For a bit of a timeline reference, the period that the Social Gospel reigned was during the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. The Social Gospel was a group of people who tried to use their Christian faith to justify their ideas of what solutions to certain social problems should be. A way to remember the religious ties that the Social Gospel had to society would be the word <em>gospel</em>, which by definition relates to church and thus religious faith.
[A] Imperialism would be an incorrect response. Think of imperialism as typically belligerent or selfish nations who tried to get as many resources as possible from other developing countries, like how Great Britain was the mother colony farming resources from the colonies throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. For some extra context, imperialism was much more prevalent during the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.
[C] Laissez-faire is a method of practicing capitalism that the federal government used in the US. The phrase <em>laissez-faire</em> is French and essentially means "let it be," which follows the conservative economic ideal of not regulating the market.
Perry approached Japan in a somewhat threatening manner. He sought after them with a navy vessel at his side and basically told them to open their trade relations or else. =)
