As we gear up for the holiday season, one cannot help but notice how every year we are confronted with the laments of those who seek to undermine the Christian foundation of long celebrated traditions. The battle over public acknowledgement of Christ continues to increase with severity and malice. It’s bad enough that we have the ACLU running around screaming bloody murder every time someone puts up a Christmas Nativity on public or school property, but now we
're hearing of many private companies and retailers being strong-armed into adopting politically correct policies with regard to what used to be considered one of the most sacred, beloved and publicly celebrated holidays of the year. Folks have become way too complacent with the notion of "happy holidays" and "season's greetings." Christmas trees are now being marketed as "holiday trees!" What used to be called "Christmas vacation" in my skool daze is now referred to as "winter recess." I could spend hours listing all the crazy political correctness I see with regard to Christmas, but that's not what I wish to bring your attention to. My problem has to do with what I see being done to THIS holiday which we celebrate today.
Ever since the day after Halloween, there have been many instances where I've heard folks make reference to the meaning of Thanksgiving as a day we give thanks to family, friends and neighbors (even plants and animals) for all they have done for us throughout the previous year. Ok, so what? It's a pleasant and respectful thing to show your gratitude for all of those good things in your life, right? Alright, but doesn't anyone notice that something appears to be missing here? Try the absence of God from the occasion! Have so many forgotten what the primary objective of Thanksgiving is supposed to be? Well, allow me give you a little history lesson:
The first day of thanks in America was celebrated in Virginia at Cape Henry in 1607, but it was the Pilgrims' three-day feast celebrated in early November of 1621, which we now popularly regard as the "First Thanksgiving." The first real Calvinist Thanksgiving to God in the Plymouth Colony was actually celebrated during the summer of 1623 when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much needed rainfall.
The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England on September 6, 1620. They sailed for a new world with the promise of both civil and religious liberty. For almost three months, 102 seafarers braved harsh elements to arrive off the coast of what is now Massachusetts, in late November of 1620. On December 11, prior to disembarking at Plymouth Rock, they signed the "Mayflower Compact," America's original document of civil government and the first to introduce self-government.
The Puritan Separatists, America's Calvinist Protestants, rejected the institutional Church of England. They believed that the worship of God must originate in the inner man, and that corporate forms of worship prescribed by man interfered with the establishment of a true relationship with God. The Separatists used the term "church" to refer to the people, the Body of Christ, not to a building or institution. As their Pastor John Robinson said, "[When two or three are] gathered in the name of Christ by a covenant made to walk in all the way of God known unto them as a church."
Most of what we know about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original accounts of the young colony's leaders, Governor William Bradford and Master Edward Winslow, in their own hand:
"They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they
had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being
all well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good
plenty; fFor as some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were
excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of
which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All
ye somer ther was no want. And now begane to come in store of foule,
as winter approached, of which this place did abound when they came
first (but afterward decreased by degrees). And besids water foule,
ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they tooke many, besids
venison, &c. Besids, they had about a peck a meale a weeke to a
person, or now since harvest, Indean corn to yt proportion. Which made
many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in
England, which were not fained, but true reports."
-W.B. (William Bradford)
"Our Corne did proue well, &God be praysed, we had a good increase of Indian Corne, and our Barly indifferent good, but our Pease not worth the gathering, for we feared they were too late sowne, they came vp very well, and blossomed, but the
Sunne parched them in the blossome; our harvest being gotten in, our
Governour sent foure men on fowling, that so we might after a more
speciall manner reioyce together, after we had gathered the fruit of our
labors; they foure in one day killed as much fowle, as with a little
helpe beside, served the Company almost a weeke, at which time amongst
other Recreations, we exercised our Armes, many of the Indians coming
amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some
nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they
went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and
bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And
although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with
vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we
often wish you partakers of our plenty."
-E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England,
This 11th of December, 1621
The feast included foods suitable for a head table of honored guests,
such as the chief men of the colony and Native leaders Massasoit
(“Great Leader” also known as Ousamequin “Yellow Feather”), the sachem
(chief) of Pokanoket (Pokanoket is the area at the head of Narragansett
Bay). Venison, wild fowl, turkeys and Indian corn were the staples of
the meal. It likely included other food items known to have been aboard
the Mayflower or available in Plymouth such as spices, Dutch cheese,
wild grapes, lobster, cod, native melons, pumpkin (pompion) and rabbit.”
By the mid-17th century the custom of autumnal Thanksgivings was
established throughout New England. One hundred and eighty years after
the first day of Thanksgiving, the Founding Fathers thought it important
that this tradition be recognized by proclamation. Soon after approving
the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to initiate the proclamation
of a national day of Thanksgiving was approved.
Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the
American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the
congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all
the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning
to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had
poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would propose the
following resolution:
“Resolved, that a joint committee of both Houses be
directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that
he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public
thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God…”
“Mr. [Roger] Sherman (a signer of both the Declaration of
Independence and the Constitution) justified the practice of
thanksgiving on any signal event not only as a laudable one in itself,
but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ…This example he
thought worthy of a Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he
would agree with the gentleman who moved the resolution…The question was
put on the resolution and it was carried in the affirmative.”
This resolution was delivered to President George Washington who
readily agreed with its suggestion and put forth the following
proclamation by his signature:
“Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge
the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for
His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and
Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee,
requested me “to recommend to the people of the United States a day of
public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with
grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially
by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of
government for their safety and happiness.”
“Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day
of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the
service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of
all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all
unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind
care and protection of the people of this country previous to their
becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable
interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the
late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which
we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we
have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our
safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately
instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are
blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful
knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which
He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite
in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord
and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other
transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations,
to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to
render our national government a blessing to all the people by
constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws,
discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all
sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us),
and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote
the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase
of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind
such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.”
-Given under my hand, at the city of New York,
The 3rd day of October, AD 1789
George Washington
After 1815, prophetically, there were no further annual proclamations
of Thanksgiving until the Civil War when Abraham Lincoln declared
November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving:
“No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal
hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the
most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath
nevertheless remembered mercy… I do, therefore, invite my fellow
citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday
of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the heavens…[it is] announced in the Holy
Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed
whose God is the Lord…It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should
be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart
and one voice, by the whole American people.”
- Abraham Lincoln
November 26, 1863
On October 3, 1863, Lincoln’s proclamation passed by an Act of
Congress. That proclamation was repeated by every subsequent president
until 1939, when Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving Day up one
week earlier than had been tradition, to appease merchants who wanted
more time to feed the growing pre-Christmas consumer frenzy. Folding to
Congressional pressure two years later however, Roosevelt signed a
resolution returning Thanksgiving to the last Thursday of November.
Roosevelt’s inclination to manipulate Thanksgiving for commercial
interests, foretold much of the secular nature of “thanksgiving” to
come. But, amid all the oppression of secular materialism in advance of
that day in December when we give thanks for the birth of Christ,
oppression vastly different but somehow remarkably similar to that of
our Pilgrim forefathers, we are still at our core, a nation eternally
thankful to God.
On this Day of Thanksgiving, may God rest your heart and mind, may He
bless and keep you and your family, and may He extend His blessing upon
our nation, guiding us one and all by His calling. Amid the haste, we
remember His words, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for
they shall be filled. Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain
mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blessed
are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake: for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven.” (
Matthew 5:3-10)
Copyright, The Federalist - 1998,
Courtesy of the
Family Policy Network
Every day I wake up, I thank God for all that I have in this world and for the opportunity to become a better person today than I was the day previous. In a world that sometimes appears determined to bring down the best of us, we cannot allow ourselves to loose sight of the fact that we each have so much to be thankful for. Remember folks, though you may not have much, make every day a day of thanksgiving and your gratefulness will be returned to you ten-fold.
Happy Thanksgiving,
One and All!!!
