“A Battle for Hearts and Minds”

Karen Sloan 01/11/2025

Reading -

I also used a video which I broke up but I have put the link to it at the end of the sermon.

I have always loved history.  Historical novels, yes, but also just plain old history.  It can tell us so much about our world today.  Currently I am slightly obsessed with a podcast called the Rest is History, presented by two quite famous English historians.

I was recently listening to a series by them on Custer, and more broadly the move west across the plains of America which occurred just after the American civil war, so late 1800s.

The plains of course were the home of the plains Indians, many tribes that roamed fairly freely, and the home of an incredible number of buffalo.

And of course we know what happened, the soldiers and white population came, along with the railway, and in the end the plains Indians were killed, famous of them Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse of the Lakota, or moved into reserves, and the buffalo were almost wiped out. Their win against Custer and his men at little big horn, a river in the west, spelt the end of their way of life, as did finding of gold in the black hills of Dakota.

I think the white population and the powerful people in Washington  thought that the  Indian population would be wiped out too, but we know that didn’t happen as there are still American Indians today in the USA, although they are the poorest and most disadvantaged group.

But this is not going to be a history lesson of the making of the west in the states, but that  this period of time brought together to distinct forces, Social Darwinism and the Social gospel movement. And that’s what I want to talk about today.

When the white population found the plains Indians weren’t all that happy moving on, and leaving their home and land it was an incredible clash of lifestyles, customs and thought. And led to much bloodshed on both sides.  But behind this clash was also this now discredited idea called social Darwinism, which was mentioned in the podcast.

So what is social Darwinism?  Well, after Darwin had published the origin of the species showing how evolution worked by natural selection in biology, some in the mid 19th century decided it could be applied to human populations and contemporary society.  The main player was an English sociologist called Herbert Spencer, who came to the conclusion that the law of the jungle applied to not just animals but people as well.  Human society was based on the principle of the survival of the fittest, a term first coined by Spencer not Darwin, in which the strong should be able to flourish while the weaker specimens were allowed to go to the wall.

This seems to have been applied in the battle for the American west, having been adopted by William Graham Sumner. and in particular the idea that the plains Indians were the weaker specimens and should go to the wall, or basically be exterminated!!! Decisions  being made in Washington lead to the wholesale destruction of the ingenious population in a few short years. It was a policy of lies and deception and marked an ugly development from Darwin’s work.

Of course this idea of Social Darwinism took root and grew during a time called the gilded age in the States, which privileged the moneyed elite and gave them an intellectual foundation for greed and rampant inequality.

Interestingly towards the end of the podcast on this topic, it was said that many of the major generals and soldiers involved in the fighting came to realise that the terrible lies and violence perpetrated on the plains Indians, maybe wasn’t so great, and perhaps their Christian values, hidden during this time started to give them some regrets.

So Social Darwinism, now very much discredited,  was used to justify social inequality, racism, imperialism and eugenics, even if not everyone was on board..  By wrongly asserting that certain races or social classes were biologically superior and destined to dominate others, it fostered prejudice and discrimination, leading to policies and action that just amplified existing social inequalities and caused significant suffering. 

Both in the states and here, and many other places around the world, the story seems familiar. The problem is, I think, that many policy and political positions today as well as social positions have an echo to this. Less government and lassi faire economics and the every person for themselves type of thought can sound suspiciously like superiority. We are better than you and if you were good enough you would be okay. If not you have to fend for yourself.  Not just individually but between countries, and now for refugees and migrants.

But enough of that.

Because  the other thing that was going on, at pretty much the same time, was the rise of the Social Gospel movement. A movement which applied Christian ethics to address social problems like poverty and inequality

You may wonder why the message s of Jesus was needing a movement in the late 19th century and early 20th century.  Didn’t we just hear Luke’s version of the beatitudes, based on Jesus sermon on the plain, where front and centre there was talk of the poor and injustice and what we are called to do as follower of Jesus. Of course there were plenty of people seeking equity and peace and justice in other places, with or without faith, but somehow it was being smothered. Jesus’ message of love your neighbour, welcome the stranger, and compassion, justice and equity for the poor was being smothered.

Why, well it’s because of ideologies like Social Darwinism, which overwhelmed the message of Jesus.  but not just that.  At the time the idea of Christianity as a set of beliefs and doctrines, determining who was in and who was out, and a personal piety that led to heaven was becoming the mainstream view. Fundamentalism had crept in and the social and political message of Jesus had crept out.

I’m going to show a video of a presentation, well bits of it that gives you a run-down of this movement and how we, at Wembley Downs Uniting, are a product of this movement that reclaims the message of Jesus in our world. It’s from a historian Chris Evens who is the professor of history of Christianity and Methodist studies at Boston University.  This is the first part…

Video (first part)

And now we are going to hear a bit about one of the more famous advocates of the social gospel movement , Harry Emerson Fosdick.

Harry Emerson Fosdick, was a pastor of New York’s Riverside Church during the 1930s and 1940s. Fosdick felt that a church “that pretends to care for the souls of people but is not interested in the slums that damn them, the city government that corrupts them, the economic order that cripples them, and international relationships that, leading to peace or war, determine the spiritual destiny of innumerable souls” would receive divine condemnation (Fosdick, 25). Pretty strong stuff!!

Let’s hear from Chris Evens again..

Video (last part)

So as it’s All Saints Day today, I can’t think of a better person to highlight, who influenced Martin Luther King and our own Nev Watson to participate in making the world better.

Martin Luther King remained a proponent of the social gospel despite the many setbacks the civil rights movement suffered in the later 1960s. In a speech delivered the day before his death, King asserted that “somehow the preacher must have a kind of fire shut up in his bones, and whenever injustice is around he must tell it”.

Challenging, but we know Nev Watson also remained faithful to this gospel as well.

So we thank him and all those who have gone before, for making Wembley Downs what it is today.  A church that sees beyond rules and doctrines.  Who has always seen faith, not as dogmas to follower but actions to participate in, living out the Jesus way that we may be followers of Jesus.

May we continue to be a beacon for a progressive, open, inviting form of Christianity.  A Christianity which sees our role as transformers of our society, not just participants.  And even if it’s just letter writing or advocating via social media or financing others who are actively promoting change.   Why, so that our society will become more, not less, welcoming and equitable, and compassionate and kind.

Amen