It is the black social gospel that led directly to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement. “First, many people talk about the civil rights movement as though religion is secondary, just an undercurrent,” Dorrien said in an interview. “There are ways of telling the story, and they got into the public school textbooks and the media, as though it’s basically a political movement. That is just not true. I mean, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders were ministers. They’re every-week preachers, and the gospel is foundational for them. King couldn’t have been clearer or more emphatic about what was holding him in his struggle and helping him to go on. It’s not some political goal. It’s the gospel.”
From “Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity” by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons – Broadleaf Books