The Social Gospel , A Peace Plan and Rick Warren

"Ordinary people empowered by God making a difference together wherever they are"


Well that sounds simple enough.  Christians throughout history have attempted to "make a difference" in the world around them.  The Social Gospellers of the 19th century were trying their best to make a difference in America based on their understanding of the words and example of Jesus.


But, the quotation above isn't a century old description of the Social Gospel movement.  It's the motto for the PEACE Plan being touted by Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church in California.  


Warren identifies what he called the five Global Goliaths:

• Spiritual Emptiness
• Egocentric Leadership
• Extreme Poverty
• Pandemic Diseases
• Illiteracy and lack of education

Warren claims that these problems are so large that every attempt by the public and private sector has failed, and that the only organization big enough to take on these problems is the network of Christian churches around the world.

A strategy for addressing these problems would be to "do what Jesus did", and this intention is translated into the five elements making up the P E A C E acronym. They are:

• P - promote reconciliation
• E - equip servant leaders
• A - assist the poor
• C - care for the sick
• E - educate the next generation

The PEACE Plan movement holds to the following vision:

• God designed us to make a difference in this world and to make an impact with our lives. There’s only one way to do that…by serving others. We can’t serve God without serving others. That’s why Jesus said, “If you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all.” Serving others through the Church of Jesus Christ is what the PEACE Plan is all about, and its reason for being:

According to the website for the movement:

• Jesus’ ministry is the model for our PEACE Plan
• PEACE is partnering with God and being his hands and feet in the world. PEACE is about you and every member of your church, community, or group doing just what Jesus did. He is our model. Jesus didn’t come for the wealthy, the powerful, or the influential—He came for all people. That’s who The PEACE Plan is for—ordinary, average people, who are making a difference in our world.
• 
  
• We Do the PEACE plan together

The PEACE Plan is not about “qualified” people. God is looking for willing people. When God tells us to do something, He will always give us the ability and the power to do it. The PEACE Plan is committed to moving our thinking from “they” can do it, to “we” can do it by working together, with and through local churches around the world.

THE RESULT: The PEACE PLAN OFFERS HOPE

The PEACE Plan will mobilize ONE BILLION people around the world in an outreach that addresses the five global giants of our day. Does that sound a bit audacious? Sure. But the PEACE Plan provides a way to share God’s hope, a hope that will not disappoint. The Bible reveals that we can freely offer God's peace to those who've lost all hope. We do this as we follow the example of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

Click Here to read more about this new PEACE Plan.

Here's what the PEACE plan says about the problem of poverty in our world:

The Giant of Poverty

Poverty keeps billions of people stuck in miserable and hopeless living conditions.
“The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern.” Proverbs 29:7

The world is facing continued regional conflicts and unparalleled financial turmoil resulting in unprecedented job losses, massive debt, the loss of homes and for many the very real uncertainty about where their livelihood will come from. Cities and towns, urban and rural, are all facing an uncertain future.

Half the world today--three billion people—live on less than two dollars a day. A billion and a half people live on less than a dollar a day. A billion people in our world live in grinding, dehumanizing poverty.

As the 21st Century dawned, food prices rose and an estimated 1 billion people are hungry, while another 2 billion are undernourished. These people go to bed hungry every night wondering, “will I eat tomorrow?”

For millions of people in the world today, jobs provide little relief from poverty because the pay is so low. Employed people earning less than $1 per person a day have been labeled the ‘working poor.’ In sub-Saharan Africa, over half of the workers fall into this category.

Many women remain outside the education system and labor force due to cultures oppressive to women’s rights. They would work if they were given the opportunity. Work and family responsibilities could be more effective if institutions and culture would allow more training, support structures and job opportunities for women.

Rapid urbanization has accelerated the increase in poverty. Slum dwellers, who account for 1 billion of the worldwide urban population, die earlier, experience more hunger and disease, receive less education and have fewer job opportunities.

This is the face of extreme poverty and it is an evil global giant.

Response: Assist the Poor

Poverty is a far bigger problem than simply having no money. We have seen money thrown at problems all over the world with no measurable relief given to those who are suffering. A proven response is to train people in basic job skills that can make a difference in their lives, and in the lives of their communities and families. It’s imperative to teach competent business skills that are vital to sustaining and developing entrepreneurial success.

It’s common for successful members of societies to overlook and ignore the needs of the poor and destitute who can seem so insignificant. The poor are not insignificant to God.

“God blesses those who are kind to the poor. He helps them out of their troubles.” Psalm 41:1

“What God considers to be pure and genuine religion is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering.”James 1:27

It is easy to forget the specialized talents and unique life experiences that many of us have been privileged to develop over time. These often-forgotten treasures of life lessons can be utilized to combat poverty whether initiating a simple idea or instituting a complex blueprint for change.

Together, through PEACE, we can:

• Offer simple encouragement and practical training in basic life skills to lift the poor out of the clutches of poverty

• Present healthy models with good work habits to educate and stimulate the development of successful life skills

• Teach modern techniques in a variety of areas and help others discover what it means to follow through to completion a well-built plan

• Reinforce the importance of integrity in the workplace and how it relates to all of our relationships at work and ensures success in the home

• Share what we have with those who have so little and help them leverage this practical help to bring about their maximized success

“If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord – and he will repay you!” Proverbs 19:17

“Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing; do not close your eyes to poverty.” Proverbs 28:27

Together, through PEACE, we address the giant of poverty by:

• Coordinating the connections between government, business, and the local church

• Empowering opportunities for new storehouses of funds in local churches to specifically address relief needs

• Inspiring the creation of new tools created by regular members of Christian churches in order to develop new economic solutions

• Encouraging training for appropriate micro-credit solutions and poverty assistance through the local church

• Fostering partnerships with organizations that are already working in micro-credit and macro-credit

• Connecting specialty training and coaching in the development of geographic-specific business opportunities

Caring partnerships, coupled with training opportunities and skills development, can slow down the spread of poverty.

Assisting the poor consists of giving our time and skills along with our money.

Southern Christian Leadership Conference - Redeeming the Soul of America Through Nonviolent Resistance

[source:http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_southern_christian_leadership_conference_sclc/
]

With the goal of redeeming ‘‘the soul of America’’ through nonviolent resistance, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) was established in 1957, to coordinate the action of local protest groups throughout the South (King, ‘‘Beyond Vietnam,’’ 144). Under the leadership of Martin Luther King, Jr., the organization drew on the power and independence of black churches to support its activities. ‘‘This conference is called,’’ King wrote, with fellow ministers C. K. Steele and Fred Shuttlesworth in January 1957, ‘‘because we have no moral choice, before God, but to delve deeper into the struggle—and to do so with greater reliance on non-violence and with greater unity, coordination, sharing, and Christian understanding’’ (Papers 4:95).

The catalyst for the formation of SCLC was the Montgomery bus boycott. Following the success of the boycott in 1956, Bayard Rustin wrote a series of working papers to address the possibility of expanding the efforts in Montgomery to other cities throughout the South. In these papers, he asked whether an organization was needed to coordinate these activities. After much discussion with his advisors, King invited southern black ministers to the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration (later to be renamed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference) at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. The ministers who attended released a manifesto in which they called upon white southerners to ‘‘realize that the treatment of Negroes is a basic spiritual problem.… Far too many have silently stood by’’ (Papers 4:105). In addition, they encouraged black Americans ‘‘to seek justice and reject all injustice’’ and to dedicate themselves to the principle of nonviolence ‘‘no matter how great the provocation’’ (Papers 4:104; 105).

SCLC differed from organizations such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in that it operated as an umbrella organization of affiliates. Rather than seek individual members, it coordinated with the activities of local organizations like the Montgomery Improvement Association and the Nashville Christian Leadership Council. ‘‘The life-blood of SCLC movements,’’ as described in one of its pamphlets, ‘‘is in the masses of people who are involved—members of SCLC and its local affiliates and chapters’’ (‘‘This is SCLC,’’ 1971). To that end, SCLC staff such as Andrew Young and Dorothy Cotton trained local communities in the philosophy of Christian nonviolence by conducting leadership training programs and opening citizenship schools. Through its affiliation with churches and its advocacy of nonviolence, SCLC sought to frame the struggle for civil rights in moral terms.

SCLC’s first major campaign, the Crusade for Citizenship began in late 1957, sparked by the civil rights bill then pending in Congress. The idea for the crusade was developed at SCLC’s August 1957 conference, where 115 African American leaders laid the groundwork for the crusade. The campaign’s objective was to register thousands of disenfranchised voters in time for the 1958 and 1960 elections, with an emphasis on educating prospective voters. The crusade sought to establish voter education clinics throughout the south, raise awareness among African Americans that ‘‘their chances for improvement rest on their ability to vote,’’ and stir the nation’s conscience to change the current conditions (SCLC, 9 August 1957). Funded by small donations from churches, and large sums from private donors, the crusade continued through the early 1960s.

SCLC also joined local movements to coordinate mass protest campaigns and voter registration drives all over the South, most notably in Albany, Georgia, Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, and St. Augustine, Florida. The organization also played a major role in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his ‘‘I Have a Dream’’ speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. The visibility that SCLC brought to the civil rights struggle laid the groundwork for passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. By the latter half of the decade, tensions were growing between SCLC and more militant protest groups such as SNCC and the Congress of Racial Equality. Amid calls for ‘‘Black Power,’’ King and SCLC were often criticized for being too moderate and overly dependent on the support of white liberals.

As early as 1962 SCLC began to broaden its focus to include issues of economic inequality. Seeing poverty as the root of social inequality, in 1962 SCLC began Operation Breadbasket in Atlanta to create new jobs in the black community. In 1966 the program spread to Chicago as part of the Chicago Campaign. A year later planning began for a Poor People’s Campaign to bring thousands of poor people to Washington, D.C., to push for federal legislation that would guarantee employment, income, and housing for economically marginalized people of all ethnicities. The assassination of King on 4 April 1968 crippled SCLC’s momentum and undermined the success of the Poor People’s Campaign. The organization, which had often been overshadowed by its leader’s prominence, resumed plans for the Washington demonstration as a tribute to King. Under the leadership of SCLC’s new president, Ralph Abernathy, 3,000 people camped in Washington from 13 May to 24 June 1968.

Headquartered in Atlanta, SCLC is now a nationwide organization with chapters and affiliates located throughout the United States. It continues its commitment to nonviolent action to achieve social, economic, and political justice and is focused on issues such as racial profiling, police brutality, hate crimes, and discrimination.

SOURCES

Fairclough, To Redeem the Soul of America, 1987.

King, ‘‘Beyond Vietnam,’’ in A Call to Conscience, Carson and Shepard, eds., 2001.

King, MIA press release, 7 January 1957, in Papers 4:94–95.

King, ‘‘A Statement to the South and the Nation,’’ Issued by the Southern Negro Leaders Conference on Transportation and Nonviolent Integration, 10 January–11 January 1957, in Papers

4:103–106.

SCLC, Press release, 9 August 1957, MLKP-MBU.

‘‘This Is SCLC,’’ 1971, MLKJP-GAMK.

Mary McLeod Bethune

Mary McLeod Bethune, an American educator and civil rights leader best known for starting a school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida, that eventually became Bethune-Cookman University and for being an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt.r, was born on July 10, 1875 in Maysville, South Carolina.

 "If our people are to fight their way up out of bondage we must arm them with the sword and the shield and buckler of pride - belief in themselves and their possibilities, based upon a sure knowledge of the achievements of the past." and a year later, "Not only the Negro child but children of all races should read and know of the achievements, accomplishments and deeds of the Negro. World peace and brotherhood are based on a common understanding of the contributions and cultures of all races and creeds.".


One of 17 children of Samuel and Patsy McLeod, former slaves, Bethune worked in the cotton fields with her family.


After demonstrating a desire to read and write, McLeod attended Mayesville's one-room schoolhouse, Trinity Mission School that was run by the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Freedmen. Her teacher, Emma Jane Wilson, became a significant mentor in her life. Wilson had attended Scotia Seminary (now Barber-Scotia College), so arranged for McLeod to attend the same school on a scholarship, which she did from 1888-1894.

She then attended Dwight Moody's Institute for Home and Foreign Missions in Chicago (now the Moody Bible Institute), hoping to become a missionary in Africa. However, she was told that she would not be able to go because black missionaries were not needed, so she instead planned to teach.

Bethune's first position as a teacher was for a brief time at her former elementary school in Sumter County. In 1896, she began teaching at Haines Normal and Industrial Institute in Augusta, Georgia which was part of a Presbyterian mission.

It was founded and run by Lucy Craft Laney who impressed upon Bethune the foundations for her pedagogy. Laney was a former slave and ran her school with a Christian missionary zeal, emphasizing character and practical education for girls, but also accepted the boys who showed up on the steps of her school eager to learn. Laney's mission was to better the perception that black people must fight their image of living with "shame and crime" through Christian moral education.

Bethune was influenced deeply by Laney and adopted many of her educational philosophies seeking to improve the conditions of black people by educating primarily women: "I believe that the greatest hope for the development of my race lies in training our women thoroughly and practically." .


She married Albertus Bethune in 1898 and they subsequently lived in Savannah, Georgia for a year while she did some social work. She was persuaded by a visiting Presbyterian minister named Coyden Harold Uggams (grandfather of entertainer Leslie Uggams) to relocate to Palatka, Florida to run a mission school. She did so in 1899 and began an outreach to prisoners and ran the mission school.

She started a school for black girls in Daytona Beach. From six students it grew and merged with an institute for black boys and eventually became the Bethune-Cookman School. Its quality far surpassed the standards of education for black students, and rivaled those of white schools.  

She dedicated her life to the education of both whites and blacks about the accomplishments and needs of black people, writing in 1938,

She worked for the election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, and became a member of Roosevelt's "Black Cabinet," sharing the concerns of black people with the Roosevelt administration while spreading Roosevelt's message to blacks, who had traditionally been Republican voters. She was a leader in the Black women's club movement and served as president of the National Association of Colored Women.

Bethune was a delegate and adviser to national conferences on education, child welfare, and home ownership. She also was Director of Negro Affairs in the National Youth Administration from 1936 to 1944 and served as consultant to the U.S. Secretary of War for selection of the first black female officer candidates. After World War II, Bethune was appointed consultant on interracial affairs and understanding at the charter conference of the U.N. Founder of the National Council of Negro Women

If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything ... that smacks of discrimination or slander..

In 1930, journalist Ida Tarbell included Bethune as number 10 on her list of America's greatest women. Bethune was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1939 by the NAACP. Bethune was the only Black woman present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1948, representing the NAACP with W.E.B. DuBois and Walter White.

Mary McLeod Bethune died on May 18, 1955, but her legacy and life were observed in many ways. In 1973, Mary McLeod Bethune was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.

 In 1974, a sculpture was erected in her honor in Lincoln Park, Washington, D.C.
 On that sculpture are engraved these words:

"I leave you love. I leave you hope. I leave you the challenge of developing confidence in one another. I leave you a thirst for education. I leave you a respect for the use of power. I leave you faith. I leave you racial dignity. I leave you a desire to live harmoniously with your fellow men. I leave you, finally, a responsibility to our young people."

What Would Dumbledore Do? ......Harry Potter, Charles Sheldon, and the Social Gospel

 "Where your treasure is, your heart will be also",  Matthew 6:21, 

 The quote engraved on Dumbledore's family tomb

What do J K Rowling and Charles Sheldon have in common?

In  1896, Sheldon published the highly acclaimed  In His Steps which ranks high on the list of the best selling books of all time.   In His Steps was a fictional story with a Christian message which inspired generations of readers to think about their faith.
Almost 100 years later, in 1997, J K Rowling published another work of fiction, Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.......  and we all know the story of it's overwhelming success (although it's underlying message has been a topic of much debate)

I recently stumbled across the website for The Harry Potter Alliance.  The website describes the purpose of the alliance as follows:

• The Harry Potter Alliance fights the Dark Arts in the real world by using parallels from Harry Potter. We work for human rights, equality, and a better world just as Harry and his friends did throughout the books.
  
  The Harry Potter Alliance harnesses the power of new media to communicate with more than 100,000 people, including 60 HPA chapters across the world. The average HPA member is young, passionate, enthusiastic, and idealistic, but often has few activist outlets that speak to them.The HPA makes activism accessible for young people by using the Harry Potter books- something they already love- as an access point to discuss pressing issues of social justice.

Don't be fooled into thinking that the Harry Potter Alliance is just a fun social-networking diversion for young people.   The HPA is a serious organization making a real impact on the world.  A recent campaign garnered 250,000.00 dollars from a Chase Community Giving contest.  Another campaign raised over 123,000.00 dollars to be sent to the work in Haiti.   This is an effective tool to inspire young people to take action to bring about the change they want to see.

Reading this got me to wondering if that same enthusiasm for social justice could be generated from a Christian perspective.   I immediately thought of Charles Sheldon and the book, In His Steps, which popularized the phrase "What Would Jesus Do?" in the late 1800's and helped bring the Social Gospel movement to the general populace.   In it's day, Sheldon's book, In His Steps, was every bit as popular as the Harry Potter series is today.    The protagonist of the story is Henry Maxwell, a minister who challenges his congregation to follow closely the words and examples of Christ and to honestly ask "What Would Jesus Do?" in each and every situation and decision they encountered.

Read More about Charles Sheldon and In His Steps 

The Harry Potter Alliance has built a effective structure using the internet and social networking to encourage young men and women to take positive actions to change the world and address social justice and other issues confronting society.
Could that same model be used to create a Henry Maxwell Alliance or a Charles Sheldon Alliance spurring young people to create and share faith-based social change initiatives today?

Probably Not.  In His Steps remains a compelling story but in today's world of Harry Potters and X-Men, it would be immensely challenging to generate mass enthusiasm for In His Steps and Henry Maxwell Alliances and clubs.  A Narnia Alliance might be possible though.

What other creative ideas could be explored to generate interest and action in social activism for the coming generation?


What creative programs are already out there which could be discussed here?

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FOOTNOTE:
Here's the mission statement from the HPA website:

MISSION STATEMENT

The Harry Potter Alliance (HPA) is a 501c3 nonprofit that takes an outside-of-the-box approach to civic engagement by using parallels from the Harry Potter books to educate and mobilize young people across the world toward issues of literacy, equality, and human rights. Our mission is to empower our members to act like the heroes that they love by acting for a better world. By bringing together fans of blockbuster books, TV shows, movies, and YouTube celebrities we are harnessing the power of popular culture toward making our world a better place. Our goal is to make civic engagement exciting by channeling the entertainment-saturated facets of our culture toward mobilization for deep and lasting social change.

The commitment of our members combined with our innovative strategy for social change has enabled us to accomplish astounding successes during our past campaigns. Just as Dumbledore’s Army wakes the world up to Voldemort’s return, works for equal rights of house elves and werewolves, and empowers its members, we:

• Work with partner NGOs in alerting the world to the dangers of global warming, poverty, and genocide.
• Raise funds for partner NGOs to support equality, literacy, and human rights
• Encourage our members to hone the magic of their creativity in endeavoring to make the world a better place.

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FOOTNOTE:

The Faith of J K Rowling:

[source:  Wikipedia ]

Over the years, many religious people have decried Rowling's books for supposedly promoting witchcraft. However, Rowling identifies herself as a Christian. She attended a Church of Scotland congregation while writing Harry Potter and her eldest daughter, Jessica, was baptised into that faith. "I go to church myself", she says, "I don't take any responsibility for the lunatic fringes of my own religion" Early on she felt that if readers knew of her Christian beliefs, they would be able to "guess what is coming in the books."

In 2007, Rowling described her religious background in an interview with the Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant:

I was officially raised in the Church of England, but I was actually more of a freak in my family. We didn't talk about religion in our home. My father didn't believe in anything, neither did my sister. My mother would incidentally visit the church, but mostly during Christmas. And I was immensely curious. From when I was 13, 14 I went to church alone. I found it very interesting what was being said there, and I believed in it. When I went to university, I became more critical. I got more annoyed with the smugness of religious people and I went to church less and less. Now I'm at the point where I started: yes, I believe. And yes, I go to the church. A protestant church here in Edinburgh.

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FOOTNOTE:
Was Harry Potter a  Good Christian?
[source:  ]

That's the question posed by Eric Marrapodi, co-editor of CNNs Belief Blog as he speaks with author Danielle Tumminio in a Dec 28 2010 blog post.

Tumminio said she wrote God and Harry Potter at Yale: Teaching Faith and Fantasy Fiction in an Ivy League Classroom, to explore the contention by conservative Christians that Harry Potter is akin to heresy. “I felt like the conversation about the Harry Potter series among Christians was really narrow,” Tumminio said.

Tumminio self-identifies as a Christian in the Episcopal tradition and has a two Masters degrees in religion from Yale University’s divinity school. The book grew out of an undergraduate course on the Potter series she taught at Yale.

“I see him best as a seeker in a world where Christianity is not the vocabulary. I see him best as a seeker trying to live a life of faith in the same way a Christian seeker tries to live a life grace,” Tumminio told CNN.

Read the full article at http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/28/harry-potter-was-a-good-christian/

Featured Book: Generous Justice by Timothy Keller

About the Book:

In Generous Justice, Keller explores a life of justice empowered by an experience of grace: a generous, gracious justice. Here is a book for believers who find the Bible a trustworthy guide as well as those who suspect that Christianity is a regressive influence in the world.

'A deep social conscience, and a life poured out in service to others, especially the poor, is the inevitable sign of real faith, and justice is the grand symptom of a real relationship with God…… We do justice when we go where the fabric is breaking down, where the weaker members of society are falling through, where the interpenetration and the interdependence isn’t happening.'  --- Timothy Keller

Keller cuts across the great conservative/liberal divide in this book. ….What Keller does best, beginning with the Old Testament and continuing through the teachings of Jesus and the Epistles is to show God's concern for social justice. You cannot read this book without being challenged to want to be more involved in correcting social injustice, whether at the individual or social level. ….This book has been like a sledgehammer to my soul, and it will take me months and years to sort out what God would have me do next.

-- Rev. Dr. Charles Erlandson

Timothy Keller offers a persuasive plea for evangelicals to embrace social justice efforts. Keller, is among a new breed of conservative Christians eager to break out of the straitjacket that frowns on justice work as doctrinally unsound or the work of overzealous liberals. Keller carefully analyzes Old and New Testament passages to make the case that God's heart for justice on behalf of widows, orphans, immigrants, and the poor is indisputable, and that an encounter with grace will inevitably lead to a desire for justice. This short manifesto goes further: Keller argues that gospel preaching that aims only to change hearts while remaining oblivious to unjust social structures will never fully succeed.

-- Publishers Weekly

This is the most biblically informed and intellectually careful (read the footnotes!) “social justice” book I know of. Justice skeptics and justice proponents alike will learn from Generous Justice.

- Kevin DeYoung, The Gospel Coalition

Excerpt from:

Intersect:  Community Reflection on Faith and Culture 
a blog published by Philip and Julie Rushton.

This book seeks to show how social justice is an important aspect of the Christian life. Keller specifically addresses conservative Christians who have historically been suspicious of bringing together Christianity and social justice.

Keller’s main goal is to show how a concern for social justice does not require the rejection of traditional Biblical doctrine. He suggests that the act of doing justice, and caring for the poor is a significant by-product of a redeemed life.  The act of caring for the poor is not a means by which we earn salvation; rather, these acts of ‘doing justice’ are the result of having experienced God’s grace for ourselves. For example, Jesus reminds us in Matthew 25:31-46 that his true sheep are those who embrace and care for “the least of these my brethren.”.............We must begin to reflect the “whole cloth” that Jesus weaves – one where personal morality and social justice are brought together. Keller says, “the churches of America are often controlled by the surrounding political culture than by the spirit of Jesus and the prophets”.....

http://prushton.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/why-jesus-would-be-frustrated-with-cable-news-networks/.  

Corporatism and the Social Gospel - Then and Now

One year ago today,on January 24, 2010, an article appeared in the ReligionDispatches on-line magazine.  (see excerpts below).   The article discusses the Supreme Court ruling and recalls that in the 19th century, many Christians were leaders in opposing the rising strength of corporate powers in American life.  One of the targets of the Social Gospel Movement was the harmful effects of corporate strength and the movement called for reforms which would improve the social conditions of individual Americans.


It seems that Corporate wealth and power has seldom been stronger in our country than it is today.  And many mainline Christian churches have become corporation-like themselves, they've coalesced with the powerful corporations and adopted corporate practices to enhance and grow their mega-churches into economic engines raking in vast sums of money through product sales and television rights.


Are faith-based groups standing up to corporate America today and defending worker rights and demanding reforms?  If so, who are they and how do they compare to the faith-based efforts of the Social Gospel era of the 19th century and early 20th century?

• Welcome to the (New) Gilded Age: Supreme Court Delivers the Goods to Corporations
• An Essay By PETER LAARMAN

• 
  
• I hope we shall... crush in [its] birth the aristocracy of our monied corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country. —Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan, 1816

We should mark 1886 for its singular gift to the robber barons. This was the year in which the Supreme Court declared, in Santa Clara County, that corporations are persons under the meaning of the 14th Amendment. As David Korten writes of this very peculiar decision:

In the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad Company, the US Supreme Court decided that a private corporation is a person and entitled to the legal rights and protections the Constitutions affords to any person. Because the Constitution makes no mention of corporations, it is a fairly clear case of the Court’s taking it upon itself to rewrite the Constitution. Far more remarkable, however, is that the doctrine of corporate personhood, which subsequently became a cornerstone of corporate law, was introduced into this 1886 decision without argument. According to the official case record, Supreme Court Justice Morrison Waite simply pronounced at the outset that “The court does not wish to hear argument on the question whether the provision in the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which forbids a State to deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws, applies to these corporations. We are all of opinion that it does.”

The irony of the Court’s fully enfranchising private corporations at the very same time that it was systematically disenfranchising the actual persons the 14th Amendment was designed to help—African Americans—has not been lost on historians. Three years earlier, in 1883, the Court had invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875; ten years later in Plessy v. Ferguson, it would formally validate the infamous “separate but equal” doctrine.

........And we should not forget the role religion played in legitimating anti-corporate sentiment. For every preacher castigating “rum, Romanism, and rebellion” there were many more who stood with the working poor against the gross exploitation symbolized by child labor, 12-hour working days, unscrupulous tenant farming practices, and open bribery and corruption in politics. It was during this same era (from 1880 to 1910) that the Social Gospel took root under the leadership of figures like Gladden and Rauschenbusch. .....

Do we have anything like a solidly-rooted and theologically-sanctioned movement that is prepared to do battle with today’s equivalent of the railroad barons? If you can’t answer the question in less than two seconds you already have your answer. Yes, we have noble community-labor-religion coalitions scattered across the country that are winning mostly limited victories over abusive employers. And at the national level we have some feisty networks like Interfaith Worker Justice, PICO, and the Center for Community Change attempting to mobilize people from below to resist unjust power.

[ source: http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/politics/2217/welcome_to_the_(new)_gilded_age:_supreme_court_delivers_the_goods_to_corporations ]

Red Letter Christians and the Red Letter Bible

What does "Red-Letter" Christian Mean?

Red-Letter Christians believe that Evangelicalism has been exploited by both right-wing and left-wing political movements, and they endeavor to create an Evangelical movement that focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly in regard to social issues. "Red-Letter" refers to New Testament verses printed in red letters to emphasize the actual words that Jesus spoke without the use of quotations . 
They believe Christians should be promoting biblical values such as peace, building strong families, the elimination of poverty, and other important social justice issues.

The social issues valued by Red-Letter Christians include taking care of the poor, spreading the Gospel  and loving one's enemies. They believe that these are the issues that Jesus spoke of directly, and therefore these issues should be political priorities.

--Source: Wikipedia

The goal of Red Letter Christians is simple: To take Jesus seriously by endeavoring to live out His radical, counter-cultural teachings as set forth in Scripture, and especially embracing the lifestyle prescribed in the Sermon on the Mount.

The message of those red-lettered Bible verses is radical, to say the least. If you don’t believe me, just take a few minutes to read Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In it, Jesus calls us away from the consumerist values that dominate contemporary America. Instead, he calls us to meet the needs of the poor. He also calls us to be merciful, which has strong implications in terms of war and capital punishment. After all, when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, he probably means we shouldn’t kill them.

Gandhi once said that everybody in the world knows what Jesus teaches in those red lettered verses — except Christians. Today, lots of people share that same kind of disappointment with the American church. We want to change that. Applying the teachings of Jesus to our lives in such complicated times is difficult, but that is what Red Letter Christians is all about

----Tony Campolo

So, who came up with the idea for a Red Letter Bible anyway?

Louis Klopsch was born March 7, 1852 in Germany. In 1853 his mother died. The next year his father, Osmar Klopsch MD, brought him to the United States. Louis studied journalism at what is now Columbia University. He graduated with high honors. With the Christian Herald he rose from stock boy to editor amidst the company of some very religious publishers. By about the year 1889 he was the owner-editor of the American edition of the Christian Herald Magazine.

On June 19, 1899, the now Dr. Louis Klopsch was writing and editorial for the Christian Herald when his eyes fell upon Luke 22:20 and the words: "This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you." Dr. Klopsch realized that these were the words of our Saviour when he instituted the Lord's Supper. reasoning that all blood was red, he asked himself, "Why not a red letter Bible with the red words to be those of our Lord?" Dr. T. Dewitt Talmadge, pastor of the Brooklyn Temple where Louis and his father worshipped, encouraged him greatly by saying, "It could do no harm, and it most certainly could do much good."

The editor besought Bible scholars in America and Europe to submit passages they regarded as spoken by Jesus Christ while on the earth (some publishers have since expanded this to include all words in red spoken by Christ). The November 1901 issue of the monthly magazine, ran a large advertisement offering a red letter Bible to the readers. The first printing of this red letter Bible numbered sixty thousand copies. They were printed on presses owned by Dr. Klopsch. The edition sold quickly. Presses were run day and night to supply the demand. The King of Sweden upon receiving a copy, sent a congratulatory cablegram to Dr. Klopsch. Nevertheles the one telegram that thrilled publisher Louis Klopsch the most was the one he received from President Theodore Roosevelt. There followed a letter on White House stationery inviting him to dine with the chief executive. He accepted. 

Klopsch also pioneered American overseas charities in a massive fashion, raising more than three million dollars through his newspaper. He aided famine victims in many places such as Sweden and Japan. Still his legacy of the red-letter Bible is his silent, largely uncredited monument.

When the Red Letter Bible became a reality Klopsch wrote:

• “Modern Christianity is striving zealously to draw nearer to the great Founder of the Faith. Setting aside mere human doctrines and theories regarding Him, it presses close to the Divine Presence, to gather from His own lips the definition of His mission to the world and His own revelation of the Father… The Red Letter Bible has been prepared and issued in the full conviction that it will meet the needs of the student, the worker, and the searchers after truth everywhere.”