Date: November 22, 2007 - Thanksgiving Day 2007 (808)

Happy Thanksgiving Day 2007. This is a day for families to come together and to give thanks for their families and for the opportunity of living in a nation where freedoms are cherished and where we live under the rule of law – not at the beck and call of a dictator or tyrant – and where we choose our leaders via the ballot, not with a gun.

      And it all started here in America when the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in 1620. After surviving a difficult year they celebrated their survival by inviting in their new neighbors, the Native Americans, and shared what little they had with them while expressing their gratitude to their God for their survival, their new land, and their new friends. They had left their native land so they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, free from the on-going persecutions, trials and burnings at the stake.

      This small landing at Plymouth Rock would lead, 156 years later, to the formation of a new nation that would culminate with the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776, followed by the creation of a new form of government, with a written constitution, a government where the people would be the government. This was the beginning of America’s history. I’m grateful for this history and I will express my gratitude around a bounteous table today here in Eagle Watch where my ever-growing family will gather to enjoy the blessings of family.

      I often wonder if America could have ever become the choice land it is today without those Pilgrims, and the millions that followed them, first in search of religious freedom, and later for economic freedoms, freedoms that existed no where else on earth at that time?

      I ponder over those events leading up to those dangerous ocean journeys just so they could worship their God without fear. I deeply respect those men and women of the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Enlightenment periods: the Renaissance for “its revival of classical learning and its attendant attitudes of questioning and searching” that prompted many to reevaluate their religious beliefs and practices. I’m grateful for the Luther’s and Tindale’s of the Protestant Reformation who had the courage to challenge the state established religion; and for the Enlightenment, an “eighteenth-century philosophical movement characterized by rationalization and a spirit of skepticism in religious and political thought” that helped break the chains of established state religions.

      Thousands followed the Pilgrims. Governments were formed. Fierce debates over freedoms were held. Fifty six brave men were willing to lay their lives and fortunes on the alters of freedom as they met in Philadelphia and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. A bloody revolution followed! Men and women laid down their lives for the freedom to govern themselves – a heretical idea at the time! The constitution followed in 1787. It wasn’t enough! Freedoms had to be guaranteed, and were, with the first 10 amendments that were adopted in 1791. Was all this by chance? Many think not. In 1833 one theologian recorded these words: “Therefore, it is not right that any man should be in bondage one to another. And for this cause have I established the Constitution of this land, by the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.” 

      Jefferson, speaking for the Founders, acknowledged their dependence on Divine assistance when he penned in the Declaration “We, therefore, the Representatives of the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the World ...”

      Freedom does not come cheap. It must be worked for every day of our lives, in every generation. There are always those who would take from us our basic freedoms – religion, speech, press – and we must always stand ready to defend our precious freedoms that were won by the shedding of much blood. There will always be “opposition in all things,” and there is opposition to freedom, great opposition. Secular and religious history confirms this doctrine of opposition in our own lives, and in nation after nation.

      Thanksgiving was formally instituted by Abraham Lincoln as a national holiday. It crosses all barriers of race, religion, culture or nationality, allowing all Americans to give thanks in their own way, to their own God for America. I’m thankful for those who prepared the way for our Constitution to be created.

      I teach my children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of this great heritage and that they can choose to worship the God of their choice – but that they must always be ready to defend the right of their neighbor to worship the God of his/her choice.

      This is still America! This is still a land of freedom! Be thankful for America, and for your families and for your freedoms!