Evangelicals for Social Action

EVANGELICALS FOR SOCIAL ACTION was published in 1972 by sociologist David Moberg, who argued that traditional evangelicalism was noted for its social involvement. Early evangelicals established welfare societies such as the Salvation Army, schools for immigrants, homes for unwed mothers, city missions, and agencies to help the poor, sick, and prisoners. The church supported legislation to bring about social justice.

In the 20th century, as evangelicals began to prosper in America, a “modernist” movement in theology came to emphasize social action. The social gospel became linked with liberal theology, and evangelicals, anxious to distance themselves from this group, separated themselves from social action in order to get “back to first principles.”

Moberg called upon evangelicals to recognize that welfare—helping the victims of social problems and corporate evil—is not the same as eliminating the source of the misery. Biblical principles call the church to evangelism, plus welfare, plus working toward social justice.

Evangelicals for Social Action (ESA) was formed as a result of the reasoning presented by Moberg. It is a nondenominational community organization network whose stand regularly cuts across ideological lines. Its roots trace back to the first Calvin College conference on politics, which Paul Henry organized in the spring of 1973, where a workshop was scheduled to be held over Thanksgiving 1973, where the now-famous Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern was written, the founding document of the ESA. ESA's proclaimed mission is to challenge and equip the church to be agents of God's redemption and transformation in the world. That mission the ESA pursues through: reflection on church and society from a biblical perspective, training in holistic ministry, and linking people together for mutual learning and action.

ESA leads a network of 16 organizations committed to a goal of combining the evangelical tradition and concern over issues of social justice. ESA also offers a monograph series entitled the Crossroads Monograph Series on Faith and Public Policy. The monographs are completed by graduate students (awarded fellowships), policy analysts, and other established scholars. Many of the monographs are available through the ESA website. Crossroads subjects include poverty, hunger, economic justice, and biblical feminism. The Crossroads are supported by grants from charitable foundations and trusts. The ESA also publishes a magazine on biblical social concern, Prism, and Creation Care, dealing with environmental issues.

The ESA has four core goals: promoting holistic ministry that combines evangelism and social action through the Network 9:35, nurturing costly discipleship across a broad front in Prism and the biweekly Epistle, nurturing a biblically balanced evangelical political engagement, and continuing the work of the Evangelical Environmental Network until it is ready to become its own independent organization.