Let the torch of freedom burn.

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wallbuilderslive.com. Here we go to Building on the American Heritage series with David Barton. Well, David, our topic today is pastors, the influence they had on the revolution and whether or not they should be having influence today in the culture. What about the revolution? Well, when you go back to the revolution, look at people who were actually there who participated, like John Adams from start to finish, signed the Declaration, signed the peace treaty to end it. John Adams, 1816, when giving a list of who is most responsible for independence in America, went through and said, well, you've got the Reverend Dr. Samuel Cooper, you've got the Reverend Jonathan Mayhew, there's George Woodfield, there's

Reverend Charles Chon. Preachers? Not only that Addis point to it, the British did as well. The British were the ones who named the American preachers the Black Rope Regiment. And the British said if it hadn't been for the preachers, America would still be a happy British colony. So they gave them a military name. Oh, they gave them a military name. And they also went after them in military manner. When they came to America and were going through the various states, the British burned church after church, after church, then went to New York City, 19 churches burned 10 of the ground. They went across New Jersey burning church. They went across Virginia burning churches. We lost 4,300 soldiers to British bullets. We lost 11,400 soldiers to prisoner of war camps, but when

a preacher got put in a prisoner war camp, you can just about count that off.

Because they blame them for the revolution.

They specifically blame them for the revolution. You go, what did the preachers have

to do with the revolution? Why would John has point to preachers? And historians have documented

that every single right set forth in the Declaration of Independence had been preached from the American pulpit prior to 1763.

That means the Declaration of Independence is nothing more than the list of the sermons we've been in church leading them to the Revolution.

Now we used to study that. Here's some old books. This is one called the Chaplains and Clergy of the American Revolution.

It's an old book, 1860s. It's online.

People can read it to Google Books.

But it talks about all these preachers who built America. You have one here, the pulpit of the American Revolution, also from the 1860s. And these are the famous sermons that were preached that shaped America. And sermons and preachers, I mean, this is a great example. This is a guy named the Reverend John Wise. He preached in America in the 1680s.

He did two books in 1710, 1717 talking about rights. But back in the 1680s, he has already preached that all men are creed equal, that they're endowed by their creditor with certain ined ineditable rights. He's already preached that according to the Bible, when you look at taxes, taxation without representation is tyranny. He's already preached that when you look at forms of government in the Bible, that the consent of the government is what God prefers. And we go, wait, those are all lines in the Declaration. Those are some of the most famous lines of the Declaration. This is 100 years before the declaration. In 1772, the Founding Fathers took his sermons and printed it in this book. This is from 1772. They spread this all over America.

So they wanted to re-publish and get it back out. They wanted Americans thinking right. And so they republished his sermons. Two years later, they had to reprint it because it was so popular. Two years later, they write the declaration. And guess what? Lines right out of here show up in the declaration. So when you look at the role of pastors, they had a huge impact.

Here's, for example, a sermon preached by Reverend Foster, but it's in front of John Hancock. What are they doing preach in front of? Because there's preachers who help government officials think right about government. Here's a sermon preaching in front of Oliver Wolk. He's a signer of the Declaration. Yeah, but he's the governor of Connecticut. This is preaching in front of the entire government of Connecticut. Here's a sermon preached in front of John Taylor Gilman. He's a signer of the Declaration. Yeah, but he's the governor of Connecticut. This priest in front of the entire government of Connecticut.

Here's a sermon preaching in front of John Taylor Gilman. He's a signer of the Constitution. Yeah, but he's the governor of New Hampshire. This is a preacher preaching to the government saying, hey, guys, here's what God says about government. So, I mean, you look at all these preachers. You look at what we had in the beginning. America would not be the nation it is with the rights we have that hadn't been for preachers,

and that's why John Adams lists all these preachers as being responsible for what we enjoy in America today. All right, David, have us some questions from the audience on pastors. Sounds good. I understand preachers were involved in the revolution, but that was before the First Amendment of the Constitution.

So aren't they now supposed to stay out of politics?

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