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Tuesday, 10 November 2009 20:21

For those who reject historical data, Thanksgiving Day is especially difficult to explain away; it is even more frustrating to ignore. The key historical datum is that Thanksgiving Day in America is fundamentally a religious observance. "Religious" signifies that it pertains to man’s relationship to God. This working definition was not coined by Congregationalists or Baptists or Catholics; indeed, it dates from pre-Christian times. The noble Roman orator Cicero, for example, used the word to describe "reverence for God (the gods), the fear of God." (A Latin-English Dictionary, John T. White; London, 1866)

America was largely founded in the context of religious experience; specifically, to safeguard the God-given right to religious freedom, and the exercise of this right continues to characterize the nation to this very day. What the French visitor Alexis de Toqueville recorded in his famous diary, Democracy in America, during the 1830s is still verifiable: "There is no country in the world in which the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America."

When the Pilgrim Fathers in New England elected to celebrate a three-day thanksgiving festival in the Fall of 1621, religious sentiments were foremost in their minds and hearts; they were grateful to God for helping them endure another, albeit difficult, year in their newfound land. During the second Thanksgiving Day two years later, a call for a prayer of thanksgiving to God was formally proclaimed by the governor. His document explicitly cited specific reasons for acknowledging divine Providence: deliverance from drought and famine, as well as the safe arrival from Holland of the ship Anne.

Here in Connecticut, a solemn day of thanksgiving to God was declared in 1665; an annual observance was to be held on the last Wednesday of October. In the ensuing years, other New England colonies chose various dates for occasional celebrations. When, therefore, in 1789 the Congress asked President George Washington to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day, the idea was not an innovation; Washington designated 26 November as the day. Following years of local observances, President Abraham Lincoln, while the Civil War was raging, fixed the last Thursday of November as a yearly national Thanksgiving holiday. President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date to the third Thursday of November, but in 1941 Congress fixed it as the fourth Thursday in November.

Throughout the years, the general motive for the holiday continued unchanged; Thanksgiving Day remained a religious festival. Indeed, Americans have but to recall the words and actions of our Founding Fathers to understand the rationale for Thanksgiving Day. What we have inherited is a nation of laws, with a Constitution that clearly affirms the right of each and every citizen – in the words of James Madison – "to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience." Moreover, we are thankful that our form of government maintains "that in matters of Religion, no man’s right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance." (Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785.)

In the opening chapter of his monumental A Religious History of the American People, Yale University historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom observed that the religious history of this nation "is one of the grandest epics in the history of mankind… A traveler in 1700 making his way from Boston to the Carolinas would encounter Congregationalists of varieties, Presbyterians, Quakers, and several other forms of Puritan radicalism; Dutch, German, Lutherans; Mennonites and radical pietists, Anglicans, Roman Catholics; here and there a Jewish congregation, a few Rosicrucians; and, of course, a vast number of the unchurched…."

Thanksgiving Day should serve to help us thank God that freedom of religion is a foundational premiss of the magnificent experiment that America is, and continues to be. This is especially significant because freedom of religion is the anchor for all the other liberties we enjoy here, including freedom of speech and assembly.

John Adams’s words that our Constitution "was made for a moral and religious people" should be pondered anew on Thanksgiving Day, with a sense of appreciation.
When the Pilgrim Fathers in New England elected to celebrate a three-day thanksgiving festival in the Fall of 1621, religious sentiments were foremost in their minds and hearts; they were grateful to God for helping them endure another, albeit difficult, year in their newfound land. During the second Thanksgiving Day two years later, a call for a prayer of thanksgiving to God was formally proclaimed by the governor. His document explicitly cited specific reasons for acknowledging divine Providence: deliverance from drought and famine, as well as the safe arrival from Holland of the ship Anne.

Here in Connecticut, a solemn day of thanksgiving to God was declared in 1665; an annual observance was to be held on the last Wednesday of October. In the ensuing years, other New England colonies chose various dates for occasional celebrations. When, therefore, in 1789 the Congress asked President George Washington to proclaim a national Thanksgiving Day, the idea was not an innovation; Washington designated 26 November as the day. Following years of local observances, President Abraham Lincoln, while the Civil War was raging, fixed the last Thursday of November as a yearly national Thanksgiving holiday. President Franklin D. Roosevelt changed the date to the third Thursday of November, but in 1941 Congress fixed it as the fourth Thursday in November.

Throughout the years, the general motive for the holiday continued unchanged; Thanksgiving Day remained a religious festival. Indeed, Americans have but to recall the words and actions of our Founding Fathers to understand the rationale for Thanksgiving Day. What we have inherited is a nation of laws, with a Constitution that clearly affirms the right of each and every citizen – in the words of James Madison – "to the free exercise of his Religion according to the dictates of conscience." Moreover, we are thankful that our form of government maintains "that in matters of Religion, no man’s right is abridged by the institution of Civil Society and that Religion is wholly exempt from its cognizance." (Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785.)

In the opening chapter of his monumental A Religious History of the American People, Yale University historian Sydney E. Ahlstrom observed that the religious history of this nation "is one of the grandest epics in the history of mankind… A traveler in 1700 making his way from Boston to the Carolinas would encounter Congregationalists of varieties, Presbyterians, Quakers, and several other forms of Puritan radicalism; Dutch, German, Lutherans; Mennonites and radical pietists, Anglicans, Roman Catholics; here and there a Jewish congregation, a few Rosicrucians; and, of course, a vast number of the unchurched…."

Thanksgiving Day should serve to help us thank God that freedom of religion is a foundational premiss of the magnificent experiment that America is, and continues to be. This is especially significant because freedom of religion is the anchor for all the other liberties we enjoy here, including freedom of speech and assembly.

John Adams’s words that our Constitution "was made for a moral and religious people" should be pondered anew on Thanksgiving Day, with a sense of appreciation.
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