The Benevolent Empire

I've been pondering lately on the Relief Society of the Church. It has a remarkable membership with sisters from all over the world joined in the same faithful mission. These thoughts made me reflect back to a research paper I wrote for a course I took at BYU on Church History.



While studying religion in Paris and also a bit back at BYU, I learned about the Benevolent Empire. I remember being surprised that it existed and was well known in the theological academic realm. I figure since I knew nothing of it that others might be in the same boat. So I'm sharing a little of what I learned about the Benevolent Empire from doing a little research a few years ago. The LDS Relief Society was formed during the Benevolent Empire under the model of hundreds of other organizations. However, the LDS Relief Society was formed under the order of the priesthood. I think this is why it has endured more than a century of social and monetary struggles and is still effective. And as an auxiliary branch of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it extends the work of that great organization.



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The Benevolent Empire



The Benevolent Empire was a time period in American history that began roughly around 1812 with the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, and extended well into the 1830s. The ABCFM, as the first documented society, had a following of hundreds of other local and national organizations that were formed to fulfill Christian missions. [1]


The ABCFM was formed by Presbyterians out of Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It is the first known benevolent society, though, unlike the diverse societies that followed its creation, the ABCFM was uniquely specified to missionary work. Its goal was to address the needs of foreigners or the godless in countries outside of America. The first concern of the ABCFM was foreigners, because the societies thought it was more difficult for foreigners to find the gospel.[2] In later years, the benevolent societies recognized the immediate needs of the poor souls in their own areas or congregations—but it took several years to localize their charitable efforts.


The reason for the people's growing need for Christian societies in America has a root in the Second Great Awakening. Revivals were springing up all over the United States and especially throughout New England. Americans were finding religion again, but the Second Great Awakening was more powerful and much louder. The Christian missions also tried to bring the gospel truths to those who were unfortunate enough to be poor or live in places that simply did not have Christianity. Revivals involved itinerant preachers who would travel around to different locations to stir up the fire of the Holy Spirit in the congregations. Americans attended revivals to hear one preacher who was in town one week and then they would go the following week to be fired up again by a different preacher. It was common to attend revivals held by preachers from different denominations. [3]


Once the preachers had eventually phased out their itinerancy and started developing more permanent congregations, the people were restless for the constant overturn of preaching. The congregation satisfied this desire for movement by forming missionary societies. Instead of sending their preacher out, they would send out people from their congregation to do the work of missionaries, which was to spread the gospel in foreign lands. A historian, John McKivigan states “These interdenominational organizations [benevolent societies] supplemented the efforts of the regular churches to disseminate the teachings of evangelical Protestantism and the ideals of virtuous Christian living.” [4] He mentions the inception and goals of the American Home Missionary Society and the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Both had the goal “to aid struggling congregations,” but these congregations were abroad and not at home.[5] American women had a benevolent urge to help those whom they believed in poor situation or circumstance both temporally and spiritually.


By the peak of the empire in the 1830s, the societies themselves were too numerous to count—it is estimated that there were hundreds, but there is no exact number since not all were recorded. The purpose of the societies had extended to the needs of the poor and godless in America as well as abroad. “There was hardly an evil that did not have a society organized to combat it. There were religious tract and Bible societies to publish and spread both the Bible and various religious pamphlets and books among the godly and godless.”[6] One goal was to unite the Christian faiths by way of forming societies that were similar in purpose or similar in the concerns they had for the future of their Christian society. Almost all Protestant religions had their arms extended by these benevolent societies. The religions were not very well off monetarily since they were the one place that citizens could always turn to for charity, so the already struggling churches could not fund the charitable acts of the societies. Most often a wealthy member of the congregation funded the societies[7], which probably led to some of the corruption that occurred in the societies.

The reawakened faith of the American people from the Second Great Awakening led to increased awareness and concern for the sins and evils of their cities. Some societies were “centered around the express purpose of saving the wayward girls who had succumbed to sin in the big cities,” and “sailors’ rest centers were developed to keep the seamen out of evil saloons and to provide them with a place of worship.”[8] The Temperance Movement, which eventually became responsible for Prohibition in 1918, was a society formed to combat the use of alcohol. The benevolent efforts were not only focused on abstaining from evils such as alcohol; they also focused on reforms or ways to improve individuals such as “prison reform societies, women’s rights groups, world peace movements, and Sabbath observance organizations.”[9] Each had different causes that they felt needed attention, but each cause was in result of reawakened faith and a desire to have people live like true Christians according to this re-found religion.

[1] Edward Kilsdonk, “Religious Groups, Benevolent Organizations, and American Pluralism” (University of Virginia),<http://are.as.wvu.edu/kilsdonk.htm>.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Jerald C. Brauer, “Chapter 9: New Life in the Spirit,” Protestantism in America, (The Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1965).
[4] John R. McKivigan, “Abolitionism and the Benevolent Empire, ” The War Against Proslavery Religion: Abolitionism and the Northern Churches, (Cornell University Press, New York, 1984) p.111
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Peter J. Wosh, Spreading the Word: the Bible business in nineteenth-century America, (Cornell University Press, New York, 1994).
[8] Ibid.
[9] Ibid.