Hugh Williams, Debec, NB

Gregory Baum in his little but important essay “Religion and Socialism” published in his collection of essays The Social Imperative: Essays on the Critical Issues that Confront the Christian Churches (Toronto: Paulist Press, 1979) pp.168-183, spoke of ‘Ginger Groups’ which referred to a time when the ‘social gospel’ was alive and well in Canada when Christian socialists tried to raise awareness (spice things up, … one might better recognize or prefer the gospel metaphor of ‘salt’ though that carries much heavier theological connotations) in the churches and thus influence ecclesiastical policies.

This trend especially vibrant during the first half of the 20thC was studied sociologically in a very careful manner and the findings showed that there seemed to always come this point that when some success was (or is) achieved in making churches more socially concerned, socialist principles (think even – cooperative principles) are diluted and watered down. Leaders and members in such ‘ginger groups’ then faced (face) this difficult decision whether to become leaders in so-called progressive groups/movements within the Church, despite the seemingly necessary compromises, or whether to stand apart (become disaffiliated) so as to pursue socialist engagement more effectively in other ways …

Apparently, there was a similar phenomenon in South America especially in Chile with “Christians for Socialism” who were often linked with Salvadore Allende’s political movement. Interestingly this group did not see itself as so much an action group because it recognized that all its members were already involved and committed to various forms of action in different organizations and movements.

The purpose of this ‘ginger group’ was to clarify the Christian position and to confront and denounce the distorted ideological dimension they believed to be present in mainstream and dominant Christianity. To make a long and important story much too short – this ‘network’, in the ‘boiler room’ of Latin American social change, was largely destroyed.

It is also quite noteworthy that eventually conservative reactionaries gained an upper hand with the Latin American Bishops with a vehement campaign mounted against liberation theology supported by significant elements in the Vatican. This campaign, Baum asserts, was supported by the American CIA so as to promote a reactionary political agenda within the Latin American church. Nevertheless, in 1978 the Latin American Bishops’ Conference clearly affirmed a preferential option for the poor and recognized the need for the church to address the ‘institutionalized violence of poverty and injustice’.

But nevertheless, the reactionaries with hard work had gained the ‘upper hand’ in so many places and in so many ways, that it seems the ginger and/or salt groups basically disappeared or receded from having much if any influence for so many decades … until now, when the American Empire has turned to a version of unprecedented fascism and so then Baum’s question from his extraordinary text rings out again – “Does the Christian left have a future?”