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John Witherspoon |
Another glimpse of John Witherspoon
[3-31-06]An old friend and frequent visitor to
this website, the Rev. John Mann, is now serving as a Church of Scotland
pastor in Glasgow.
He
recently visited Paisley Cathedral in Glasgow, where a plaque commemorates
the life of Witherspoon.
He adds, "I find that the words inscribed on the
memorial that were spoken by him so many years ago to be particularly
timely in our current social and political climate."
Witherspoon's words (in case it's a bit hard to read
them):
If your cause is just, you may look with
confidence to the Lord, and entreat him to plead it as his own.
These words were also cited
by former Stated Clerk William P. Thompson, when he spoke about
John Witherspoon at the Witherspoon Society luncheon during the
206th General Assembly.
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How
John Witherspoon made his mark [10-1-02]
Rod Martin, former president of the Witherspoon
Society, sends this send about the Presbyterian minister and signer of
the Declaration of Independence, from whom our group takes its name.
Doug.....
Have just run across an interesting book (WS member
Jeanne Welles sent me a copy of a review from the NYTimes Review of
Books) entitled, How the Scots Invented the Modern World
by Arthur Herman. (Crown 392pp., $25,95.)
A quote from the review: "...He makes much of the
work of John Witherspoon, the minister...who became president of
Princeton Seminary in 1768. During his twenty-six year tenure, he
numbered among his students a future President of the United States
(Madison), a vice-president (aaron Burr), six members of the Continental
Congress, nine cabinet officers, twenty-one senators, thirty-nine
congressmen, three Supreme Court Justices, twelve governors,
thirty-three state and federal judges and thirteen college presidents.
Witherspoon exposed all of them to the Scottish Enlightenment. James
Madison in particular fell under the influence of David Hume ...whose
ideas are apparent in the tenth of the Federalist Papers, the key to the
new constitution, in which Madison argued that countervailing public
interests, federal, state, executive, legislative, economic -- would
guarantee private liberty...."
Arthur Herman is a former professor of History at
Georgetown University.
Thought this might be of some interest to the
Witherspoon members and friends.
Kindest personal regards.
Rod Martin |
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| John Witherspoon in (stained)
glass
Witherspoon member Mitch Trigger, co-pastor of
First Presbyterian Church, Binghamton, NY, sent us the picture
from a window in the church’s chapel, which depicts great
leaders in the church.
He notes that "Calvin is, of course, the
central and largest figure, with Luther
and Knox on his left, and Mackemie and Witherspoon on the
right."
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At the 206th General Assembly
in Wichita, in 1994, Dr. William P. Thompson received the annual
Witherspoon Society Andrew Murray Award, in honor of his years of
service to the Presbyterian Church as Stated Clerk and as Moderator.
In responding to the award, Dr. Thompson reflected on
the Rev. John Witherspoon, the pastor and signer of the Declaration of
Independence from whom the Society takes its name.
Since a number of visitors to this web site have
expressed interest in his life, we are happy of offer Dr. Thompson's
remarks here, reprinted from the Summer 1994 issue of Network News.
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The Witherspoon Society and the
Presbyterian Debacle
by William P Thompson, former Stated Clerk of the
Presbyterian Church (USA)
When you invited me to speak today, I thought of the
man whose name you have chosen to include in the name of your society.
For seventeen years my wife and I lived in John
Witherspoon's town - Princeton, New Jersey. It is dominated by the
University that has grown from the College of New Jersey that
Witherspoon served as president. We were members of the Presbyterian
Church of which he was pastor, while at the same time he was heading
that neighboring educational institution. His home, Tusculum, is just
outside Princeton Borough, and the town fathers debate from time to time
what should be done with it.
But even in Princeton, little is said about the man
himself. I have recently learned that Witherspoon was born in 1723 in
Yester, Scotland, a son of the manse. He learned to read at the age of
4, attended Haddington grammar school, and entered the University of
Edinburgh at 13. Granted the Master of Arts degree 3 years later, he
remained at the University for several more years studying theology.
Ordained at 22, he served the church at Beith as its pastor for 12
years, and subsequently at Paisley for 11. His fame as a preacher and
leader of the Kirk led the board of the College of New Jersey in 1766 to
invite him to become its sixth president. He declined, it is said,
because his wife did not wish to move to the colonies.
The college board did not give up, and sent Benjamin
Rush to Paisley to renew the invitation. This time Witherspoon accepted.
He assumed the presidency of the college in 1768. In the colonies he
became a leader not only in the church but also in the struggle for
liberty from the British crown. He was a member of the Continental
Congress, and of course he was the only clergyman to sign the
Declaration of Independence. Later he was the convening Moderator of the
first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church when it met in 1789.
Even before independence his activities became well
known in Britain, where a member of Parliament remarked, "Our
American cousin has gone off with a Presbyterian parson." Jonathan
ODell, a Tory, wrote of Witherspoon,
Fierce as the fiercest, foremost of the first,
He'd rail at kings, with venom well-nigh burst.
But in the colonies the impression of Witherspoon,
widely held, was quite different.
On May 17, 1776, in the Princeton church he preached
his first sermon on the subject of the struggle against Britain. It was
the day appointed by the Congress as a "General Fast." His
sermon began,
If your cause is just, you may look with confidence
to the Lord, and entreat him to plead it as his own. ... There is not
a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and
religious liberty preserved entire If, therefore, we yield up our
temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into
bondage.
In that sermon he emphasized the virtues that are also
well known to us. "orderliness, industry, thrift. and obedience to
God in a time of crisis." In my judgment, the situation today in society and in
this church must properly be characterized as a "time of
crisis." Public issues are seldom discussed on their merits.
Instead of orderly public discourse, the protagonists resort to
name-calling and defamation of their opponents character. To my ear, the
most raucous participants today are from the "radical right."
And, unfortunately, religious figures are not immune to their methods.
The Rev. Jerry Falwell is even now selling for $43.00 a video-tape of
almost 2 hours duration, containing charges, among others, that
President Bill Clinton is involved in a number of murders. The tape also
includes charges that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been engaged in sexual
improprieties. On the CNN "Crossfire" program Falwell said,
"I am making no charges whatsoever ... Were simply saying these
charges are being made. Look at them and determine what is true."
He admitted that he has no independent evidence to corroborate them.
Michael Freeman, director of research of People for the American Way,
asserts that 'As far as I can tell, there's not a shred of documentation
to what he's saying." Yet Falwell's spokesman claims that "many
thousands" of the tapes have been sold.
The "radical right" has learned well the
truism that if a statement is repeated frequently enough, many hearers
will believe it sooner or later. It does not matter whether the
statement is true or false.
As in the public forum, so too the "radical
right" is present among us in the church today. In the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) it is represented by The Presbyterian Layman
and its collaborator, The Institute for Religion and Democracy. These
bodies resort to outright falsehood, if necessary, but prefer half truth
and innuendo
They are presently blaring their nefarious spin on the
Re-Imagining Conference held in Minneapolis some seven months ago. Their
efforts have been so emotionally charged that some churches are
withholding funds from the national entities of our church- The main
target of the Layman, Mary Ann Lundy, a member of the staff of
the General Assembly Council, has resigned. The announcement of her
departure said, "Circumstances have made her goal of effective
service to the church unattainable." This, despite the fact that
the General Assembly Council has refused to fire her. Indeed, it had
refused even to review her performance. If, as anticipated, the national
programs of the church sustain the decreases in support of as much as
$2.5 million by the end of 1995, the "radical right" will have
landed damaging blows to the church they purport to serve.
This furor is but the most recent tremor along what
Stated Clerk Jim Andrews has recently described as "the fault line
in American Presbyterianism," which he stated "has become
increasingly clear in recent months, and increasingly unstable." He
continued, "We are faced with the possibility of an upheaval that
will be at least damaging, and possibly create permanent change in the
Presbyterian Church." |
| This
date has been corrected thanks to a note from Beatrice Beck of
Claremont, CA. As a great granddaughter of John Witherspoon, she
pays attention to these things, and knows the facts. Thanks!! |
For more information on John Witherspoon, from no less
a source than Princeton University,
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A major
Ghost Ranch event this summer!
July 28 - August 3, 2008
Paths toward Peace and Justice:
Spirituality, Earth-Care, and the Prophetic Word in a time of
Violence
More info >> |
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An index of
our reports
from
BECOMING NEIGHBORS:
An Invitation
to Global Discipleship
A Witherspoon conference
on global mission and justice
September 16 - 19, 2007
Louisville, Kentucky |
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Check out our report from the
Conference
on
Terror, Torture,
and Security |
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