“They didn’t call it The Presbyterian Rebellion for nothing”
I had a professor who believed without Calvin and Knox there would have been no Revolution.
Last Sunday I spoke at my Lutheran church, and I said that the reason the American Revolution succeeded in securing liberty for the people when all other revolutions, from the French Revolution on, have resulted in chaos, followed by a tyranny worse than before, is that the American Revolution was not a revolution: it was a Reformation, a desire to bring Britain back to its original Protestant-based popular-liberty ideals, just as Luther's Reformation was a desire to bring Christianity back to its original salvation-through-Christ's-merit ideal. In both cases, there was a list of grievances, the 95 Theses that Luther wanted to discuss, and the list in our D. of I. that the colonists had tried to discuss. In both cases, there was no desire at first to break off the relationship: the colonists didn't want to leave Britain until the King's reactions made it imperative, just as Luther didn't want to leave the Catholic Church until the Pope's reactions made it imperative. In both cases, the ultimate result was a reformation and reconciliation on both sides: the American government became a popular republic, as did the British government, and the Anglo-American friendship (Obama's actions notwithstanding) is as strong today as ever; the Reformation led to the Counter-Reformation which dealt with the more egregious issues, and the Catholic-Lutheran friendship (the action of theological liberals not withstanding) is as strong today as ever. Revolutions always fail; reformations always have a chance of success.