WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a Prelude to War! Gibson's Preacher More Fact Than Screenplay By Chuck Baldwin July 11, 2000 There is plenty for liberals to rail against in Mel Gibson's new movie, The Patriot, including youngsters taking up arms to defend their family, black people performing plantation duties of their own free will, and certain British army officers ruthlessly and brutally murdering women and children. Perhaps, the most politically incorrect scene of all, however, is where the local parish pastor picks up his musket and joins the militia. His explanation goes something like, "A pastor has to tend the flock and sometimes he has to fight off the wolves." This is quite a departure from Hollywood's usual characterization of Christian ministers. For the past thirty years, Hollywood has pictured preachers as wild-eyed, maniacal misfits. And those are the good ones! Not since Bing Crosby and Glenn Ford left the big screen has Hollywood had anything good to say about preachers. Gibson's preacher is a breath of fresh air. He is also an accurate reflection of hundreds of Colonial ministers who fought valiantly in America's War for Independence. Pastors from every Protestant denomination joined the cause for liberty and took up arms against the British, including Episcopalian ministers like Dr. Samuel Provost, of New York, Dr. John Croes, of New Jersey and Robert Smith, of South Carolina. Presbyterian clergymen like James Hall and Adam Boyd of North Carolina, James Armstrong of Maryland and James Caldwell of New Jersey were also counted among America's fighting parsons. Caldwell's story is especially inspiring. James Caldwell was pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He was affectionately called "The Rebel High Priest," and "The Fighting Chaplain." He has been made famous by the story "Give 'em Watts." It is told that at the Springfield engagement when the militia ran out of wadding for their muskets, Parson Caldwell galloped to the Presbyterian Church, and returning with an armload of hymn-books, threw them on the ground, exclaiming, 'Now, boys, give 'em Watts! Give 'em Watts!' Eventually, the British made martyrs of both Caldwell and his wife. Elizabeth fell to the Crown in 1780. Caldwell's church was burned to the ground, and his wife was shot. Later they shot Caldwell himself. A clergyman that expressed similar resolve was John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, who was the pastor of a Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia. When the news of Bunker Hill reached Virginia, he reminded his congregation that there was a time to preach and a time to fight. He cried, "It is now time to fight." And throwing off his vestments, he stood before his people in the uniform of a Virginia Colonel. Muhlenberg became a major general in the Continental Army and took part in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. At Yorktown he commanded the first brigade. Colonel Joab Houghton of New Jersey is also typical of ministers in Colonial America. Houghton was in the Hopewell Baptist Church when he received the first information of Concord and Lexington. His great-grandson gives the following description of the way he treated the news: "Mounting the great stone block in front of the meeting-house, he beckoned to the people to stop. Men and women paused to hear, curious to know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day could mean. Words stern as death fell over all. The Sabbath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into a terrible solemnity. He told them all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by the royal troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it; the retreat of Percy; the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims round the beleaguered hills of Boston; then pausing, and looking over the silent throng, he said slowly, 'Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren of New England! Who follows me to Boston?' And every man of that audience stepped out into line, and answered, 'I.' There was not a coward or a traitor in old Hopewell Baptist Meeting-House that day" (Baptists and the American Revolution; Cathcart). The truth is, America could never have won its independence from Great Britain had it not been for the support of its pastors. America's preachers sounded the clarion call for righteousness and freedom, and assisted the revolutionary effort with their own blood, sweat and tears. A major cause of our nation's current deterioration is the apathy and cowardice of America's pulpits! Many of today's pastors resemble politicians more than prophets; they have more fluff than fight. Onward Christian Soldiers has been taken out of their hymn-books, and the grit has been removed from their spine. No wonder our nation is in distress. Liberals may not like it, but It was men like Caldwell, Houghton and Muhlenberg that helped deliver this nation from the chains of tyranny and oppression. And it will take men of similar stuff to keep this nation from returning to the bondage from which it had broken free. *COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107, any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ] Want to be on our lists? 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