MIFA History II continued The Awakening of Social Conscience Social religion arrived in the North in the nineteenth century in the wake of urbanization and industrialization. At the same time that their northern counterparts were preaching about social ills, southern clergy remained concerned with saving souls, one by one. Even so, numerous Memphis ecumenical or inter-faith groups were formed to address social ills, with only limited success: Cross Cut Club, 1929; Memphis Interracial Commission, 1940; Association of Church and Professional Social Workers, 1945; Greater Memphis Race Relations Committee, 1950s; Memphis Council of Churches, late 1950s; Memphis Committee on Community Relations (MCCR), 1959; and University of Tennessee Inter-Faith Center and Institute of Medicine and Religion, early 1960s. In 1968, with Rabbi James Wax as president, the recently integrated Memphis Ministers Association published in The Commercial Appeal “An Appeal to Conscience.” It urged “anyone who loves God must also love his brother,” pointing out that brotherhood was a full-time occupation requiring involvement rather than oratory, needing action not words. Public reaction to this new and therefore unusual involvement of their ministers in social issues was for the most part unfavorable. The ministers were advised to let the mayor run the city while they “tended to religion.” Next: A New Approach