From Social Gospel to Socialism - University Christian turmoil in the Sixties

[noobie]

<p>Probably no one else is interested, but this is posted just in case…</p>

<p>As a member of the Methodist Student Movement of university students in the late 60’s, I found this study absolutely incredible at hitting the nail on the head about how something like this movement can grow out of a religious context, take in the absolute turmoil of the late 1960’s, go off track, and commit suicide as an organization.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~milov/From%20Social%20Gospel%20to%20Socialism%20motive%20final%20paper[1].doc[/url]”>http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~milov/From%20Social%20Gospel%20to%20Socialism%20motive%20final%20paper[1].doc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I was fascinated by it because I thought that the direction of Christianity at the time was becoming much more progressive. But it wasn’t… Protestantism and Methodism in particular were as conservative as ever, but they were shooting off these self-extinguishing sparks of radicalism, almost purging itself (unknowingly) of the more progressive elements.</p>

<p>Excerpt:

In 1937, before some leaders of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were even born, the Methodist Student Movement (MSM) was founded. The MSM was a national organization that culled representation from students all over the country at meetings held once every four years. Below the national level, states would hold annual meetings in which students raised their voices on “issues of social significance.” There were also local chapters of the MSM based on college campuses. These chapters offered students both a campus community and opportunities for social action. The MSM established programs that enabled students to serve abroad and chances to work for congregations in various parts of the United States.By the 1950s, Methodist students had a strong, vibrant and organized presence on college campuses.</p>

<pre><code> These students, along with students in other ecumenical campus organizations and local YMCAs, “encountered a community that fostered, in the language of existential theology, a radical critique of American society and southern segregation.” Drawing upon liberal theologians like Paul Tillich, Rienhold Niebuhr, and Karl Barth, many religious Southern students were challenging the assumptions of their parents’ faith and formulating new conclusions about how to enact their own spiritual vision. These students “were among the first in the white community to respond to the burgeoning movement among blacks in the late 1950s.” Like their nineteenth-century counterparts, students in 1950s critiqued racial inequality from a distinctly religious perspective.

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<p>Not many here will care, but for any of you who took part in this movement (or similar ones) in universities during the sixties, this is incredible reading.</p>