Should Pastors Be Political? The Black Robe Regiment

Lance: I got something really important I want to talk about right now, and it’s going to be the patriots that are rising up and the clergy that are rising up. There’s a move of God happening in churches. I don’t want to beat up on the church. The church is God‘s bride. What I want to talk to is the leadership in the church has got to wake up and realize you have a stewardship and a responsibility to guide your people in the choices they need to make that will make the world safe for them. We have a man I’m interviewing in this segment who is something called the Black Road Regiment. 

Well, actually this was a term that the British used during the revolutionary war that described the clergy that’s prompted people to enlist for spiritual reasons in the revolution because there was this idea that the king was suppressing their freedom. And I’ve got this wonderful section coming up right now with our guest William Cook who has like 26 States. Where pastors are now part of a local communities where they’re in the political jurisdiction, they’re asserting their own vital leadership and influence over their churches to have an influence within the territory that they’re in.

These are the patriots and I haven’t talked a lot lately about the patriot food supply thing. I want to bring that up now because it made me think about it. Don’t get too comfortable with the supply chain food situation that we’ve got currently. Because I’m really concerned that we are so dependent upon the stability of certain systems that if those systems should collapse or be disrupted. What are you going to do for food? If you’re living with just a weeks’ worth of food or 2 weeks’ worth of food in your house, what happens if suddenly it’s interrupted? What are you going to do 30 days from now? What are you going to do three weeks from now?

By the way, you got children. They’re not thinking about the future. You got to think about the future for them. Annabelle and I are constantly stocking up a little bit because we’ve got a family that we’re still thinking they don’t think about this they think the world’s going to go on like it always has. But we know shaking is coming. I want you to go to “Lancewallnau.com/Patriot”and make the decision to stock up on a 30–day supply. Don’t tell me, well, it’s expensive. Listen,you’re going to go into the Christmas holidays. You’re going to go into the Thanksgiving holidays. People are going to spend money on something. Please, peace of mind has a price. Get a 30-day supply of food for yourself and a 30-day supply of food for your extended family and friends. Because you just might find yourself needing it.

In Florida, where they had that hurricane, they instantly had to take care of themselves. Their food supply was interrupted. It doesn’t have to be a national shaking; it could just be a regional one. Happened to us last year in the winter and it shocked the daylights out of us because it was cold weather in hot Dallas that suddenly took us out for a week or two.“Lancewallnau.com/Patriot”. Do yourself a favor, do me a favor. Go there and get yourself a 30-day food supply. Do it now and let’s get into the program.

One of the hot subjects that we’re going to be dealing with on an increasing basis in trade is going to be the role of Christianity and politics we have an awful lot of nervous clergies out there who are worried about oh overstepping the bounds of, I don’t know whatever the boundaries are that are between church and State, and that we really should be involved with politics. I mean, I’m really hearing some nutty stuff but I’ve got a special guest on Reverend Bill Cook, Bill William Cook. He has been not only a minister but he spent a considerable amount of time over a decade working in Boeing and in Booze Allen for government projects such as the CIA and the Department of Homeland Security and Science and Technology Divisions and testing systems. So, you guys have government contract work.

Thanks for joining us, Bill, but what really interest me is that in 2012, you started, you heard a conversation on Glenn Beck with David Barton. It stirred something in you that entrepreneurially I’d say maybe the spirit stood it up and that is that whatever happened to the pastors during the founding of the United States that were illiterate and informed and engaged in the shaping of our revolution to establish our country and our unique values. There was a group that was called the Black Robe Regiment, but I’ll let you tell the story because you’re the founder of the Black Robe Regiment. I want to hear what you’re doing and who are the people that you’re mobilizing?

Bill William Cook: Well, the term Black Regiment was the name that some of the British leaders gave to the American clergy. It was a derogatory reference to the black robes that they wore when they preached, they were full-length Cambridge gowns. So, the British regarded the clergy as responsible for the rebel, what they call the rebellion what we call the war for independence. They were right, the clergy were principally responsible for the rebellion what we call the American Revolution, we also call that. The clergy had made the political worldview in the founding charters just through their preaching. They had made the concepts in the founding charters in the Declaration of Independence in many ways.

They’d made those ideas ubiquitous by the time the American Revolution began, so that Jefferson even said he didn’t have to refer to any outside source in writing the Declaration of Independence. He just sat down and wrote it because the ideas were well known. The clergy had made them well known among the people. There’re probably a few people that ridden the Declaration of Independence. Maybe not with the elegance of Jefferson’s quill, but nonetheless the people knew those ideas. So, when the war began the people were fully ready for it and the clergy blamed the pastors for that. As one writer said, independent…

Lance: No, the clergy blame, but you mean the British blame, the clergy for that.

Bill William Cook: I meant the British, right.

Lance: Yeah.

Bill William Cook: The British.

Lance: Because this is news to me, look I’m getting my journal out. This is a sign that I’m a good interview when I start to write down stuff and I’m learning stuff for the people I’m interviewing.So, I did not know and of course we had David Barton great historian, Glenn Beck stirs up people the way he talks. But Barton, is this your source that Barton says that the British felt that the American clergy were primary forces behind the rebellion and that they were stirring it up?

Bill William Cook: They were considered by the British to be chief agitators of the rebellion.

Lance: Chief agitator.

Bill William Cook: The Presbyterians in particular were very involved and the Presbyterian ministers. In fact, Harris Walpole British parliamentarian when he was commenting about the American War for Independence and the rebellion of the colony said to his colleagues there’s no use in crying about the matter Cousin America’s run off with the Presbyterian Parson speaking of Whitfield, George Whitfield.

Lance: Okay. So, Whitfield was before the revolutionary war. But he certainly divided the church away from the Church of England and a lot of the church influence. So, the black robe regiment really was the British description of what they saw as the clergy mobilized patriots. Is that it? Or was it the clergy themselves?

Bill William Cook: Yeah, in fact one of the most interesting stories of the American Revolution has to do with a pastor in Lexington named Jonas Clark. He was the pastor of the Church of Christ in Lexington and the night that Paul Revere galloped into town to notify the people of Lexington that the British were coming by land. He went to the parsonage of Jonas Clark. He knocked on the door about midnight and Clark answered and staying with Clark that night were John Hancock and Samuel Adams who came down who awoke when the household was woken up by Clark, by Revere. When they heard the news that the British were coming and oh by the way, the British had orders not to return from this mission without Hancock and Adams, Sam Adams in stocks. So, when he reported that news, one of the two future founding fathers turned to Jonas Clark, the pastor and said, “Sir, will your people fight”? And the pastor responded, “I have prepared them for this very hour”. And indeed, he had because Jonas Clark had actually helped to train the militia in Lexington, the people we call the Minutemen.

Clark was probably considered the most powerful politician in the region of Lexington and Concord. He’d written all the significant state papers for government for that region and the clergy of that era were really statesmen. They understood the foundations of and the principles that make for freedom and they were very vocal about it.

Lance: Wow. Wow. Wow. And I feel always as though I’m rediscovering something which I wasn’t taught in which I’d learned earlier. Because certainly Thomas Payne and these writers they didn’t have media. They didn’t have YouTube, right. So, they would read pamphlets. So, they were a far more literate society than we are today by percentage of people that could read, the town Hall was the church. The church and the town hall were the two places where the community congregated. That’s where we get the word congregation and so current events were really tied into the pulpit and in a sense God‘s perspective was constantly infused in the culture of the conversation and it shaped those documents. Aren’t you a little bit surprised that there’s such a backlash against the very idea that Christianity is part of the American culture and it’s a founding?

I mean, I listen to people who are aghast at the idea that Christian influences ever shaped America and they want to separate the Bible from the founding. But I think that there’s more evidence that this was a biblically literate group of founders than there is that they were heathen.

Bill William Cook: Yeah, I agree. America, if you look at this from the perspective of a biblical worldview. The principles of liberty and the principles in the Bible. You have to believe that one of the principles of scripture is that there’s two kinds of people in the world since the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There’re the children of disobedience that is those who are born of first Adam,who are born dead because they’re born of Adam who sinned. And then there’s the children of God who are born again or degenerate. The scripture tells us, children of disobedience are their actions and motives are governed by the prince of the power of the air who comes to steal, kill, and destroy.

The children of God are governed, they’re also called the children of light. It’s my belief that only the children of God. Only those who are born of God are capable of understanding what liberty really means and doing what is necessary to secure it. So, America not have been founded by as anything other than a predominantly Christian nation. In fact, I would say America would have been possible before the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the new birth because unbelievers could not have founded this nation.

Lance: Right. Okay. So, the real quick. How many, so you’re doing these chapters now. You’re getting black robe regiments around the country which is really pastors and in every political jurisdiction of America joined together. So how many members, how many clergy do you have that are rising up with this nostalgic rekindling of the role of clergy in in the in the pulpit of the revolution?

Bill William Cook: I don’t know exactly how many, but we are now in, I’d say we’re now in about 26 States and we’re pursuing a vision of having a chapter within every State by the year 2024. And beyond that, we want this organization to establish chapters all the way down to the precinct level in school districts, in counties. Because the church has got to be at the forefront of government. If we’re not, we’re not going to have liberty and so that’s what we’re striving for and we’re starting to see chapters rise and we just did a webinar yesterday calling Pastor’s Huddles. We had leaders from four different states that we’re reporting in. It was North Dakota of all places, New Hampshire, Michigan, and we have one now in Maryland, and North Carolina.

Lance: Wow.

Bill William Cook: In other States.

Lance: Well, Bill Cook, how do they get in touch with you? How do they stay in touch with you? Give us some contact information so that we can know more about what’s going on.

Bill William Cook: Sure. The best email to reach me at is BlackRobeRev@Leader.com and they can go to our website at “ABRR.US”. One thing I would point people to is the Gideon’s 300 pledge that’s up on our website. We’re asking pastors to sign that virtually which is a pledge to do the things that are necessary to secure the blessings of liberty in this country. We can go on about that for a while, but we just had over 150 pastors sign that in Virginia Beach at the Gideon’s 300 some that we did down there. So, that’s another thing they can find.

Lance: Wow, that’s pretty powerful. I’ll tell you what, I do want to talk to you about that. We’re going to have you back on again. So, Bill Cook, thank you so much. Make sure you sign up folks on what’s going on with this Black Robe Regiment. I think that it’s going to require a lot of pastors to catch the vision of how to lead in culture and to break the fear of engaging culture. I mean, it’s amazing what we’re up against in America. We developed a coward spine rather than leaders in event and that’s got to change. Bill Cook, you’re doing the right stuff and I want to talk to you while we take a break right now and we’ll be back in a second. God bless.

Lance: I only want to give my business to you. I don’t want to give it to a Woke corporation. I don’t want to give it to some big guy that’s going to be using my money against me. That day is over folks. You can now go to Public Square. Go to “Lancewallnau.com/PublicSquare” and find the businesses that are patriot businesses that are faith-filled businesses and put your business on the map so we can start doing business with you. “Lancewallnau.com/PublicSquare”.

Lance: Welcome back. I have something I want to share with you. After I got done with the interview with William Cook. I went over to his website because I wanted to see this thing, he’s got which is a Gideon’s pledge. He’s got like 206 states pastors signed up. I did a webinar with a number of them and I thought this is so great to get past patriot pastors together. I mean, there’s a whole bunch of groups talking but get your pastor in a conversation with people that share the values you’re hearing here about, hey man, how to engage culture. Figure out how not to be a coward. Don’t be Woke. Be awake. But they have to talk to other pastors and be in conversation.

So anyway, I looked up to Gideon’s pledge. Write this down. Grab a pen right now. Grab a pen. Grab your phone. Write down “ABRR.US”. That’s I guess, it’s the “American BlackRobeRegimen.us”. “ABRR.US”. And if you want to “/Gideon’sPledge”. They’re looking for 3 00 pastors to be like an army of Gideons. Like when the church is all shut down because of the COVID fright? Looking back on that, what do you think? Do you think you really needed to shut down your church for a year? Think about that. Do you think you really needed for a year and a half to have no church gatherings? Neglect not the assembling of yourselves together as is a habit of some. But O Boy, we bought in hook line and sinker. That if you’re singing in the choir, you’ll spread the virus. That’s what came out of the northwest out of Oregon.

What we found out was a lot of people got COVID but very few people died. A lot of people got it. A small percentage died but we shut down and destroyed our economy and we flooded our ballot boxes with exceptional and unusual pieces of paper for our presidential election. And I look at that and just shake my head and say, maybe we need a pledge that pastors next time aren’t going to just arbitrarily shut down their church when the government says that another Fauci pops out with a white lab robe on and goes, shut down your church. Gideon’s pledge, it’s a Gideon’s 300 says here, understand that liberty is sacred and the gift of God that liberty being sacred is the church’s sacred trust that the church is the light of the world is the sole curator trustee or steward of the society and keeper of the blessings of liberty.

So, they have a certain logic about the role of the church of preserving liberty. And that the temporal wellbeing of your flock is as much your concern as their eternal wellbeing. That makes sense. That the economic and safe conditions of your church, your flock, your family should concern you as much as the gospel. Did Jesus heal the sick and cast out demons? Most of his ministry was spent on the temporal affairs of the suffering.

So anyway, he’s got a pledge, made up of like 6 points. “I’m no longer going to divorce my role as pastor from matters that have a direct bearing on my people’s welfare. I will preach the whole Council of God with a one election sermon prior to every election. I’m going to give a biblical world into my flock. I’m going to make sure that my flock is voting in every election. I’m going to provide ample opportunities for every member of voting age to register. And I’m going to partner with other pastors in my local community to maintain a culture of liberty within the local church within our own community”. So, help me God. A reasonable pledge. Just 6 points. I think any reasonable pastor should be able to do that. That’s the equivalent a Black Robe Regiment for today. The Black Robe Regiment now.

Remember what the founding fathers did. These wealthy merchants, this is what I do. I get the business guys together. And I want them to pledge their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. To securing liberty. And to honoring God in culture. And I think we’ve got a new generation that’s rising up. Oh, I know there’s some pastors that won’t listen to you if you’re not a tithing committed member so don’t go annoying them with your Gideon’s pledge if you’re not committed to them. But brother and sister if you’re a businessman or a woman, if you’re a tither, if you’re a giver, if you’re somebody that’s an intercessor who your pastor respects, you have a relationship with him, his wife, his family, send this to him and let him know that this is a legitimate fellowship of pastors that are learning more about how to stand together, stand strong.

We have every month and I’m on a couple of them. We do these webinars. We do these private calls. People ask questions. I give them answers. You don’t want to miss it and by the away. You also don’t want to miss. “Lancewallnau.com/TalkingTrump”.

Trump Voice: From this day forward. It’s going to be only America first.

Lance: I miss that guy so much. He annoys people. It’s like dear Lord. It’s like holy water to someone that needs an exorcism. He just talks and people start manifesting but I think he’s the tonic we need. Go to “Lancewallnau.com/TalkingTrump”. It’s made great Christmas gifts. Alright, I love you all. See you again in the next episode.

Closing: Did you enjoy this latest episode? Please remember to share it with your friends.Because the more knowledge you have, the better equipped you are to navigate the world.