Philadelphia – July 2, 1776: Continental Congress Calls Upon the Black Robed Regiment

The debate was over, and the Declaration of Independence had been approved by the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia on a hot July 2nd day. Questions abounded still, and anxiety as to the future was on the minds of men who had now affixed their signatures to a piece of paper destined to be the greatest and most historic document in the history of the world.

At the bottom of the original Declaration of Independence, the Continental Congress had ordered that when printed and ready for distribution on July 4, the documents would be sent to parish clergy and ministers. The importance of this is that the instructions did not direct this circulation to town clerks or newspapers but to preachers of the Gospel, men known as the “Black Regiment,” thus named for the black robes they wore.

The pulpit had already played and would play a more important role in American freedom. The black-robed ministers would encourage activism, and many would personally join in the fighting and serve as soldiers and chaplains. As many as one hundred would leave the pulpit of the church for the “pulpit of the camp and battlefield.”

The Declaration, when it arrived in the hands of the clergy, was “required to read the same to their respective congregation, as soon as divine service ended, in the afternoon, on the first Lord’s Day after they have received it.”

Church members would find it hard to have services without their ministers now gone to war and with attendance dropping off for lack of clergy personnel on the home front. However, the war and home front would never be the same… every place where the British chose to camp, they sought to destroy George Washington’s “ragtag” army in the north and Nathanael Greene’s in the South.

Tempers flared in all corners of the land, and debates were held between Loyalists and Patriot members of congregations. In Loudoun County, Virginia, at Ketoctin Baptist Church, a debate between Tory John Osborn and Preacher John Marks was arranged. Heated tempers caused the debate to be called off, and John Marks joined General Washington’s Army as a Chaplain. John Osborn would not give up his support of the King’s cause and, in defiance, would name a new son Tarleton after one of General Cornwallis’ most cruel officers, Colonel Banastre   Tarleton. Tarleton is portrayed in Mel Gibson’s movie The Patriot as merciless and inhumane.

The Rev. Jonathan Boucher, Anglican Priest, would carry not just his sermon into the pulpit but also a loaded pistol. His congregation was split, and the danger of personal attacks was ever-present.

Peter Muhlenberg statue in front of the Shenandoah County Courthouse in Woodstock, Virginia.By Sharp-shinned.hawk – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69225593

The Rev. Peter Muhlenberg of Woodstock, Virginia, preached regularly for the cause of freedom for the American colonists. He had a surprise for his congregation on the day of his final service in his Woodstock church to drive home his point that the American Revolution must succeed. Following the final hymn, he threw off his black robe as he recited Ecclesiastes Chapter 3 to reveal his uniform of a militia colonel. He then recruited men from his congregation to join the fight for independence, and they became known as the “German Regiment.” He had been licensed as an Anglican priest and ministered to the German settlers of the Shenandoah Valley. He served with honor as a Revolutionary War officer and rose to the rank of major general. There is a statue of this black-robed priest in the yard of the old courthouse in Woodstock honoring the Rev. Major General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, Priest, Patriot, Soldier, and Hero.

The majority of Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Puritans, Methodists, and most of the denominations in the Colonies except the Quakers would join in preaching the insurrection. Anglican priests were split because of their vows of allegiance to the King, but still, many would heed the call of Independence. The torch of Independence was lit early with Anglican George Whitefield’s arrival in the Colonies in 1740. He was known as the greatest preacher in the Colonies. He preached salvation through Jesus Christ and gave warning to the people about the oppression of the King in his revivals, and helped launch the “Great Awakening.” He traveled from New England to Georgia, set attendance records, and started “field preaching,” which Anglican John Wesley also used. The difference in the political points of view of Whitefield and Wesley was commonly known. Wesley taught “obedience” to the Crown, and Whitefield spoke of “man’s right of freedom” from oppression, including the slaves.

We cannot avoid, ignore, or abandon our responsibilities in striving to preserve the heritage secured by our Founders. Laity and the clergy must be vigilant and ever-ready to fight for our Republic to ensure it is not weakened by interlopers and left for scavengers who come to suckle from the breast of Liberty bought with the blood of patriots. We must speak out against the mocking of our form of government and the eschewing of our Constitution to satisfy alien purposes while abandoning individual freedoms we treasure. Our Founders knew and voiced the reality that the moral values of Christianity are the “bedrock” foundation of our Republic, and it will crumble without them.

I invite clergy and laymen from the mountains to the plains, from sea to shining sea, from Alaska to the Keys, and from Virginia to Hawaii to light the fires of that “old-time religion” and preserve the freedoms won on the frozen tundra of Valley Forge, in the icy Delaware River, on the rain-drenched field at Guilford Courthouse, Daniel Morgan’s “fire and sword” at Cowpens, in the snake-filled swamps of South Carolina, and finally, on the sandy beaches at Yorktown.

Arise layman and clergyman whose heart is filled with concern for the future of our Country and become active patriots.

Raise your voices as our soldiers in what they called the “Glorious Cause.” Let us shout their battle cry in one voice, “There is NO king, but King Jesus!”

Larry Wilson Johnson
Front Royal

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