A Forgotten HERO From The American Revolution

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]That is a vile lie from the pit of hell that you have to choose between faith and reason. That is a lie.

[00:00:07]Faith points you to reason. Reason points you to faith. So, this idea [clears throat] that I've I've got to pick one is complete nonsense. And in my research for my book, I mean the Enlightenment sharpened the theology of the Christians in America. Joe, you and I right now um are working on something very similar. You uh have made this documentary. I want you to tell my audience about it. All about Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the great heroes of the American Revolution.

[00:00:38]I don't deal with Rush very much in my book. I mention him here and there in the quotes, but you you tell the story.

[00:00:45]So, let let's start at the beginning. Um what is this documentary? What led you to make a documentary about Benjamin Rush?

[00:00:53]>> Yes, I think like you, Eric, we you we wanted to contribute to this cultural moment of honoring America's 250th. You and I both aware that a lot of people are going to get it wrong, and we wanted to try to get it right. I came across a biography of Dr. Benjamin Rush, and I realized this founder is among the most extraordinary of American founders, and most Americans have never heard of him. Because think about In summary, he signs the Declaration of Independence. He's the chief surgeon in Washington's Continental Army.

[00:01:25]He is a pioneer in the field of psychiatry. He's an abolitionist. And he's a man of Christian faith. He's just a remarkable character. He knows everybody. He's the ultimate insider in the revolutionary era.

[00:01:38]>> Well, I mean, that's why I quote him quite a bit in in my book. I don't really get into him very much, but he knew everyone. He was close to everyone.

[00:01:45]And I think you understated his you know, as you say he's a he's a Christian. Many of them most of them were Christians. He was a particularly serious, devout Christian.

[00:01:59]>> yes he was.

[00:02:00]>> for his Christian faith. He was a great man of Christian faith. And I think that's one of the reasons that history pushes him away because you've got all these enlightenment people that they kind of like it makes them uncomfortable. They'd rather talk about Jefferson or somebody. They don't They don't like these outspoken Christians and of course it's the uh well, it's the unstated thesis of my book that you without these Christians, you got nothing. You're not going to have a revolution. But he to me is at the center of it. So, how did you discover Dr. Benjamin Rush? What what was the first way in for you that you said, "I think I want to talk about him.

[00:02:39]I want to make a documentary about him."

[00:02:41]>> Yeah, I think it was coming across a couple of different biographies and realizing that there's gold here with Benjamin Rush. And to your point, the historiography, the you know, the modern historians, the 20th century historians, they love to gravitate toward a Jefferson or a Franklin because they're perceived as very secular, very enlightened guys. Why focus on Benjamin Rush, a leader in the American Bible Society for example, founder of the Sunday School movement? It's He just raises too many uncomfortable questions, I think, for the militantly secular historians in our ranks. But you really can't tell the story of the American Revolution, as you know, without telling the story of Christianity because these different streams are so interconnected.

[00:03:24]Evangelical Christianity, republicanism, right? Separation of powers, religious liberty, these streams are all coming together in the American founding, aren't they, Eric?

[00:03:36]>> Well, you know, you and I have talked about this. It is, to my mind, astonishing how clear this is. This is not some interpretation. It's just clear. But there are people that are uncomfortable with it, the secularists, the leftists. They're very uncomfortable with this. Uh and and a lot of conservative secularists that they pretend like I can ignore this. It was all about the Enlightenment or Montesquieu or whatever. They just they don't It just makes them uncomfortable.

[00:04:03]And so it's by omission they kind of ignore this stuff and they push anybody that's perceived as being a deist or whatever. I mean, the way they pushed Thomas Jefferson, I I am amazed, Joe, at they practically make it sound like he wrote the Declaration of Independence in the sense that he he came up with it. And I think he came up with nothing. He wrote it. He You know, it's like somebody says, "I got all these ideas." And I took off the ideas and he's a Can you Can you put them on a piece of paper? It's like, "Got it." And then, you know, you you you write up what you just heard. He didn't come up with any of this stuff himself. None of it. None of it. No None of it. But they act like like Nobody really knew what they believed and they turned to Jefferson and Jefferson kind of came up with these great ideas. We hold these truths to be self-evident. I mean, that wasn't even his phrase. That was Ben Franklin's phrase.

[00:04:59]And I feel like that's part of the subtext of of the history of the Revolution is how historians have really pushed this Enlightenment idea Yes. to the exclusion of the faith idea. And so that's one of the reasons that I want to know about about Benjamin Rush. Now, before we get into the subject of Benjamin Rush, >> [snorts] >> uh where does this documentary exist?

[00:05:23]How can people see it? Yes, thank you for asking, my friend. Uh we just did a film screening at the Tribeca Film Center here last week, which was terrific. We have as as a 1-hour now film. It also exists on my YouTube channel in four different episodes. So, we are negotiating with distributors right now where people can see the 1-hour, you know, uninterrupted, ready to to That's That's in negotiations now, but you can see it in four parts on my YouTube channel.

[00:05:49]>> People can watch it on Joe LeConte's YouTube channel. Fantastic. I got to put that up on X or whatever because this is this is just so important. It's so important. But Joe, tell us the story then if you would about Dr. Benjamin Rush. Where was he born?

[00:06:07]What happened?

[00:06:08]>> Yeah.

[00:06:08]>> [laughter] >> I want to reinforce your your earlier point as we get into it here, my friend.

[00:06:13]The secular narrative is that America came to its senses, had its revolution, declared all these natural rights, freedom, et cetera because it became less and less religious. It was these secular enlightenment guys who really gave us all these wonderful ideas. And that narrative is completely false. And Benjamin Rush really embodies the truth of the thing. Because in Benjamin Rush, I have this Yes, he's a man of science.

[00:06:40]He's an enlightenment guy in the American sense, which means absolutely friendly to historic Christianity. So he's he's a thinker, but he's also rooted in the scriptures. Deeply rooted in the scriptures. Go.

[00:06:53]>> What we're really talking about the lie that's been pushed is that you have to choose between faith and reason. That is a vile lie from the pit of hell.

[00:07:04]I know you're not going to say that.

[00:07:05]You're Dr. Joseph LeConte, but I will say that. Ladies and gentlemen, that is a vile lie from the pit of hell that you have to choose between faith and reason.

[00:07:15]That is a lie. Faith points you to reason. Reason points you to faith. So this idea that I've I've got to pick one is complete nonsense. And in my research for my book, I mean the enlightenment sharpened the theology of the Christians in America. It forced them to to to clarify where they were coming from and leads to religious liberty. It's Christian. I mean it's kind of interesting. So the enlightenment critique of religion forced uh American Christians to to really in in a way double down on what is this faith. And at the heart, when you squeeze the Christian faith, >> Yes.

[00:07:57]>> religious liberty comes out of it. It's a It's an amazing paradox. It's beautiful.

[00:08:03]Um and it's so misunderstood. So, that's why it just thrills me, you know, that that you're on this page, that you get this. And we have to reeducate, you know, Americans. Say, "Hey folks, don't don't don't be fooled. Uh you're the faith uh it is not at odds with reason. It really is something that it's going to it's going to take some time to reeducate people about what really happened. But the person of Benjamin Rush >> Yes.

[00:08:29]>> helps us do that. So, >> Yes.

[00:08:32]>> beautiful. Start on, you know, where did he uh Where did he grow? I guess he grew up in Boston.

[00:08:37]>> He's No, he's a native Philadelphian. A native Philadelphian. Goes off Goes off to medical school in in Scotland, but he is a he is a local Philadelphian guy. He will study for a while at the College of New Jersey, now Princeton. He'll have some interactions with the Reverend John Witherspoon, as well, but he is a native Philadelphian, and he's deeply embedded in that community, uh my friend. And I think again back to Rush and his how he embodies the truths you just expressed.

[00:09:03]Reason, revelation give give us the American Revolution. That in my mind is kind of a conceptual trinity, if you will. Reason, revelation, revolution.

[00:09:14]So, what do you have with Rush? Yes, he's a surgeon in Washington's Continental Army.

[00:09:19]And he's deeply concerned about how the how the soldiers are conducting themselves, how they're being treated, the the state of the military hospitals.

[00:09:27]And he will write a manual, a really important manual for physicians, uh and for politicians.

[00:09:33]Here's how we need to raise the standard of health in the military hospitals and there in the field and Washington will take many of his recommendations. We can only guess at how many soldiers lived to fight another day because of Benjamin Rush's recommendations, particularly there at Valley Forge.

[00:09:52]>> Actually, when I did my research on Valley Forge, I was astonished at how many men died. They just died, folks.

[00:10:00]They weren't killed, they just died of disease.

[00:10:11]>> Amen.