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Part of the Christian "modernism" trend with a strong emphasis on Social Justice , the movement is a rival to the later movements of Evangelical and Fundamentalist Christianity. The Social Gospel was a driving force in much of Protestant America. The Presbyterians said it best in 1910: and Blade 1998 The great ends of the church are the proclamation of the gospel for the salvation of humankind; the shelter, nurture, and spiritual fellowship of the children of God; the maintenance of divine worship; the preservation of truth; the promotion of social righteousness; and the exhibition of the Kingdom of Heaven to the world. In the early 20th century, many Americans were disgusted by the poverty level and the low quality of living in the slums. The social gospel movement provided a religious rationale for action to remove those evils. Activists in the Social Gospel movement hoped that by public health measures as well as enforced schooling so the poor could develop talents and skills, the quality of their moral lives would begin to improve. Important concerns of the Social Gospel movement were labor reforms, such as abolishing child labor and regulating the hours of work by mothers. By 1920 they were crusading against the 12-hour day for men at U.S. Steel. Many reformers inspired by the movement opened settlement houses, most notably Hull House in Chicago operated by Jane Addams . They helped the poor and immigrants improve their lives. Settlement houses offered services such as daycare, education, and health care to needy people in slum neighborhoods. In the United States prior to World War I , the Social Gospel was the religious wing of the Progressive Movement which had the aim of combatting injustice, suffering and poverty in society. During the New Deal of the 1930s Social Gospel themes could be seen in the work of Harry Hopkins , Will Alxander and Mary McLeod Bethune , who added a new concern with African Americans. After 1940 the movement withered, but was invigorated in the 1950s by Black leaders like Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights movement. After 1980 it weakened again as a major force inside mainstream churches; indeed the those churches were losing strength. Examples of its continued existence can still be found, notably the organization known as the Call To Renewal . The Social Gospel movement in the United States was parallel to the Christian Socialism the socialist movement in the form of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) and later the New Democratic Party . Tommy Douglas , a Baptist minister, was leader of the CCF from 1942 and the premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961, where he led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada. From 1961 to 1971 he led the New Democratic Party at the federal level. The Social Gospel was reflected in the novel ''In His Steps'', written by the Congregational minister Charles Sheldon , who coined the motto " What Would Jesus Do? ." Sheldon was committed to Christian Socialism and identified with the Social Gospel. One of the early theologians of the Social Gospel was Walter Rauschenbusch , and he indicated how Sheldon's novel inspired his theology. Social Gospel is still influential in Canada's United Church and in the Anglican Church but has less influence in the United States. It also remains influential among Christian socialist circles in Britain in the Church Of England , Methodist and Calvinist movements. In Catholicism , Liberation Theology has similarities to the Social Gospel. In the Anglican Church, the social gospel has found expression in Pacifism . LIST OF PROMINENT SOCIAL GOSPEL ADVOCATES Prominent Social Gospel advocates have included:
SEE ALSO REFERENCES Primary sources
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