Atheism

This is concerning. I had never heard of the "Black Robe Regiment" so I ran a Google search to see just how mythological it was...

All of the top results, including the AI summary, talk about it as though it were a real thing. It looks as though theological activists were successful in poisoning the algorithm.

AI Overview:

"The Black Robed Regiment refers to a group of influential, patriotic Protestant clergy during the American Revolution. Named mockingly by the British for their traditional black clerical robes, these pastors actively promoted liberty, preached against tyranny, and sometimes took up arms or led local militias."

Search Result #1:
https://wallbuilders.com/
"The Black Robed Regiment was the name that the British placed on the courageous and patriotic American clergy during the Founding Era (a backhanded reference to the black robes they wore).1 Significantly, the British blamed the Black Regiment for American Independence,2 and rightfully so, for modern historians have documented that:

There is not a right asserted in the Declaration of Independence which had not been discussed by the New England clergy before 1763.3"

Search Result #2:
Reddit /r/revolutionarywar
"Beware of the Black Robe Regiment. During the American Revolution many clergymen were influential in the separation of the British Empire. I portray a clergyman of the Reformed Protestant Dutch of German Flatts in the Mohawk Valley, New York."

Search Result #3:
https://appleseedinfo.org/ "Who was the Black-Robed Regiment?

The Black Robed Regiment was the way the British referred to the American Clergy, a backhanded reference to the black robes they wore. For generations, the ministers had kept alive the doctrines of the seventeenth century and had presented them to their people."

Search Result #4:
Facebook (sigh):

Search Result #5:
Facebook post linking to:
https://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24635
"Question

Did a black-robed regiment really exist during the American Revolution, or was it just a myth?

Answer

The term “Black Robe Regiment” referred not to a literal regiment of soldiers that wore black robes into battle but rather to the influential clergymen who promoted American independence and supported the military struggle against Britain. By encouraging the Patriot cause, those ministers helped muster critical support among members of their congregation—support the British begrudgingly acknowledged as vital to maintaining the colonists' frustrating resistance to British attempts to restore Parliamentary rule."

Search Result #6:
Link to a sermon on PuritainBoard.com

Search Result #7:
https://historum.com/
"Question:

Apparently the 'Britishers' during the American War of Independence, according to Americans today, dubbed this American regiment the Black Robes. My question is why did the British name these soldiers or the clergy attached to them, Black Robes? Did this name have anything to do with Jesuits within the ranks of the Black Robe Regiment? Did the term 'Black Robe or Robes' at the time of the American War of Independence among the British refer to the Jesuits?

Answer:

The term “Black Robe Regiment” referred not to a literal regiment of soldiers that wore black robes into battle but rather to the influential clergymen who promoted American independence and supported the military struggle against Britain.

Try Google. Incidently, these were mostly Congregationalist or Presbyterian clergy. Anglican clergy were paid by the crown, supposed to pray for the royal family every day, and almost all were loyalist. The first Episcopal Bishop, appointed after the Revolution, had been a chaplain in the British loyalist forces.

There weren't many Jesuits. Less than 1% of the population was Roman Catholic, most of those in southern Maryland. There were not that many Baptists and Methodists yet, atleast not formal churches, but those clergy were also strongly pro-patriot."