Baptists & the Social Gospel

a paper written for Baptist History

with Professor Mike Thompson

Submitted by Dave Lowe

10/22/02

        What comes to your mind when you hear the phrase “Social Gospel”? For me, the term “social gospel” has always been equated with liberal theology and with churches that are focused primarily on social issues with little or no interest in sharing the gospel message.

        However, the Social Gospel movement cannot be equated solely with liberal theology; for not all liberals were involved in the Social Gospel movement and not all in the Social Gospel movement were liberals. The Social Gospel movement was a diverse movement that included leaders from many denominations, including Baptists.

        The Social Gospel movement arose in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s in response to the rapid industrialization and urbanization of America. The Social Gospel sought to apply Christian principles to the social problems that industrialization had created – problems such as work/wage issues, child labor, slums and housing issues among others. The question that the Social Gospel affirmatively answered was, “is it the church’s responsibility to initiate and promote social reform in society?” Those who were opponents of the Social Gospel answered this question with a resounding “No.”

        Within the Baptist community, there were proponents and opponents of the Social Gospel. Generally speaking, the Social Gospel movement had more influence among Northern Baptists than among Southern Baptists. There are several reasons why this was true.

        First of all, one of the leading theologians and advocates of the Social Gospel movement was a Northern Baptist named Walter Rauschenbusch. Rauschenbusch was a pastor in the New York area known as “Hell’s Kitchen”. The people he ministered to were working class people who were barely getting by even though they worked long and hard hours. Their living conditions were also very poor. Rauschenbusch’s experiences led him to conclude that social injustice and social reform was something that the church needed to address.

        In 1907, Rauschenbusch published his Christianity and the Social Crisis, a book that not only launched him into the national spotlight but brought the Social Gospel to the forefront as well. In his book, Rauschenbusch appealed to Christians to help create a new social order. The theological basis for his stance was built upon his idea of the kingdom of God, which he viewed as being here and now as opposed to coming later at the Second Advent of Christ. Therefore, for Rauschenbusch, the Christian is responsible not only for saving souls, but for improving society as well.

        The Northern Baptist Convention, which was founded in 1908, took up the cause of the Social Gospel at its initial meeting. Samuel Zane Batten, who along with Rauschenbusch belonged to a Social Gospel interest group known as “The Brotherhood of the Kingdom”, made a motion to form a committee to investigate the activities of Baptist churches in the areas of social service and social justice. The next year, the committee brought forth a report that indicated that most churches were doing very little in the area of social service. The committee recommended the writing of a “Social Services Series” of pamphlets as a way to educate pastors and churches to the need for the church to be involved in social issues.

        By 1913, the Northern Baptist Convention established the “Department of Social Service and Brotherhood” and elected Samuel Zane Batten as its secretary and head. This department began to issue literature that was aimed at educating and motivating churches to be involved in a wide range of social issues, including child labor, industrial conditions, and temperance work.

        The ideals of the Social Gospel movement were not as quickly adopted by Baptist churches in the South. Again, several contributing factors can be listed.

Around the turn of the century, when the Social Gospel movement was at its peak, the south lacked many of the prerequisite qualities that caused Social Gospel advocates to take action. Most of the massive industrial centers that generated the social evils that the Social Gospel desired to cure were located in the North. While the South did have textile mills and limited manufacturing, the employees had strong rural ties and were not generally favorable to socialism or organized labor. Additionally, many of the housing and overcrowding issues of the north did not exist in the south.

Since most of the Baptist churches in the south were located in non-urban areas, Southern Baptists for the most part did not observe first-hand the social evils that the Social Gospel sought to address. It has also been suggested that Southerners, being fiercely aware of their rural roots, were not favorable to political, social and religious ideas that emanated from the North. Additionally, some have argued that the Social Gospel was not widely accepted in the south because southerners tended to be “common people” who did not understand the subtle arguments of the scholarly, Social Gospel clerics of the North.

There were other reasons why the influence of the Social Gospel was muted in the South. Many Southern Baptists were uneasy with the theological liberalism of the Social Gospel and its optimistic view of the nature of man. Many Baptists felt that the Social Gospel had emphasized the improvement of society at the expense of the inner transformation of sinners. Forcing personal evangelism to take a back seat to societal transformation was not an appealing option to a denomination that was deeply committed to evangelism. This was particularly true for adherents of premillennialism with its belief that there is no cure for the ills of society, which will eventually get so bad that Jesus himself will return to restore divine order.

        Even though the Social Gospel movement had a minimal influence over Baptist churches in the South, Southern Baptist churches were concerned with social issues. However, their solution to social issues more often than not, centered on the personal conversion of the sinner. The Social Gospel encouraged churches to take up the mantle of social reform with at least as much zeal as that of personal salvation. In contrast, the Social Christianity of the South seemed to emphasize regeneration of the sinner as the chief solution to the ills of society.

        In conclusion, I think it’s fair to say that the Social Gospel movement had a profound effect on Baptist churches in the United States. Before the Social Gospel movement began, Baptists were largely uninvolved in social reform and social activism. However, the Social Gospel movement brought an awareness of social issues that has resulted in the formation of a Social Service Commission for each of the major conventions.

Though the Social Gospel movement has influenced Baptists of all kinds, the extent to which each church has been affected by the Social Gospel phenomenon is directly proportional to the degree to which they aligned themselves with the Social Gospel message and its theology.

Those churches that fully embraced the message of the Social Gospel with its New Theology tended to become the more liberal branch within the Baptist community. Those churches that fully rejected the Social Gospel and its theological basis tended to become the more conservative, fundamentalist branch within the Baptist community. Finally, churches that accepted the Social Gospel’s call to address social issues while rejecting the theological basis of the Social Gospel tended to become the more evangelical branch within the Baptist community.

Bibliography

Armstrong, O.K. and Marjorie Armstrong. The Baptists in America. Garden City: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1979.

Brackney, William H., ed. Baptist Life and Thought: A Source Book. Valley Forge: Judson Press, 1998.

Eighmy, John Lee. Churches in Cultural Captivity: A History of the Social Attitudes of Southern Baptists. Revised ed. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987.

Hardman, Keith J. Issues in American Christianity. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993.

Harper, Keith. The Quality of Mercy: Southern Baptists and Social Christianity, 1890-1920. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1996.

Hopkins, Charles Howard. The Rise of the Social Gospel in American Protestantism: 1865-1915. 4^th ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1950.

Minus, Paul M. Walter Rauschenbusch: American Reformer. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1988.

Thompson, James J., Jr. Tried as by Fire: Southern Baptists and the Religious Controversies of the 1920s. Macon: Mercer University Press, 1982.