From whence did Americans, most likely acquire the notion that they had ‘no master or governor, but Jesus Christ?’ The answer seems clear— their preachers!
But today the pulpit is mostly silent about the proper role of government, even though, while you read this chapter, of the federal government in Washington DC is growing like a cancerous malignancy. Modern preachers seem reluctant or refuse to address anything that can remotely be labeled as ‘political.’ But it was not always this way.
In 1848, Nicholas Murray pastor of the first Presbyterian Church of Elizabethtown, New Jersey addressed the need for ministers to engage in politics and government:
“A question is arisen and perhaps it will present itself to many minds as to the propriety of a minister of the gospel taking such an active part in the secular affairs of the country. On a suitable occasion I should like to meet the man who would take the negative of the question. We owe the freedom of this country. If all the ministers of the country had taken boldly the ground assumed by some, that there could not be a state without a king, the lion in the unicorn guarding the crown would have been the emblem of our Sovereignty until the present hour.”