The OLD Philosopher – John M. Miller
Walter Rauschenbusch was a late nineteenth and early twentieth century American liberal Protestant pastor. He is credited with being the founder of “the Social Gospel.”
The Social Gospel is the concept that the Church should try to convince both itself and the larger society to effectuate principles that Jesus taught, especially in his teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. Thus there should be institutions established to assist the poor to escape from their poverty, shelters for the homeless, hospitals for the sick, educational programs to lift people out of menial jobs, and so on.
The Roman Catholic Church through its various branches in Europe had founded hospitals before most Protestant Churches did that. But by the late nineteenth century, and early in the twentieth century, many Protestant denominations formed hospitals throughout America as well. These church-related medical institutions were an important example of one aspect of the Social Gospel in action.
British Christians had long been following the Social Gospel without actually calling it that. Many British aid organizations are three or four centuries old. But because the USA was such a new nation, and because it had to concentrate on fighting a revolution and a civil war so early in its national history, and because Americans were always so fiercely devoted to the idea of self-reliance, Americans were much slower to perceive a need for a social Gospel.
America entered World War I later than most of the other nations, and thus we were spared the huge social dislocations that war thrust upon Europe and Great Britain. But with the arrival of the Great Depression, which began in earnest worldwide after the stock market crash in October of 1929, millions of Americans were thrown into widespread poverty such as the country had never seen.
Churches back then, as churches now, became soup kitchens for the hungry, first aid stations for the marginally ill, and shelters for those who had lost their homes. Furthermore, the fundamental principles of the Social Gospel found expression in many of the new programs of the 12-year FDR Administration. Eleanor Roosevelt especially was committed to helping the poor and racial minorities rise out of the conditions that held them captive to poor health, nutrition, living conditions, and shortened lives. The New Deal was a secular Social Gospel.
From the 1950s on, however, with the exception of Lyndon’s Johnson’s War on Poverty, American federal and state governments have indicated less interest in the implicit aims of Social Gospel. In effect they have tried to force religious denominations or organizations to shoulder more of the load themselves.
From the 1960s on, the memberships of Mainline Protestant churches began to diminish. Catholic memberships have increased, but only because of Latino immigrants. Now Catholic numbers are still increasing, but at an ever-slower rate. Only the evangelical Churches kept growing, but even they have begun to shrink in size. In addition, their primary mission has always been the salvation of souls, not bodies. The result of all these trends is that the Social Gospel is no longer the ecclesiastical priority it once was.
On a per capita basis, Americans are more philanthropically generous than any other nationality. Many “social gospel” organizations originated within the Churches, but now many if not most no longer have any official connection to any Church. In the growing tendency toward political conservatism which has characterized the USA for the past forty years, too many people are falling through the ever-widening gaps of the social safety net.
In the famous 25th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, in a long parable Jesus said, “I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to me.” Jesus was asked when that had happened, and he answered, “As you did it to one of the least of these my sisters and brothers, you did it to me.”
With the pandemic, a higher number and probably a higher percentage of Americans are genuinely destitute than has been the situation for generations. Is there a societal willingness to rise to the occasion to tend to their needs, or shall we continue our aversion to the Social Gospel, telling the needy that they must become more self-reliant?
God, the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, and Walter Rauschenbusch are all waiting for our answer. The Social Gospel need not even be identified as part of the Christian Gospel, but there is a desperate need for its principles and practices to be resurrected, both within the Churches and in the government. - October 2, 2020
John Miller is Pastor of The Chapel Without Walls on Hilton Head Island, SC. More of his writings may be viewed at www.chapelwithoutwalls.org.