PART
I…America’s Church History
Historically, every single right set forth in the Declaration of Independence had been preached from the pulpit prior to 1763. During the break from Great Britain, there were so many pastors that led their churches to actually get involved on a biblical basis for defending their towns and communities.
Battle of Lexington: Rev. Jonas Clark led seventy men from his church out to take care of 700 British. Battle of North Bridge at Concord: Rev. William Emerson and 300 men from his church took on the British. Battle of Bunker Hill: Rev. Joseph Willard had two companies from his church going after the British. And so, it continued throughout the American Revolution.
It is significant that a number of those who wrote the Constitution were themselves trained in ministry. Abraham Baldwin, the youngest man in America to be offered a degree in Theology, founded the University of Georgia as a school to train ministers.
Of note, the average length of any constitution in the history of the world is only 17 years, but the American Constitution has now surpassed 230 years, making America the longest on-going and most successful constitutional republic in the history of the world.
Of the fifty-six signers of the Declaration, twenty-seven were trained in seminaries or Bible schools. Even in the Bill of Rights and the first Ten Amendments, there are only two signatures at the bottom and one of those is a minister of the Gospel, the Rev. William Augustus Muhlenberg.
So why has the church today gotten so far away from these roots? Could it be an erroneous interpretation of the famous or infamous “separation of church and state” phrase written by Jefferson in a letter to the Danbury Baptists Association. In his letter he was assuring this body of men that the government would not stop religious activities or set up a national denomination.
There are 384,000 churches in America today and only 2.8% of pastors are willing to address from the pulpit things that are being addressed in the culture. Out of 107,000 pastors polled, 90% said the Bible does address things like immigration, education, sexuality, economics; but only 10% of that group said they would preach it from the pulpit.
PART
II…America’s Black History
Racism is a human heart problem; it is a sin because all people suffer from it…there have been slaves in all tribes, all races, and all nations throughout history. Black historian Carter Woods documents that in 1830, 43% of free blacks in South Carolina and 40% in Louisiana owned black slaves. The highest percentage of black slaves were owned by Native Americans. Of the five major Native American tribes, 12% were black slaves. There were also white slaves during the Civil War. In the 16th century, there were more white slaves in the old world than there were black slaves in the new world. The second slave ship that came to America in 1642 came into Massachusetts and the Christians there freed the slaves and imprisoned the ship captains.
America was the first nation in the world to sign a law banning the slave trade and the fourth nation behind England, Denmark, and France to ban slavery (1865). After America banned the slave trade, we took our American Navy to the coast of Africa to stop other country’s ships from taking slaves out of Africa.
There are 195 nations at the United Nations today and 94 of those nations still have not criminalized slavery. We have 40 million active slaves in the world today.
PART
III…America’s Forgotten Black Heroes
Blacks were elected to office in Maryland in 1641. Blacks were elected to office in New Hampshire in 1768. Blacks were elected to office in Pennsylvania in 1793. At the time we ratified the Constitution nearly half of America allowed blacks to vote. In Baltimore, nearly 85% of blacks voted to ratify the Constitution. During the American Revolution there were black heroes like Jack Sisson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Sisson) and James Armistead (https://www.biography.com/political-figure/james-armistead) who fought for our independence. There was never a time in Massachusetts history when blacks couldn’t vote.
CONCLUSION…
What does America need to learn from our own history so that we don’t repeat it? We must have a love for the truth, to search out the truth, and defend the truth. Don’t believe facts without confirming their authenticity.
