that were occurring at the time. Sixty years later the country was undergoing changes that would bring the beliefs of the Social Gospel back to prominence. With the help of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and organizations like the National Council of Churches racial issues were now being dealt with
As early as 1950 the National Council was addressing the issue of race within the church. From 1950 to 1958 the Council issued twenty-four resolutions outlining their stance on racial issues. The most important being their “Statement on the Church and Segregation”. This statement made it clear where the church stood on the matter, “the pattern of segregation is diametrically opposed to what Christians believe about the worth of men, we must take our stand against it.” [1] This was the first major move by the Council to instruct its churches to move for desegregation in their churches and their communities. This resolution by the council fueled the civil rights movement and set the stage for African American church leaders to push for equality throughout the nation.
During the time of these moves by the Council Martin Luther King Jr. was starting to gain a name for him among white and black church members alike. He spent his early days traveling the country speaking to mostly white churches. His fearlessness to enter any venue and speak on the issues affecting his people set him aside from all others. He embodied a new breed of black church leader and by 1963 he was the face of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr. was leading his people out of the darkness that had been forcefully placed on them for hundreds of years. He demanded that the Christian ideals that had been taught to slaves long ago be fulfilled.
In the early part of the twentieth Century leaders on the Social Gospel movement feared social evils would ruin the great nation their Protestant forefathers had built. The issue of equality was one of their concerns, but never to the large extent. This was due to the fact that the leaders behind this early movement were white. During the late 1950’s and early 1960’s the birth to a new form of Social Gospel began, one that focused on racial equality. While the mainstream church was responsible for some of this much of the success of the movement can be attributed to African American church leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. These leaders involved the church directly in the issues facing African Americans and by doing this a new movement was born.
[1] James F. Findlay Jr. The Origins of Activism. 1950