Evangelical Roots: Recovering a Hopeful History of Social Justice in the Church

The author, S.M. Reed, describes a book she read for her Master of Divinity program, Rediscovering an Evangelical Heritage by Donald W. Dayton and Douglas M. Strong, which traces the history of American Evangelicalism through the nineteenth century. Reed says the book gave her hope. For years she has been troubled by the close alignment of white Evangelical churches with right-wing politics, and she notes that many people she knows have left the Evangelical label because of it. The history in this book, she says, shows that the church’s resistance to social justice is the real departure from its past, not the justice work itself.

Reed points to several examples from that era. Evangelicals of the nineteenth century were a driving force in the abolitionist movement, and the book quotes Charles Finney arguing that a church silent on slavery risks losing the Spirit of God. Reed asks whether the church today, having set aside its call to justice, has lost something similar. She also notes that Evangelicals of that period champwaned for women’s rights, including voting, and worked on poverty and inequality through policy change as well as charity. Later, she writes, such efforts came to be labeled “liberalism” or “socialism” and treated as enemies of conservative faith.

The post also describes a older meaning of revival, which once meant awakening the church to its social responsibilities rather than only bringing outsiders to faith. Reed calls for that kind of revival today, including a reclaimed prophetic voice against Christian nationalism and white supremacy, and a return to the words of Jesus about service and love of neighbor. She reflects on the Lord’s Prayer and its hope for God’s kingdom on earth, and she closes by affirming that charity must be joined with courage to address the systems that cause hunger and injustice.

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