Concerned with what they saw as a diversion between Christian faith and a commitment to social justice, the "Chicago Declaration" was written as a call to reject racism, economic materialism, economic inequality, militarism, and sexism.
At the first Calvin College conference on politics that Paul B. Henry organized in the spring of 1973, several organizers, including David Moberg, Rufus Jones, and Paul Henry, decided to call a weekend workshop over Thanksgiving, 1973.
Nearly forty individuals attended: older evangelicals like Carl F. H. Henry, Frank Gaebelein; younger evangelicals like Jim Wallis, John Perkins, Sharon Gallagher, Rich Mouw, and Ron Sider.
[4] The assembled individuals wrote and signed "The Chicago Declaration of Evangelical Social Concern", confessing the failure of evangelical Christianity to confront injustice, racism, and discrimination against women, and pledging to do better.
[5] As Christianity Today noted on the 30th anniversary of the declaration, the conference's stated purpose wouldn't register as surprising today, when evangelicals from all different political stripes agree that at least some form of social justice is a central tenet of the Christian faith.