The Social Gospel

In December 1955, members of the Montgomery (Alabama) Improvement Association met with city officials and bus company representatives to negotiate an end to the bus boycott. Mayor Tacky Gayle called on a white pastor to speak, who lectured Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that ministers should refrain from participating in political acts. Dr. King responded, “I can see no conflict between our devotion to Jesus Christ and our present action. In fact I see a necessary relationship. If one is truly devoted to the religion of Jesus he will seek to rid the Earth of social ills. The Gospel is social as well as personal.”

When the General Assembly debated the North Carolina State Lottery Act in 2005, I expressed my opposition in our church newsletter. I cited biblical, theological, and stewardship reasons, and historic positions of my denomination opposing lotteries as poor public policy. A church member told me I and the church had no business getting involved in such public issues once they reached the General Assembly. I asked, “Do you mean any issue is off limits for comment by the church once it is in the realm of legislative actions?” When he said, “I don’t know about that,” I told him I didn’t understand his logic. He admitted he didn’t either, but he still didn’t think the church should get involved in public issues.

Ministers are feeling very stressed in our current political climate. Colleagues have lamented, “If I say anything from the pulpit, I get accused of being partisan and mixing religion and politics. If I don’t say anything, I feel as if I am not being faithful to the Gospel message.” One friend posted on her Facebook page in January, “As followers of Christ, we are citizens of two kingdoms. . .the Kingdom of God in Christ and the earthly kingdom in which we presently live. The problem is, we get our kingdoms mixed up. Our allegiance to Christ must supersede all other allegiances – political or otherwise – and it must direct and inform everything that we do and say. The only way to know what Christ desires of us is to read what he has told us in the gospels and to submit ourselves daily to the direction of God’s Holy Spirit in prayer.”

The apostle Paul wrote (Romans 12:2), “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” We often take that to mean our religious and public/political lives must be kept separate. However, I think Paul means our lives are to be shaped by God’s ways, not the ways of the world, precisely so we can seek to rid the Earth of social ills. Yes, the Gospel is personal, but the Gospel is social in its demand that we bring our faith to bear on the issues in our communities that threaten to deny others their freedoms and opportunities.