This Pilgrim Republic
Thanksgiving is a time when we pause to give thanks to God for his blessings on us and upon our ancestors. We remember the first Thanksgiving at Plymouth celebrated by our Pilgrim forefathers. While some are critical of Thanksgiving (and everything else that is America), for many it is a blessed day of family celebrating the passing of another year and the blessings this year held. It's a time of intentional gratitude, which is sorely missing in our culture today. This article captures well the history of Thanksgiving while at the same time offering a prophetic warning to Americans of this generation.
The Pilgrims brought with them to the New World a definite religious system and a less fully articulated set of related political ideas. Their model of political life was the covenant, which is to say it was contractual and a little bit ad hoc. Their politics were utilitarian in a sense: They did not come to Massachusetts for the purpose of living life under a new kind of political settlement, but for the purpose of living a Christian life in community, a purpose to which all questions of political administration ultimately were subordinated. Government was for them a means, not an end. It was legitimate to the extent that it was in harmony with their religious doctrine and desirable to the extent that it enabled them to live the holy life they had in mind for themselves. There was an element of procedural democracy in the Mayflower compact, but the Pilgrim political mind recoiled from democracy as such in all but its most limited form....We feast on this day of Thanksgiving, to acknowledge the inexplicable blessings of peace and prosperity that have been poured out on this pilgrim republic and its people without any thought or possibility of our deserving it. And peace and prosperity are worthy of being celebrated. But what about purpose? Are we so remote from that wretched winter at Plymouth that we have forgotten that this nation was founded for a particular purpose, and that the government was constituted not to raise up men over us to keep us in awe but only as a convenience suited to that purpose? If we cannot see the bone under the skin in ourselves as obviously as we do in the turkey, it is only because we choose not to see. We do not want to see, because we have returned, in spite of our regenerate national greatness and our considerable skill in map-making, to the Land of Goshen, to the land of comfortable idolatry under the watchful and benevolent gaze of the god-king. We are happy in harness, pleased to be liberated from that terrible liberty and all its unreasoning demands. We do not dare raise our eyes, because we are terrified of the prayer we would then be compelled to say. But we do not need prayers! We have silver and gold, and plenty of it, and a king to perform the needful rituals to satisfy the gods, that the crops and the GDP may grow. Or else we will, come next election.
News of the Day: Black Friday Starting Before Thanksgiving Ends
If you are one who desires to simplify your life and lead a life less driven by consumerism, avoid television the week of Thanksgiving! I have been amazed at how obsessed the news media is concerning “black Friday.” It is so bad that Thanksgiving has become nothing more than an unavoidable bump in the road to the Christmas shopping season.
Folks, we need to take a step back and realize that there is more to life than shopping. Still, listen to our political leaders, and they will try to convince you that from an economic perspective there is so much riding on the holiday shopping season that everyone needs shop, shop, shop in order to support the economy. Am I the only one who thinks this is warped?
Earlier this week, the Congress failed to agree on spending cuts equalling $1.2 Trillion. No one wants to deal with the difficult reality that this nation is broke. Leaders should be encouraging our people to be frugal this Christmas season and seek out ways to celebrate Christmas without spending themselves into debt. Instead, it’s the opposite. No one wants to deal with the unpleasant reality of financial bankruptcy. As a country, we continually kick the can a little further down the road hoping that somehow, everything will fix itself before the entire house comes crashing down on top of us. Sooner or later, we must draw a line in the sand and say enough. America has become a consumer-oriented economy, and the consumers are broke.
What would happen if the majority (the 99 percent) agreed to shop only with cash this Christmas season? What would happen if the 99 percent agreed to give $1 to missions or a charity for every $1 spent on Christmas gifts? What would happen if the 99 percent agreed to invest one hour in real time with friends and family for every hour they spend shopping or planning to shop?
What ideas do you have to curb the compulsion to shop?