Faith and Social Reform: Abolition, Civil Rights and Liberation Theology

Religious belief has often motivated movements for social change, though religion has also been used to defend the status quo. Quakers were among the first organized groups to condemn slavery, and evangelical Christians such as William Wilberforce helped lead Britain's abolition campaign, while enslaved people drew on the Exodus story to imagine freedom; at the same time, some churches and theologians defended slavery using scripture.

In India, Gandhi combined Hindu ideas with influences from Jainism, Christianity and Tolstoy to develop non-violent resistance. In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. , a Baptist minister, framed the civil rights movement in biblical and Gandhian terms, and Black churches were its organizing hubs. In Latin America, Catholic liberation theology, articulated by Gustavo Gutiérrez in 1971, argued that the church must take a 'preferential option for the poor'.

Archbishop Óscar Romero was killed in El Salvador in 1980 after speaking out against repression. These cases show religion's power to inspire reform and the conflicts that follow.