Thundering Pulpits

Did you know that the Pastors and Preachers of our founding era were different than the average clergyman today? Instead of society relegating them to irrelevance as mere religious storytellers, most early Pastors and Preachers in America were influential in their churches and communities. Those religious leaders were well-educated, well-informed, culturally active, and kept their congregations aware of their realities and challenges.

Those bygone clergy stirred the hearts of their congregations in the love of Christ and the love of liberty.

These pastoral leaders even led recruits from their churches into battle during the American Revolution. Here is a partial list of fighting Patriot Pastors from the Founders’ Bible (see Cummings, Brad, and Lance Wubbels, editors. The Founders' Bible. Newbury Park, CA, Shiloh Road Publishers, 2012, pp. 677-679.):

• Phillips Payson and Benjamin Balch attacked the British retreat from Concord, MA

• David Avery of Vermont recruited men and marched to Boston to oppose the British

• Stephen Farrar led ninety-seven of his parishioners into battle

• David Grosvenor, Jonathan French, and Joseph Willard left their pulpits to engage the enemy at Bunker Hill as soon as they heard of the battle

• Thomas Reed led men in defense of Philadelphia

• Isaac Lewis resisted the British landing in Norwalk, CT

• James Latta enlisted as a common soldier, and William Graham as a rifleman

It is even biblical for religious leaders to engage in spiritual and physical conflict. Levites physically protected Joash from the wicked Athaliah in 2 Chronicles 23:7. In Exodus 32:25-27 Moses rallied the Levites to kill the golden calf idolaters. We read of Phineas killing the immoral Israelite man and Midianite woman then led in the war that followed is in Numbers 25:6-13 and 31:6. Finally, there is the account of Samuel killing Agag in 1 Samuel 15:33.

Did you know that the famed “Minutemen” were militias of churchmen organized by their Pastors to fight the British at a minute’s notice? I never heard that in history class when I was growing up, did you? Jonas Clark comes to mind in Lexington, MA, where the first battle of the Revolution took place. The British marched to Lexington in search of Samuel Adams and John Hancock. Paul Revere rode from Boston to warn them, before they left, the two men asked Clark if his churchmen would stand against the British. He replied that he had trained them for this very hour and would die in the shadow of the church house if need be.

Lutheran Pastor Peter Muhlenberg preached against tyranny and then acted against it. After preaching a sermon on Ecclesiastes 3, he took off his black clerical robes to reveal a Continental Officer’s uniform. He said there was a time to fight, and it was now. He recruited and led a regiment of Virginians from his church to fight the British. He and his troops were instrumental in defeating Cornwallis at Yorktown.

Do you know any modern Pastors or Preachers like those our forefathers knew? The Pastors of the founding era led in the Revolution and did not shrink from their duty to stand against the evil and tyranny their congregations faced daily. These Patriot Pastors were so involved in the War for Independence that the British referred to them as the “Black Regiment” (or “Black Robe Regiment”) because of the black clerical robes they wore when conducting worship services.

These Patriot Pastors did not preach fairytale-like sermons to tickle the ears of their congregants. They preached hard-hitting, eye-opening sermons to stir the hearts of their people to action. They did not preach an ungodly submission to the tyrannical King but spoke boldly about our unalienable rights from God. They “put their money where their mouths were” and took up arms to defend their nation, state, families, property, and selves.

For years I did not know that the American clergy had such a role in our independence from Great Britain. You certainly would not know it by looking at most modern preachers and congregations. I have nothing but respect for those men and their actions on OUR behalf. In 1898 Bishop Charles Galloway praised them:

Mighty men they were, of iron nerve and strong hand and unblanched cheek and heart of flame. God needed not reeds shaken by the wind, not men clothed in soft raiment [Matthew 11:7-8], but heroes of hardihood and lofty courage to be the voice of the new kingdom crying in the Western wilderness. And such were the sons of the mighty who responded to the Divine call.

Let me urge church leaders not to stifle modern Patriot Pastors from obeying the call of God on their hearts. Preachers need to lead their congregations to “obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29). There is too much compromise between culture and the controlling powers today. Churchmen, hold your preacher up, don’t push him down if he is leading in the fight against evil.