Being that we recently celebrated the 249th year of the founding of America, I thought it prudent for us to take a look at who the Pilgrims were, what drove them to come to America, and how we as Christians should respond to our current political environment.
It was not a case of, “build it and they’ll come”, but rather “come and build it.” The primary reason that the Pilgrims came to America was because their liberty had been taken away. The Pilgrims “were English Separatists who left England seeking Religious freedom”. (pilmoth.org) They first went to Holland and then sailed to America on the Mayflower in 1620. It’s a bit humorous to me that when people say, “you shouldn’t mix religion and politics”, because they are ignorant of our history.
These Pilgrims were fleeing religious persecution fueled by an innate drive for freedom. “Settlers had fled from Europe where kings would burn people at the stake for not believing the way they did.” (p.161, Silence Equals Consent, by William J. Federer)
When Queen Mary I became Queen of England she wanted to corral the country back under the Roman Catholic Church. Consequently, Protestant Bible scholars, known as the Marian exiles, fled to Geneva, Switzerland. They met with John Calvin and Theador Beza. They translated the Bible first into French in 1551, and then into English in 1560 with the assistance of several other scholars. A few of these Bibles were smuggled back into England soon after Mary died, and they became prevalent throughout the kingdom. This translation became known as The Geneva Bible.
When I grew up it was unthinkable for a Christian to use any other version of the Bible than The King James Version. The joke was, of course, it’s the KJV! It’s the Bible that Jesus used! What you may not know is how it came into being. In 1603, King James I became the king of England, Wales, and Scotland. He had a strong aversion towards the Geneva Bible due to its margin notes emphasizing a congregational church structure, thereby limiting the king’s power. Therefore, with the help of Anglican, Puritan and Presbyterian scholars, King James came up with his own version of the bible omitting the margin notes.
He was an absolute monarch in every sense of the word. In 1553 he enforced “The Act Against Puritans.” This act stated that if anyone did not attend the Church of England services for 40 days were put into prison without bail until they yielded themselves to the church. Further, a person was not even allowed to make up their own prayers. King James had his own prayer book published called, “The Book of Common Prayer.” There were 300 ministers who refused to use it and were immediately suspended. I don’t know about you, but I’d be looking for a seat on The Mayflower too! And that’s exactly what happened. In 1620, 102 of those church members, otherwise known as Pilgrims, headed for America. However, only 53 of them made it alive.
The Mayflower Compact
Even before the English colonists landed in what was to be Massachusetts, they realized that they needed some type agreement wherewith they would govern themselves. Consequently, they drafted up a document that they all agreed to abide by. On November 21, 1620, they established “The Mayflower Compact”, a “civil body politic”. In essence, it was a document outlining a system of self governance based on the full consent of the governed. This agreement is seen as a precursor of later documents, i.e. The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. I think it’s appropriate here to note, “The colonists were about 89% Protestant.” About 1-2% were Catholics and about 1/10th were Jewish. Moreover, 56 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Protestants. (p.177, Silence Equals Consent, by William J. Federer)
The model of America
America was an experiment where “instead of a single man being the supreme authority, the people are the supreme authority.” (p.167) In other words, instead of a top down government, such as a king or monarch, it was a bottom up government with God and his Word at the center. This type of government only works when the people regard each other as equal in the sight of God and that all are under the conviction that each is accountable to God for how they treat their fellow man. As John Adams wrote, “Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” (bold mine)
This type of government can be seen in Old Testament scripture. It was called “The Hebrew Republic” and it lasted 400 years before the Israelites demanded a king. This came about primarily because of the corruption in the priesthood and the negligence of propagating the sacred scriptures. (see I Samuel 2:22-25)
Contrary to a common misconception America is not a Democracy. America is a Constitutional Republic. The source of power resides with the citizens, who exercise that power via elected representatives. This brings me to my next point, “The separation of church and state.”
The separation between church and state.
Where did the phrase, “the separation of church and state” come from, and do we really know what it means? This is often the mantra of anyone, particularly secular leftists, that feel “religion” is interfering in government (state) affairs. But is that what it means? And where did it come from? It does not come from, nor will you find it, in the U.S. Constitution. However, the concept is derived from the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment that states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The actual wording is a metaphor for the “wall of separation”, popularized by a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptist Association. However, it was mentioned earlier by Roger Williams, a minister/lawyer, in 1636. “Williams referenced a ‘a high wall’ between church and state to keep the ‘wilderness’ of human institutions out of the affairs of religion. He strove to prevent the corruption of government from corrupting a person’s freedom of conscience.” (Separation of Church & State History, National Park Service, April 1, 2025) In other words, the primary intention was to prevent the government from infiltrating the church, not so much the other way around. Conversely, America was never meant to be a theocracy either. As we’ve observed, that concept doesn’t work. They tried it in Rome, England, and more recently Iran, as well as other places throughout history.
What should the Christian’s relationship be to the world regarding government and politics?
Should Christians be involved, or even care about governmental affairs? I will gladly give you my answer, but let me first ask you, where would we be if our “believing” Founding Fathers did not feel that they should not be involved in the “worldly affairs” of government? Time doesn’t permit me here to do a deep dive into the religious beliefs of our founding fathers, but suffice to say that all 56 had a belief in God the Creator and in His Word, the Holy Bible. If you look any of them up you’d find this to be so. Now let’s take a look at evidence that early American believers were indeed involved with civil affairs.
William Federer writes on page 165 & 166, in his book, Silence Equals Consent, “In New England, instead of separation of church and state, it was pastors and their ‘covenant’ congregations that created the state! …The principles..which went into the Declaration of Independence..are found in…the sermons..of the early colonial clergy who were earnestly undertaking to instruct their congregations in the great mystery of how to live.”
“On March 23, 1775, John Peter Muhlenberg heard Patrick Henry’s ‘Give me liberty or give me death’ speech. He was deeply inspired and approached General George Washington and offered to help. Washington appointed him as a colonel and told him to go get his men. On January 21, 1776, thirty-year-old Pastor John Peter Muhlenberg preached from the Book of Ecclesiastes 3:1 (RSV):
“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven…a time of war, and a time of peace..”
In the language of 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.
At the end of his sermon, he took off his black clerical robe to reveal his officer’s uniform in the continental army. He had an altar call and 162 men came forward. Outside the church, drums rolled. Together with 138 men from surrounding churches, the men kissed their wives goodbye and rode off to reopen the 8th Virginia Regiment. Muhlenberg fought in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth and Yorktown. He was promoted to major general. After the Revolutionary War, he was elected to the first session of the U.S. Congress, then elected as a U.S. Senator.” (p.210-211, Silence Equals Consent, by William J. Federer)
Sometime during the war John Peter’s brother Fredrick wrote to him, rebuking him for being a preacher that’s fighting, stating “that you can’t serve two masters.” Later that year Fredrick watched the British burn down his church in New York. He fled along with his wife and children. He seemed to have a change of heart. He became active in the revolution as well.
The Puritans versus Pietists
What side of the aisle do you fall? In Germany the Pietists believed that their relationship with Jesus was personal only. They were great evangelicals, but they rejected any political involvement whatsoever. They believed there’s the Kingdom of God, and the Kingdom of the world, and never the twain should meet. To be truly spiritual one had to be completely separate from this temporal world. It was a “whatever will be will be.” They had a “laissez-faire” mind set. This was in stark contrast to what was happening in America at that time. “In America, Pilgrims, Puritans, Baptists, Dutch Reformed, Congregationalists, followed by Presbyterians, Quakers and others, ran both their churches and their colonial governments bottom-up, with citizen-believers being involved in both church and state.” (p.216, Silence Equals Consent, by William J. Federer)
In light of the above, I couldn’t help but think of the lack of response of the German church during the Holocaust. According to accounts from some individuals who lived in Germany during the Holocaust, there was a German church that was located close to the train tracks. It is said that when they heard Jews cry out for help coming from the train that was taking them to the concentration camps, they would sing louder to try and drown out their pleas for help. One person wrote, “week after week, that train whistle would blow. We would dread to hear the sound of those wheels because we knew that the Jews would begin to cry out to us as they passed by our church. It was so terribly disturbing! We could do nothing to help these poor miserable people, yet their screams tormented us. We knew exactly what time the whistle would blow and we decided the only way to keep from being disturbed by their cries was to start singing our hymns. By the time the train rumbled by the churchyard, we were signing at the top of our voices. If some of the screams reached our ears, we’d just sing louder until we could hear them no more.”
Look, I’m not saying that we all need to be Christain Zealots and run for political office, but what I am saying is we shouldn’t be complete pacifists either. We are both Christians and U.S. citizens. The great Apostle Paul was both a Christian and a Roman citizen. At a crucial time in his life he invoked that latter. (see Acts 22:25) Presently, with the influx of the flood of evil that seeks to infiltrate schools, government and church, divide our families, nullify our laws, wreak havoc on our economic system, vilify America, and enslave us to the type of governmental bondage we were freed from; we need to fight back! Only this time we’re not fleeing to start a new country. There’s simply nowhere else to go! How about if we stay and fight for the one we have? Ben Franklin replied to a woman who asked him what type of government we have? He answered, “A republic madam, if you can keep it.”
The very same reasons that compelled the Pilgrims to come to America should be the very same reasons we stay and fight to keep her. Indubitably, we should be involved in governmental affairs! Anything less would be an abdication of the stewardship God has given us as U.S. citizens. Our Christianity does not negate our citizenship. The two aren’t mutually exclusive. Let’s keep the Pilgrims’ progress going and continue to be free!