If you have read this website for long, you know that I am from the Boston area and love to go back there each year to re-explore my Christian American heritage. My first church used to meet a block away from the Old North Church and the Paul Revere Statue. In fact, our next video will be called: Puritan Storm Rising! It will be a primer on how Reformed Theology shaped the politics and culture of our civilization.

I was surprised to hear how much the liberal press mocked Sarah Palin’s comment on Paul Revere warning the British (instead of warning Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them). Her remark may have been based in part on the fact that when he was captured, Revere warned the Redcoats that hundreds of Patriots would be showing up at any minute.

Remember the Minutemen?

She may have garbled that idea as she spoke off the cuff, but how many people know that? The only people who know things like that these days are those who study America’s Christian Heritage and professional historians.

She also related the “ride” to the Second Amendment, which sounded kind of clumsy because she threw in a few mixed metaphors. Paul Revere didn’t literally ring any bells or fire any shots. But in fact, his job as a bell ringer at Christ Church (the Old North Church) gave him access to the bell tower from where he hung two lanterns warning that the British were coming by sea. She knew Paul Revere was a “bell ringer.”

Did you know that?

Another important principle is there. The British were coming to arrest Adams and Hancock and to seize ammunition and gun powder. This is what sparked the war. Revere didn’t ride to warn the colonists that a war was coming. He was trying to warn the colonists about impending gun control.

It’s interesting that Sarah turned it around to be a declaration to the British that they were not going to do that. She was not literally accurate, but it’s not hard to see she was turning it around for a purpose.

And they mock her for doing that!

I thought it was a clever turn. It has everyone talking about Paul Revere and what his ride was really all about. Some in the lamestream media have even stupidly mentioned we didn’t have the Second Amendment yet. I read that again today in the Christian Science Monitor. Of course the Constitution wasn’t written yet, but Americans had the right to bear arms under English Bill of Rights of 1688.

Americans had the right to bear arms. The British tried to take this right away. And that is one reason why our War for Independence was fought. So kudos to Sarah for making Paul Revere’s Ride into a Second Amendment issue.

For more information, see The Boston Awakening