Thanksgiving To God

A while back I was in a rather passionate Internet discussion about the Christian roots of our nation.  The antagonist (from my perspective) affirmed that our Founding Fathers were not particularly religious, at best Deists who don't think God is active in the world.  Her notion was that all this religious trapping came later on.

A good example of her argument would be the fact that it wasn't until 1941 that congress passed a law establishing Thanksgiving as a holiday, hardly the Founding Fathers.  I can't argue the truth in that fact but I can argue that the fact doesn't contain the whole truth.  While Thanksgiving became a law in 1941, it was established as a time of national thanksgiving by presidential proclamation during the Civil War by Abraham Lincoln, who wrote, in part, "...set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Fahter who dwelleth in the Heavens."

Of course, Abraham Lincoln was not one of the Founding Fathers, being the 16th president, but George Washington was and he proclaimed on October 3, 1789, that Thursday the 26th of November 1789 a day of "public thanksgiving and prayer" devoted to "the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Aughor of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."

Thanksgiving in America actually goes back a good deal earlier than our Founding Fathers.  In the early autumn of 1621, the 53 surviving Pilgrims celeebrated their successful harvestt who proclaimed, in part, "And although it be not always so plentiful, as it ws at this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty."  They did not call this harvest a "Thanksgiving" as to them a Day of Thanksgiving was purely religious.  The first recorded religious Day of Thanksgiving was hel in 1623 in response to a providential rainfall.

So, are we a Christian nation?  I wouldn't say that.  Do we have Christian and biblical roots?  Yes, without doubt.  Thanksgiving to the God of the Bible has been a part of our national landscape from the very beginning.  And, I would add, thanksgiving to God ought to be the natural response of every right thinking American for we are truly blessed above all other nations of the world.  There is a reason we have an immigration crisis: Everyone wants to come to America where we are viewed to have won the Lotto of Life by simply being born here.  They are, of course, wrong.  It had nothing to do with luck and everything to do with blessings from God.  Let us give thanks.  Jus' Sayn.