Mobilising evangelicals for development advocacy: politics and theology in the Micah Challenge campaign for the Millennium Development Goals

Freeman, Dena (2019) Mobilising evangelicals for development advocacy: politics and theology in the Micah Challenge campaign for the Millennium Development Goals. In: Faith-Based Organizations in Development Discourses and Practice. Routledge Studies in Religion and Politics. Routledge, London, UK, 57 - 85. ISBN 9780367367565

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the genesis and implementation of the Micah Challenge campaign, the first Evangelical transnational advocacy campaign for justice for the poor. The campaign, which ran from 2004 to 2015, sought to mobilise Evangelicals round the world to advocate to their national governments to do what they could to end global poverty, and in particular to support the Millennium Development Goals. This proved quite a challenge as Evangelicals are known for their focus on an inner-worldly religion and a reticence to engage in political issues. The chapter explores the way in which the campaign sought to overcome this reticence by developing a theology of justice and advocacy which would persuade Evangelicals that political advocacy for the poor could be a type of religious action. It shows how the tension between the personal and the social, the inner-worldly and the outer-worldly, shaped the way that Micah Challenge communicated about development advocacy and ultimately led to a paradox which it could not overcome. To make justice and advocacy palatable to global Evangelicals it had to develop a theology which placed a great emphasis on personal morality and spirituality, and yet in doing so it lost focus on the global political and economic issues that it wished to raise.

Item Type:	Book Section
Official URL:	https://www.routledge.com/Faith-Based-Organization...
Additional Information:	© 2020 The Author
Divisions:	Anthropology
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BX Christian Denominations H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GN Anthropology
Date Deposited:	25 May 2021 08:39
Last Modified:	19 Oct 2024 01:12
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/110712

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