To me social gospel is a movement that is derived from Christion ethics, which are then applied to social problems. There were many problems that this was applied to. Poverty, nutrition and health, education, economic inequality, alcoholism, racial tensions, slums, unclean environments, child labor, lack of unionization, poor schools, crime, and warfare would be such problems. “However social needs were emphasized, the doctrines of sin, salvation heaven and hell, and the future kingdom of God were downplayed.” Social gospel had inspired many people to create social institutions where people in trouble could go to escape their hardships. Some of the more famous institutions were the settlement house founded by Jane Adams which served the poor in urban areas by “living among them and serving them directly.” The YMCA was created to help young homeless men which surprisingly is still around today.



The social gospel led John Lewis towards a path of non-violence. The philosophy of John Lewis started to spread as the civil rights movements grew. It says in the book that johns love for the gospel was born at a very young age, his uncle even gave him his own bible when he was four. Even though he was unable to read it himself when his mother read to him, he was strongly impacted by the words. He said himself that “I’ll never forget my mother reading aloud to me the first words in that book ‘in the beginning God, created the heaven and the earth’”. Knowing early on that he wanted to be a preacher he would often preach to the chickens he was responsible for. He knew not that as he was preaching to these chickens, he was indirectly molding his own future. The social gospel helped society grow and reform past its barbaric beliefs. Many people dealing with problems were helped by this movement.