Posted on 12/12/2020 3:26:59 PM PST by Lenora Thompson
On January 21st, 1776, Pastor Peter Muhlenberg of Virginia chose his Sunday sermon text from Ecclesiastes 3: "In the language of the Holy Writ, there is a time for all things. There is a time to preach and a time to fight. And now is the time to fight." Throwing off his black cassock, he revealed his Continental Army uniform complete with saber and flintlock and challenged his congregation: "Who among you is with me?"
As drums beat a military tattoo, three hundred men of Pastor Muhlenberg's flock rose to their feet, kissed their wives and children goodbye and marched down the aisle to follow their pastor into the War of Independence.
At Valley Forge, they starved together as their feet left bloody footprints in the snow. At Brandywine, Monmouth and Stonypoint they fought and died together. And when General Cornwallis surrendered on October 18th, 1781, Major-General Muhlenberg was present at the surrender.
He did what the clergy of America should be doing today: leading their flocks in the fight against tyranny according to Reverend William Cook of the Black Robe Regiment at today's Jericho March. Rev. Cook called out the clergy for cowering behind "separation of Church and State" and scorned their fear of losing their precious 501c3 to the roars of the Washington D. C. crowd.
By the age of twenty-five, I'd listened to the preaching of so many pastors that I began to feel if I darkened the door of one more church, I would either break out in hives or lose my breakfast. I'd had my bellyful of the super-happy charlatans in the pulpit as well as their religious theater, none of which felt genuine. Church had become toxic for me and I finally stopped going altogether.
The more I learned about what my trusted clergy had really been doing behind closed doors, from adultery to statutory rape, the less I wanted to darken a church door ever again. If it hadn't been for the writings of C. S. Lewis, I might've lost my faith altogether.
Maybe that's why I'm so thrilled to learn of the Black Robe Regiment or as I prefer to call them, "pastors with balls."
We Americans have had enough of PC clergy. Mealy-mouthed pastors who smile perpetually and preach with power so rarely that when they finally do actually believe something, they get a round of applause from their starving flock. Been in that church. Grew to hate it.
Pastors who slam their church doors shut when the government demands it. Padres who pussyfoot around lest they lose their precious 501c3. Parsons whose balls have yet to descend.
Americans are sick of it!
We need our religious leaders to be in the spirit of Pastor Muhlenberg. Men who will put their own lives on the line for their beliefs. Men who preach absolutes, not just feel-good words to soothe their congregation each Sunday morning while avoiding the pertinent issues of the day.
We need pastors whose faith is as practical and political as it is powerful. Priests who are willing to lay it on the line and say something shocking like, "You cannot support Joe Biden and his political platform of pro-abortion, pro-New World Order and pro-tyranny and also claim the name of Christ."
"But, Lenora," I hear you say. "What about separation of church and state!?!"
Yeah, whataboutit!?!
That term was used in 1802 and again in 1833 in personal letters, not laws, by our founding fathers.
As America was largely founded by those fleeing religious persecution in Europe, I've always heard and believed that the separation was intended to protect the church from the state...not the other way round. Of course, we've got it bassackwards today!
Dennis Prager told the Jericho March, "The Battle for America looks political, but it is fundamentally spiritual."
If there is no Creator, then we have not been endowed with inalienable rights and our fight for freedom is just...meh. Personal preference. Habit. Tradition. We're spoiled little American brats who just wanna have our way. Waa-waa-waa.
Thankfully, that is not the case. There is a Great Creator revealed in the Holy Bible and He has endowed us with "certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness...That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
We're not even going that far. We the People, and that includes religious leaders, just want the original government re-established as originally written. Our clergy should be leading the charge and I'm thrilled more and more of them are indeed coming to the fore. One of them particularly stands out: Father Frank Pavone.
If you watch Right Side Broadcasting, you know and love him already. Constantly clashing with his own Catholic church, an angel of mercy in high profile cases like Terry Schiavo, always going forward despite death threats, Father Frank Pavone is one of the few clergy with the balls, I mean guts, to speak openly and strongly about politics in support of President Donald J. Trump.
I first "met" Father Pavone through the beautiful prayer vigils he hosts on RSBN several times a week. Being jaded toward anything churchified, I expected it to be nauseating but I logged on anyways because I needed the comfort of prayer.
Sometimes it's thrilling to be wrong and I was delightfully wrong about the RSBN prayer vigils. Father Pavone leads them so buoyantly with a short sermon, beautiful music and profound prayer that I told my Michael, "I'm actually enjoying 'church' again!"...and I'm not even Catholic! Blessings on Father Pavone! We need more like him.
Perhaps the Deep State and their ilk meant the election fraud for Evil, but so much good has come of it. We patriots have come crawling out of the woodwork and every single one, even the atheists (I jest!), are thumping the Bible! The fraud made us realize how many of us there are, how greatly we outnumber the Left, how deeply we believe and how much power there is in prayer to Almighty God.
The Jericho March today showed how many clergy are finally leading both in politics and in the pulpit and I hope many, many more will follow their example.
When Pastor Muhlenberg passed away in 1807, his headstone was inscribed with these words: “He was Brave in the field, Faithful in the Cabinet, Honorable in all his transactions, a Sincere Friend and an Honest Man."
Who could wish for a better epitaph? May the same be said of us.
God bless you, God bless President Trump and God bless these United States of America!
The Revolutionary Rising (excerpt) by Thomas Buchanan Read
...Within its shade of elm and oak The church of Berkley Manor stood: There Sunday found the rural folk, And some esteemed of gentle blood.
In vain their feet with loitering tread Passed 'mid the graves where rank is naught: All could not read the lesson taught In that republic of the dead.
The pastor rose: the prayer was strong; The psalm was warrior David's song; The text, a few short words of might,- 'The Lord of Hosts shall arm the right!'
He spoke of wrongs too long endured, Of sacred rights to be secured; Then from his patriot tongue of flame The startling words for Freedom came.
The stirring sentences he spake Compelled the heart to glow or quake,
And, rising on his theme's broad wing, And grasping in his nervous hand The imaginary battle-brand, In face of death he dared to fling Defiance to a tyrant king.
Even as he spoke, his frame renewed In eloquence of attitude,
Rose, as it seemed, a shoulder higher; Then swept his kindling glance of fire From startled pew to breathless choir;
When suddenly his mantle wide His hands impatient flung aside, And, lo! He met their wondering eyes Complete in all a warrior's guise. A moment there was awful pause,-
When Berkley cried, 'Cease, traitor! Cease! God's temple is the house of peace!'
The other shouted, 'Nay, not so, When God is with our righteous cause: His holiest places then are ours, His temples are our forts and towers That frown upon the tyrant foe: In this the dawn of Freedom's day There is a time to fight and pray!'
And now before the open door- The warrior priest had ordered so- The enlisting trumpet's sudden soar Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, Its long reverberating blow,
So loud and clear, it seemed the ear Of dusty death must wake and hear. And there the startling drum and fife Fired the living with fiercer life;
While overhead with wild increase, Forgetting its ancient toll of peace, The great bell swung as ne'er before: It seemed as it would never cease;
And every word its ardor flung From off its jubilant iron tongue Was, 'War! War! War!'
"Who dares"-this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came - "Come out with me, in Freedom's name, For her to live, for her to die?"
A hundred hands flung up reply, A hundred voices answered "I!"
Fire! 🔥! Love it!
Pastors in politics during the American Revolution- https://myemail.constantcontact.com/Pastors-in-Politics-during-American-Revolution—Hugh-Williamson-—other-preachers.html?soid=1108762609255&aid=tRRBs5_lh0w
That’s fantastic info! Thanks so much!!! :D
Did you catch General Flynn’s speech today???? Trump flew over during it. Here’s the whole video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=romt1iWW4Oc
I read on a Catholic site that Vigano addressed them or prayed with them today. All Christians (and Orthodox Jews) have to stick together. We either hang together or hang separately, famous words.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.