Gary Palmer: Revolution from the Pulpits: Patriot Ministers and the War for Independence

  All across the United States, churches will have special services dedicated to Independence Day which falls on a Sunday this year. These services are entirely appropriate because without the influence of the churches in the preceding years, there might not have been a War for Independence. Moreover, the form and function of the Declaration of Independence would have been entirely different.

  The British historian Paul Johnson called the Great Awakening “the proto-revolutionary event, the formative moment in American history, preceding the political drive for independence and making it possible.” He added, “The Revolution could not have taken place without this religious background.”