Stafford, Shaking the System, Great Reform Movements

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Tim Stafford, Shaking the System: What I Learned from the Great American Reform Movements. IVP Books, 2007.

Referenced in: Strategies for Social Ministry

LifeandLeadership.com Summary

In an attempt to help today’s activists be more historically informed, Stafford takes a look at four significant American social reform movements of the past: abolition, prohibition, women’s suffrage, and civil rights. He shows how each was strengthened by biblically derived convictions about social evil. He reveals that the often combative nature of social reform bleeds into the inner-workings of the movements themselves, often fueling their failures. Stafford chronicles what has and has not worked, showing both the value and limitations of politics and other forms of activism. He also shows how the chief players in these movements had to capacity to move beyond the initial visionary and idealistic fires, persevere with their call, push through the opposition and difficulties, and achieve lasting transformation. This provides valuable insight, helping today’s activists to live into the ideal with a historic sense of the real, avoiding the hubris of thinking it will be different for them, and thus reach a greater effectiveness.

From the Publisher

Saving the environment. Helping the poor. Stopping abortion. Feeding the hungry. Increasing fair trade. Eliminating pornography. Ending racism.

Thousands are active today seeking to make the world a better place. It is a great American tradition that goes back hundreds of years. Sometimes such reform movements were very effective and sometimes they weren’t. What made the difference? How come some grand ideals were fulfilled and others faded away?

Tim Stafford explores the patterns of successful and failed reform movements to highlight what activists today can learn. How can activists keep from burning out? How can they avoid the lure of violence? What are ways to engage politics that are at once practical and ethical?

The great American reform movements of the last two centuries have an abundance of down-to-earth guidance to offer on these and other vital questions. Tim Stafford weaves the stories of the abolitionist movement, the temperance movement, the suffrage movement and the civil rights movement into this readable and practical study with application to those today who are motivated by the gospel to make a difference in the world.

About the Author

Tim Stafford is a senior writer for Christianity Today. Among his many books are Knowing the Face of God; As Our Years Increase; The Student Bible (with Philip Yancey); Love, Sex and the Whole Person; a trilogy of historical fiction (The Stamp of Glory; Sisters; The Law of Love), and Never Mind the Joneses. He and his wife, Popie, live in Santa Rosa, California.