Posts About Thanksgiving
Remembering the Mayflower Compact
Thanksgiving Day is not a religious holiday, it is a quintessential American institution. It’s a fine mix of revisionist history, outright myths, civic ideals, and religious trappings. But Thanksgiving Day is a good day....
Hunger in the land of plenty
I am haunted by one of the great prophets of Israel, Micah, who wrote long before the British came to these shores: “and what does the Lord require of you, oh human, but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God.” I think too often most of us, religious or non- believers, content ourselves by feeding others on Thanksgiving Day and think we are doing justice. We reverse the verbs the prophet wrote. We love justice, but in only feeding the hungry we are doing mercy. We need to start this Thanksgiving Day in making a difference...
Thanksgiving: It's Source and Meaning?
In American history, Thanksgiving has been a “religious holiday” at least in the sense that most people have understood themselves to be thanking God for his blessings. This was true with Jamestown’s “Thanksgiving service” (Spring 1610) when the supply ships arrived from England with desperately needed food. In the Fall of 1621, the Puritan colonists of Plymouth celebrated “Thanksgiving” for a bountiful harvest. On October 11, 1782, the Continental Congress proclaimed “a day of solemn THANKSGIVING to GOD for his mercies” concerning victory in the Revolutionary War. October 3, 1789, President Washington declared the first national “Thanksgiving Day” under the...
