Christian Congregations and Social and Political Action: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

Movements like Black Lives Matter, immigration, and the ever-widening income gap have ignited the conversation on social justice activism and Christian congregations (Miller & Polson, 2019). For social workers, congregations are valuable sites to develop stronger, more inclusive, and more just societies (Miller & Polson, 2019). There is significant research on Christian congregations that are active in social justice work--the types of work they do, motivations to engage, and the types of congregations who choose to engage. This review of literature focuses on the history of Christian congregational social justice activism, social service provision, understanding why congregations become involved in social justice work, creates the distinction between social service provision and political action, and which congregations are typically involved in social justice work. Social justice activism and activities are those that go beyond offering social service programs and who have a political activity sphere and focuses on systems change.