The Problem of the Masses

Abstract

This chapter charts rising labor unrest and its role in the development of the Moody Bible Institute. Industrialization and large-scale manufacturing had given way to widening class divides that would eventually culminate in the 1877 railroad strikes, and it is during this period of social unrest that Moody's ministry would gain a foothold. Many middle-class Protestants had become convinced that his evangelical message was a powerful preservative of the social order. Moody's experiments in efficiently spreading his evangelical message culminated in his founding of a training institute for Christian workers. Operating outside denominational control, Moody's Bible Institute represented its own danger to the established religious order. But the emergencies of the turbulent decade after the railroad strike eventually convinced many business elites that it was a risk worth taking.