"The social gospel has poisoned the church twice"

From Reformation 21:

Dr. Keller made the following provocative comment: 'The social gospel has poisoned the church twice.' The first time, of course, was when the social gospel was first introduced as a (theologically) liberal agenda that minimized the preaching of the gospel. But the social gospel is poisoning us again, Keller argued, because today evangelicals are so concerned about falling into the error of the old social gospel that we do not put nearly the emphasis that the Bible places on caring for the poor.

Comments

[David]

i see his point, but seems like a bit of misplaced blame. It appears that there have been few instances in history where the church has truly lived up to its calling to be the hands and feet. I mean, there was a reason that the social gospel made an impact. People saw a gaping void in the church's social dimension. To call it a liberal agenda seems a bit revisionist. So I'd call on Tim Keller to not blame our continual failure to fully enact our calling on the actions of folks 100 years ago.

[Rev. Mike]

Wow ... what a unique way of thinking about that. He's right.

[Tim Etherington]

Amen and amen! I have been lamenting the same thing for a while. Glad to hear a high profile name like Keller saying it. Maybe things can begin to change, huh?