By Steven L. Shields
Just a few days ago, something unusual happened in the U.S. state of Michigan. Seeking to bring a close to the weeks-long strike against the automakers, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain invoked the teachings of Jesus as relevant to the striking workers in what many observers see as a resurgence of the "social gospel." Fain argued the righteousness of the labor union in helping address the social problem of fair wages, among other issues. He demonstrated that not only does religion belong in politics and economics, but Jesus’s teachings also have much to tell Christians about their true priorities. Such ideas are a far cry from how many Christians seek to impose their beliefs on the political and economic scene.
While I was in Korea in the mid-1970s as a young missionary, I began to see the world around me quite differently. Without knowing it, I was quickly becoming a convert to what scholars call the social gospel. I soon parted ways with the denomination of my childhood and became a progressive Protestant. To its credit, my former denomination has become much more active in dealing with world disasters and helping all. They’ve even ameliorated their gloom-and-doom approach to life.
The social gospel movement was a Christian movement that began in the United States, Canada, and other places. The social gospel posits that Jesus’s Second Coming will not happen until the world’s social problems have been solved by human effort. The principles of the social gospel movement are based largely on a story about Jesus’s teaching found in Matthew 25.
The writer of Matthew’s gospel records the qualifications for inheriting God’s kingdom. He wrote, “I was hungry, and you gave me food; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you welcomed me; I was naked, and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” The writer went on to explain that anything that was done to “the least” of God’s children was the same as if doing that for Jesus personally — no strings attached!
Pastor Charles Sheldon’s 1897 novel, “In His Steps,” popularized the main teachings of the social gospel movement with the phrase “What would Jesus do?” Sadly, that phrase in modern times has been marketed with all kinds of kitsch, which cheapened the deep intent of the movement.
In the 1920s, proponents of the social gospel worked to reduce the 12-hour workdays demanded by the U. S. Steel Company. The social gospel principles were foundational to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal” legislation that provided strong social safety nets for all Americans. There were clergypersons, lay persons, Catholic priests, nuns, government leaders, and theologians. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is perhaps the best known of these, but in the United States Congress today, Senator (Rev.) Raphael Warnock is well-known.
My tiny Midwest-U.S.-based denomination caught the vision of the social gospel in the aftermath of the Korean War. The first missionaries in Korea, some from the U.S. and some from Australia, launched medical services. They provided clothing for the marginalized people living in tents and huts on the outskirts of Seoul. A clinic was opened in faraway Maikokri (now Asan City), with two nurses in attendance. Dental and medical students from Seoul visited monthly to provide the more challenging services. The resident foreign nurses did well-baby clinics, prenatal care and first aid. They taught sanitation and personal hygiene in all the county villages.
Replaced by the excellent national healthcare system that has served Korea’s people since the 1980s, the clinic was closed down. In the late 1990s, I met a young woman who had finished her Korean Air flight attendant service and was looking for some work. I hired her as the church secretary.
One day, we needed to visit Onyang. As we drove down from Seoul, I mentioned Maikokri. To my surprise, Ms. Lee told me she grew up in a nearby village. We continued talking, found Maikokri, and visited the abandoned clinic building. She recalled having visited the place for shots when she was a child in the 1970s. Amazed, she told me about two white women who were nurses who came to her school with toothbrushes and taught the children about toothpaste and proper brushing. Talk about a small world!
The social gospel principles are much more important than the loud voices we often hear passing themselves off as Christianity today. Visit prisons, comfort the sick, clothe the naked and feed the hungry. Jesus is so much more about this kind of work than attempts at rule enforcement. Dig out your New Testament and read about Jesus in the Gospels. I think you’ll quickly see what I’m talking about.
Rev. Steven L. Shields (slshields@gmail.com) has lived in Korea for many years, beginning in the 1970s. A lifelong member of the Royal Asiatic Society Korea, he has served as a director and president. He was copy editor of The Korea Times in 1977. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect The Korea Times’ editorial stance.
Social gospel
21
0
21.11.2023
By Steven L. Shields Just a few days ago, something unusual happened in the U.S. state of Michigan. Seeking to bring a close to the weeks-long strike against the automakers, United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain invoked the teachings of Jesus as relevant to the striking workers in what many observers see as a resurgence of the "social gospel." Fain argued the righteousness of the labor union in helping address the social problem of fair wages, among other issues. He demonstrated that not only does religion belong in politics and economics, but Jesus’s teachings also have much to tell Christians about their true priorities. Such ideas are a far cry from how many Christians seek to impose their beliefs on the political and economic scene.
While I was in Korea in the mid-1970s as a young missionary, I began to see the world around me quite differently. Without knowing it, I was quickly becoming a convert to what scholars call the social gospel. I soon parted ways with the denomination of my childhood and became a progressive Protestant. To its credit, my former denomination has become much more active in dealing with world disasters and helping all. They’ve even ameliorated their gloom-and-doom approach to life.
The social gospel movement was a Christian movement that began........
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