Evangelical Movements

Even though in the United States “Evangelicals” are often seen as supporters of the status quo, this religiously conservative Christian sector has started and joined movements, both religious and sociopolitical, of all kinds. Indeed, sociologist Michael Young has argued that the religious sentiments, rituals, and theology of American Evangelicals in the temperance and antislavery movements played the primary role in the development of the first national social movements in the United States by laying the groundwork for a “confessional protest” mixing public confession with strategic organizing. Evangelicals are no strangers to social movements.