A uniquely American holiday, Thanksgiving is about a pioneer people struggling to survive, thanking God for His beneficence. by Mark Vogl
(conservative)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, Americans rushed en masse to churches. It's what we do. When we face tragedy, disaster, difficulites, we turn to God. We may have ignored Him forever. We may have denied His existence, and pushed Him out of our minds and lives, but when times get tough, there is an instinct to turn to God. We also do that during the holidays. There are the Christmas and Easter Catholics who only show up for Mass on those two days. Most Christian churches probably experience this holiday surge. And not one would turn away these people. Those who attend church every week live on a short orbit, a life circle which brings them back to God every seven days. But those who only attend on holidays, live on longer orbits, but atleast they return.
Thanksgiving is a kind of combination of these motives. When the Europeans first came to the new world, survival was the stakes. The new world had to be settled, forrests cleared, farmland created. Hunting and gathering of God's natural gifts came to the fore. And yes, the American indians did help the new comers. But the whole journey, the boarding of small, wooden sailing ships in ports in Europe, the crossing of the broad Atlantic Ocean, the landing on the coast, and so on, all of it was uncertain, dangerous, risky. Somehow I can't see today's Americans having that courage. Today's Americans wear helmets to do dangerous things like riding bicycles. Today's parents discourage their children from playing football, or joining America's military. "Home of the free and the brave" rings so hollow to me now. The original America, the people who trusted their God to bring them and their families through danger, life threatening danger, every day, do not exist today.
Yes, we have some heroes, a few, a percentage so small it would be less than one percent. But in the first days of America, every person was a hero. Every wife, every child lived in an environment so unsure, so dangerous that it was a fact of life. And so God was invited in the home. God was present when the pioneers gathered to make laws or discuss issues. God was so important that in every colony it was a requirement to belong to a church to run for public office! So much for the modern day concept of "separation of church and state" in the first days of America. But this was not about empowering a particular church, but rather inviting God to be with His people. The Christian Life and Character of the Civil Institutions of the United States written by Benjamin Morris, and published during the War for Southern Independence (aka Civil War) in 1864, tells the story of American settlement, the role of a Christian God in the settlement of America. It tells a story no longer told in the classrooms, to our young children.
All what America became, started here.
Thanksgiving has always been an important holiday for me, even before the Cowboys played on that day. Thanksgiving was/is American. Thanksgiving integrates two basic, uncorrupted foundational ideals of my life, God and my country.
One would think that given the desperate times our nation faces, in terms of a failing economy, a collapsing government going broke, and a realization that America must rededicate itself to its original form and purpose, or be lost forever, that we might rush back to God. This Thanksgiving might not be just a time to thank God for what we have, but to plead to be His people again. Thanksgiving is an American national holiday. It is an annual opportunity, part of our individual life orbit, which reorients us to the role of God in our nation and in our life.
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