America’s Black Robe Regiment Part 3

Part 3 – Faith in the Marketplace

In this final article on the historic role of American pastors, we look at the influence of the young nation’s ministers in furthering biblical principles in government and society.

Political Preachers

Christian clergy not only largely defined America’s unique political theory and even defended it in military combat, but they were also leaders in the national legislative councils to help implement those ideals. For example, Rev. Dr. John Witherspoon was a member of the Continental Congress who served during the Revolution on the Board of War as well as on over one hundred congressional committees.¹ Other ministers who served in the Continental Congress included Revs. Joseph Montgomery, Hugh Williamson, John Zubly, and more.

Numerous ministers also served in state legislatures, such as Rev. Jacob Green of New Jersey, who helped oust the British colonial government and was chairman of the committee that drafted the state’s original constitution in 1776;² Rev. Frederick Augustus Muhlenberg, who was influential in Pennsylvania ;³ Rev. Samuel Stillman, who helped draft Massachusetts’ 1780 constitution;⁴ etc.

When hostilities ceased, Christian ministers led in the movement for a federal constitution. For example, Revs. Jeremy Belknap, Samuel Stanhope Smith, John Witherspoon, and James Manning began pointing out the defects of the Articles of Confederation.⁵ And when the US Constitution was finally complete and submitted to the states for ratification, nearly four dozen clergymen were elected as ratifying delegates,⁶ many of whom played key roles in securing its adoption in their respective states.

Following the adoption of the new federal Constitution, ministers were highly active in celebrating its ratification. For example, of the parade in Philadelphia, signer of the Declaration Benjamin Rush boasted:

The clergy formed a very agreeable part of the procession. They manifested by their attendance their sense of the connection between religion and good government. They. . . . marched arm in arm with each other to exemplify the Union.⁷

When the first federal Congress under the new Constitution convened, several ministers were Members, including Revs. Frederick and Peter Muhlenberg, Abiel Foster, Benjamin Contee, Abraham Baldwin, and Paine Wingate.

Ministers were intimately involved in every aspect of introducing, defining, and securing America’s civil and religious liberties. A 1789 Washington, D.C., newspaper enthusiastically reported:

Our truly patriotic clergy boldly and zealously stepped forth and bravely stood our distinguished sentinels to watch and warn us against approaching danger; they wisely saw that our religious and civil liberties were inseparably connected and therefore warmly excited and animated the people resolutely to oppose and repel every hostile invader. . . . May the virtue, zeal and patriotism of our clergy be ever particularly remembered.⁸

Ministers Train the Next Generation

Besides their contributions to government and civil and religious liberty, the Black Robe Regiment was also largely responsible for education in America. Understanding that only a literate people well versed in the teachings of the Bible could sustain free and enlightened government, ministers established an education system that would teach and preserve the religious principles so indispensable to those civil and religious liberties.

Consequently, in 1635 the Puritans established America’s first public school,⁹ and in 1647 passed America’ first public education law (“The Old Deluder Satan Act”¹⁰). In 1636, Harvard University was established through the generosity of Puritan minister John Harvard. Following that, ten Congregational ministers founded Yale;¹¹ Princeton by Presbyterian ministers Jonathan Dickinson, John Pierson, and Ebenezer Pemberton;¹² William and Mary by Episcopal minister James Blair;¹³ Dartmouth by Congregational minister Eleazar Wheelock;¹⁴ etc.

For the next two-and-a-half centuries Gospel ministers founded and led American educational institutions. By 1860, ninety-one percent of all college presidents were ministers of the Gospel, as were more than a third of all university faculty members.¹⁵ Of the 246 colleges founded by the close of that year, only seventeen were not affiliated with some denomination;¹⁶ and by 1884, eighty-three percent of America’s 370 colleges still remained denominational colleges.¹⁷ Noah Webster (the “Schoolmaster to America”) confirmed, “to them [the clergy] is popular education in this country more indebted than to any other class of men.”¹⁸

The Pastors Praised

Throughout the founding of our nation, both enemy and patriot alike agreed America owed her establishment to the tireless involvement of the American pulpit. For example, John Adams rejoiced that “the pulpits have thundered”¹⁹ and specifically identified several ministers among the “characters the most conspicuous, the most ardent, and influential” in the “awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings” that led to American independence.²⁰

Subsequent generations faithfully reported the great and positive influence of the Revolutionary clergy. For example:

As a body of men, the clergy were pre-eminent in their attachment to liberty. The pulpits of the land rang with the notes of freedom.²¹ The American Quarterly Register [MAGAZINE], 1833

If Christian ministers had not preached and prayed, there might have been no revolution as yet; or had it broken out, it might have been crushed.²² Bibliotheca Sacra [BRITISH PERIODICAL], 1856

The ministers of the Revolution were, like their Puritan predecessors, bold and fearless in the cause of their country. No class of men contributed more to carry forward the Revolution and to achieve our independence than did the ministers. . . . By their prayers, patriotic sermons, and services [they] rendered the highest assistance to the civil government, the army, and the country.²³ B. F. Morris, HISTORIAN, 1864

The Constitutional Convention and the written Constitution were the children of the pulpit.²⁴ Alice Baldwin, HISTORIAN, 1918

Had ministers been the only spokesman of the rebellion—had Jefferson, the Adamses, and [James] Otis never appeared in print, the political thought of the Revolution would have followed almost exactly the same line. . . . In the sermons of the patriot ministers . . . we find expressed every possible refinement of the reigning political faith.²⁵ Clinton Rossiter, HISTORIAN, 1953

The American clergy were faithful exponents of the fullness of God’s Word, applying its principles to every aspect of life, shaping America’s institutes and culture. They were also at the forefront of proclaiming liberty, resisting tyranny, and opposing any encroachments on God-given rights and freedoms. In 1898, Methodist bishop and church historian Charles Galloway rightly observed of these ministers:

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. . . . And such were the sons of the mighty who responded to the Divine call.²⁶

Ministers during the Revolutionary period were not unique; they were simply continuing what ministers had been doing to shape American government and culture in the century and a half preceding the Revolution.

Conclusion

History demonstrates that America’s elective governments, her educational system, and a number of other positive aspects of American life and culture were the product of biblically thinking pastors and Christian leaders. Today, however, as the church’s influence has waned, many of these institutions have come under unprecedented attack and our traditional freedoms have been significantly eroded. It is time for America’s ministers to understand and reclaim their important, God-given positions of influence. Rev. Charles Finney, a leader of the Second Great Awakening, reminded ministers in his day:

Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation.²⁷

America once again needs the type of courageous ministers that cause her enemies to fear, and the righteous to rejoice. It is time to reinvigorate the Black Robe Regiment!

Continue The Series

Discover the many ways that colonial pastors shaped their communities and eventually American independence. (Part 1)
Discover how American ministers not only laid the foundation for American Independence, but also put their lives on the line to secure it. (Part 2)