I'm reading Kent's book "The Social Teachings of The Prophets and Jesus," and having been brought up in the Evangelical faith, the label "Social Gospel" has such negative connotations that I became blinded to the vast application of Christ's teachings for the social order and good of mankind.    

A Summary of Jesus' Economic Teachings

"Jesus' economic teachings are highly individualistic; but they rise to a plane where the interests of the individual and of society are absolutely identical. Briefly stated in modern terms, they are:

1. The possession of more things than are necessary for a man tends to destroy his freedom and his social efficiency. 

2. The pursuit of wealth as an end in itself is incompatible with loyalty to a man's highest ideals and interests as well as to those of society. 

3. Each man is under obligation to contribute to the wealth of society in exact proportion to his ability. 

4. No man is entitled to share in the world's wealth who is not willing to work, and service to society constitutes his only valid claim to the possession of property. 

5. Private property is a public trust to be administered for the best interests of society. 

6. Society is under obligation to devise means so that each man who is willing to labor will have not only a living, but also an opportunity to contribute what he is able to the common wealth. 

7. The rights of humanity are paramount to those of capital. 

8. The cure of poverty is the elimination of its ultimate causes, moral and intellectual, as well as economic. 

9. In the Christian social order the dominant principle is not selfish competition, but fraternal co-operation which aims to promote the economic welfare of each individual, of each class, and of society as a whole. 

Competition has a place, even under the Golden Rule, but its motive is social rather than individualistic, its purpose is primarily to promote efficiency rather than merely to increase private wealth, and it's benefits are shared by the entire community as well as by the capitalist and laborer."  Charles Foster Kent, PhD., Litt.D.