Gibson’s preacher tells no lies

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 30
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, N.J.
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, Va. 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.

Col. 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” (from Cathcart’s “Baptists and
the American Revolution”).

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.

? 2000 Chuck Baldwin Live

Dr. Chuck Baldwin is the host of Chuck Baldwin Live,
a daily, two hour long radio call-in show on the events
of the day. In addition to writing two books of
theology, “Subjects Seldom Spoken On” and “This Is
The Life,” he has edited and produced “The Freedom
Documents,” a collection of 50 of the greatest
documents of American history.