I Cannot Tell A Lie. I Did Cut It With My Little Hatchet.
Monday, March 5, 2012 at 6:55AM 
Stacy and I are going through Early American history. I appreciate the curriculum we are using as it is less dogmatic than one would expect from conservative Christians. This curriculum is “Sonlight.”
Do we remember the stories, the hagiography (“a worshipful or idealizing biography”) we were told as children? How George Washington cut down his family's cherry tree? Do you remember his response? "I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet.'' An early biographer, Mason Weems, just invented the story. Nor did Washington throw a silver dollar one mile across the Potomac.
Patrick Henry may not have said, "Give me liberty, or give me death." It is possible, I would say even likely, that a biographer invented that catchy slogan. But my purpose here is not to rehash the lies we learned as Americans in school, no more true than Paul Bunyan, or John Henry "was a steel driving man." My purpose is to ask the question: "Was the American Revolution justified in light of Romans 13?"
The French and Indian Wars were pivotal in the background of the American Revolution. The continental European rivalries were transplanted to the new world. In addition was the question of who would control the potentially fecund Ohio Valley? The French were allied with the Indians, who controlled this region. The "Americans" were still subject to the English Crown. England won the war. Since the Englishmen who lived in American colonies were the primary recipients of all this land, and protection from the Indians, it seemed reasonable and just that the colonies pay their fair share. The colonists did not agree.
Remember what Romans 13 said?
6-7That's also why you pay taxes—so that an orderly way of life can be maintained. Fulfill your obligations as a citizen. Pay your taxes, pay your bills, respect your leaders.
I do not look upon this as an absolute—yes, there are times that excess taxes are a cause for revolt. But it must be remembered that Paul’s advice here was to obey the Roman Empire. Rome was an almost absolute monarchy where the traditional Senate, while retaining some powers, was not in charge anymore. Yet Paul told us to pay our taxes.
In the case of Rome, there was no representation, yet Paul expected his readers to pay their taxes. Were the taxes that England imposed outrageous?
Adopting the policy that the colonies should pay a token proportion of the costs associated with defending them, Britain imposed a series of direct taxes followed by other laws intended to demonstrate British authority, all of which proved extremely unpopular in America despite the level of taxation being only 1/26 that paid by British taxpayers.
What was the real unspoken reason for the Revolution? The Indians had land and the colonists want it:
The British sought to maintain peaceful relations with those Indian tribes that had allied with the French, and keep them separated from the American frontiersmen. To this end, the Royal Proclamation of 1763 restricted settlement west of the Appalachian Mountains as this was designated an Indian Reserve. Disregarding the proclamation, some groups of settlers continued to move west and establish farms.
As John Wayne said, "We needed the land and the Indians were selfish."
The slogan, “taxation without representation is tyranny,” was just a propaganda piece. The leaders of the rebellion did not want representation in Parliament. They wanted independence. One of the fears of the leadership of the rebellion was that representation would have been offered to the colonists!
While I said recently that the Texas Revolution was justified, I cannot say the same for the American Revolution based on Romans 13. The average American just replaced one master for another. They could not vote unless they were well-to-do.
The point of this is simple: do not believe what you are told by the media. It does not matter if it is Fox, or the newspapers of 1776. Instead look for the money. Look to see who financially benefits. They are the ones to watch. Look behind the scenes—they do not hide all that well. You can see them if you look. I suggest you look.
Bible, Propaganda, War 
Reader Comments (3)
In the case of looking for the money, does that apply to churches as well?
Eddie H. Nessul
Amboy, CA
(Read Names Backwards!)
Are you the media? :) After your comment about Patrick Henry, I had to check the footnotes of a biography I recently read. According to which... There is no transcript of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty... etc." speech. It was extrapolated from the recollections of several eyewitnesses to the speech. Including Thomas Jefferson, who objected to not a word of the reconstruction of the speech by William Wirt, the biographer to whom you seem to refer. So, I tend to believe Henry actually said this. He was after all well known for his fiery and theatrical rhetoric and delivery, and proclaimed by many to have been the finest, most effective public speaker of the day.
Here is what the Wiki on Wirt says:
Some historians have since speculated that some of Henry's phrases that have since become famous, such as "Give me Liberty, or give me Death!," were fabricated by Wirt for this book and even contemporary Thomas Jefferson shelved his copy of the biography under fiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wirt_(Attorney_General)
Note that the quote was doubted right from the begining.
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/4248338?uid=3739560&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=55862277013
I have no idea if he said it or not. I lean against.