1820, a series of prophetic leaders began to come upon the public scene, announcing
the appearance of the kingdom of God right here on earth. These millennial
movements carried elements of the previous versions. If you are familiar with the
Adventist, Latter Day Saint or Jehovah Witness movements, this is very apparent.
Toward the end of the 19th Century, in response to the rapid growth of the
cities, this kingdom-of-God-on-earth version of the vision came to be expressed in
what has been called the Social Gospel Movement. Its basic thrust was to condemn
the injustices that were accompanying industrialization and urbanization, while calling
for the application of the Golden Rule—“Do unto others as you would like for them
to do to you”—in the practice of management.
Against this amplification of the foci of the kingdom-of-God-in- America vision,
let’s consider how it has impacted rural public policy in our nation:
1. I have already indicated that the Puritan version supported the concept of
Manifest Destiny. It also seems to lie—at least in a structural sense—beneath
the Jeffersonian agrarian dream, which informed the settlement of the West.
The township model drew upon the New England concept of community
life. At the center of the town would be established a village wherein the
yeoman farmers and their families might have their spiritual and material
needs met.
2. I would suggest that the Homestead Act and the attendant creation of
agricultural colleges found some of its popular support grounded in the reign-
of-Christ version of the vision. One important argument for teaching young
men how to be effective as farmers was the belief that one was to give
expression to his commitment to Christ through his vocation. (Note’. In the
1820s, pioneer missionaries such as Isaac McCoy were training Native
Americans in northern Indiana to farm. He was supported both by his mission
board and by the federal government.) In a very real, if indirect way, the
vocational training afforded by the agricultural college lent support to a sense
of “calling.” In fact, I suspect that not a few of you in this room elected to
attend such a college for just the reason I am expressing.
3. The social gospel version of the kingdom-of-God-in- America vision seems
to have informed Teddy Roosevelt, Charles Galpins, Edmund de Brunner,
Warren Wilson and scores of others who provided leadership for the Country
Life Movement early in this century. They looked out at rural America and
found poverty, ignorance, enslaving tenancy, an undeveloped infrastructure,
weak schools and churches, and spiritual destitution. Informed by the same
values that informed the urban efforts—justice, love and hope—they
formulated a rural effort that paralleled the urban Social Gospel Movement
efforts. The denominations were among the cooperators in the Cooperative
Extension movement that resulted.
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