John Witherspoon

Sometimes it can seem like the world is going to hell in a hand basket. And right now, with the 2008 presidential election approaching, the economy is in shambles, the world is at war, and our politicians are more divided than ever. At this point, it might be all too easy to sink back in apathetic cynicism and just dismiss the whole thing as futile.

But with remarkable poignancy, our Presbyterian ancestors are speaking to us with their lives. And they are speaking loudly. This time we look back 200 years to the founding of this country. The man we see is John Witherspoon. He was a Presbyterian Clergyman as well as an extremely influential founding father. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and in fact, the only clergyman to have signed. That’s incredible and is a great expression of Presbyterian action. We Presbyterians have never been the kind of people to sit back and let other people fix the problem. We are active people who seek to do God’s will in our own areas of influence.  

And it was not just John Witherspoon who was influential in early American politics. There were so many Presbyterians who were involved in, and leaders of, the American Revolution that King George III even referred to it as a “Presbyterian rebellion.” And the English Prime Minister Horace Walpole noted to Parliament that, "Cousin America has run off with a Presbyterian parson" (‘parson’ is an old term for minister, and that is a reference to none other than Witherspoon).  
So when we go out to the polls in the next few days, let us go remembering that we follow in a very long line of passionate and powerful ancestors that were politically active … for the betterment of the world. Let us as college students seek to be just as effectively useful in this age as they were in theirs (knowing we can change the world, just as they did).  

A taste of Witherspoon’s writing:  "Shall we establish nothing good because we know it cannot be eternal? Shall we live without government because every constitution has its old age and its period? Because we know that we shall die, shall we take no pains to preserve or lengthen our life? Far from it, Sir: it only requires the more watchful attention to settle government upon the best principles and in the wisest manner that it may last as long as the nature of things will admit."