AURORA IL - Sunday evening, the Illinois Family Institute hosted several hundred Illinoisans who gathered at Aurora Christian School to hear Pastor, Author, and Oklahoma State Representative Dan Fisher call for Illinois clergy to "wake up" and join a modern day Black Robed Regiment.
The Black Robed Regiment was the name the British placed on the American clergy during the Founding Era (a backhanded reference to the black robes they wore). The British blamed the Black Robed Regiment for American Independence, and American leaders agreed.
John Adams wrote that “the pulpits have thundered” and specifically identified several ministers as being among the “characters the most conspicuous, the most ardent, and influential” in the “awakening and a revival of American principles and feelings” that led to American independence.
Historians also credit the clergy's role in the revolution:
The Constitutional Convention and the written Constitution were the children of the pulpit. ~Alice Baldwin, HISTORIAN, 1918
Had ministers been the only spokesman of the rebellion – had Jefferson, the Adamses, and [James] Otis never appeared in print – the political thought of the Revolution would have followed almost exactly the same line. . . . In the sermons of the patriot ministers . . . we find expressed every possibly refinement of the reigning political faith. ~Clinton Rossiter, HISTORIAN, 1953
Fisher told his Illinois audience last night that while history demonstrates that America’s elective governments and many other positive aspects of American life and culture were the product of Christian clergy and leaders, today the influence of the clergy has waned. As a result, many of our traditional freedoms have been significantly eroded.
He called on Illinois pastors to reclaim their position of influence in society, and cited Rev. Charles Finney – a leader of the Second Great Awakening – who wrote:
Brethren, our preaching will bear its legitimate fruits. If immorality prevails in the land, the fault is ours in a great degree. If there is a decay of conscience, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the public press lacks moral discrimination, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the church is degenerate and worldly, the pulpit is responsible for it. If the world loses its interest in religion, the pulpit is responsible for it. If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics become so corrupt that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it. Let us not ignore this fact, my dear brethren; but let us lay it to heart, and be thoroughly awake to our responsibility in respect to the morals of this nation. [100]
A list of Fisher's Illinois appearances can be found HERE.
A video from Fisher's website (HERE) is below:
