Thanksgiving is a Christian Holiday and America is a Constitutionally Christian Country

When the 106 Calvinist Pilgrims landed in America, later named Plymouth, Massachusetts, in November1620, they conducted a prayer service, then began building shelters. Starvation and sickness during that first New England winter killed almost half of thrn, but with prayer, hard work, and the assistance of their Indian friends, the Pilgrims reaped a rich harvest in the summer of 1621. Most information about the Pilgrim Thanksgiving of 1621 comes from original handwritten accounts of the young colony’s leaders, Governor William Bradford wrote : “They begane now to gather in ye small harvest they had, and to fitte up their houses and dwellings against winter, being well recovered in health & strenght, and had all things in good plenty; for some were thus imployed in affairs abroad, others were excersised in fishing, aboute codd, & bass, & other fish, of which yey tooke good store, of which every family had their portion. All ye somer ther was no wante. And now begane to come in store of foule, as winter aproached, of which this place did abound when they came first (but afterward decreased by degree). And besids water foule, ther was great store of wild Turkies, of which they took many, besids venison, &c. Besids they had aboute a peck a meale a weeke to a person, or now since harvest, Indean corne to yt proportion. Which made many afterwards write so largly of their plenty hear to their freinds in England, which were not fained, but true reports.” W.B. (William Bradford). And Edward Winslow wrote : "...at which tine,...many of the Indians coming amongst vs, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoyt, with some nintie men, whom for three dayes we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed fiue Deere, which they brought to the Plantation and bestowed upon our Governour, and upon the Captaine, and others. And although it be not alwayes so plentifull, as it was at this time with vs, yet by the goodneses of God, we are so farre from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.” E.W. (Edward Winslow) Plymouth, in New England, this 11th of December, 1621. ~~~~~ By the mid-1600s, the custom of Thanksgivings was established throughout New England and spread southward during the American Revolution, as the newly established Congress officially recognized the need to celebrate a day for giving thanks to God for His benefits. The first Thanksgiving Proclamation was issued by the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777. Written by Samuel Adams, it was one 360-word sentence, which read in part : “Forasmuch as it is the indispensable duty of all men to adore the superintending providence of Almighty God; to acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to him for benefits received…together with penitent confession of their sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor; and their humble and earnest supplications that it may please God through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance…it is therefore recommended…to set apart Thursday the eighteenth day of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise, that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feeling of their hearts and consecrate themselves to the service of their Divine Benefactor… acknowledging with gratitude their obligations to Him for benefits received….To prosper the means of religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consisteth ‘in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost’.” ~~~~~ It was 180 years after the 1621 Thanksgiving that the Founding Fathers officially recognized the day by proclamation of the Constitutional government. After adopting the Bill of Rights, a motion in Congress to proclaim a national day of thanksgiving was approved : Congressional Record, September 25, 1789. “Mr. [Elias] Boudinot (who was the President of Congress during the American Revolution) said he could not think of letting the congressional session pass over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He had poured down upon them. He offered the following resolution : Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with gratefu hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God….The resolution was carried in the affirmative.” This resolution was delivered to President George Washington, who issued the following proclamation : "A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING. Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor; and Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee, requested me 'to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness' : Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us. And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplication to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best. Given under my hand, at the city of New York, the 3d day of October, AD 1789. George Washington. ~~~~~ After 1815, there were no national thanksgiving proclamations until the Civi War, when Abraham Lincoln declared November 26, 1863, the last Thursday in November, a Day of Thanksgiving. In early July of 1863, there were 50,000 American casualties at the Battle of Gettysburg, and President Lincoln went to the battlefield in November to deliver the Gettysburg Address. Deeply moved by the sacrifice of the soldiers, President Lincoln issued a national thanksgiving proclamation which set in motion the national celebration of the modern Thanksgiving Day. For 75 years, the resolution was repeated by every President. And in 1939, Congress and President Roosevelt made Thanksgiving permanent. ~~~~~ Dear readers, when we study this history, we not only learn about the American custom of Thanksgiving, we also must realize just how fundamentally Christian the United States was until this foundation began to be chipped away in the last 50 years by small special interest groups aided by the courts. It is impossible to trace the history of Thanksgiving and continue to believe that the Founders meant to write a Constitution that suppressed Christianity. The Founders and their Constitution were profoundly Christian, as was America until the mid-20th century. While state and church were constitutionally separated, Christianity was meant to be the guiding ethos of America. That has not changed and the country would be healthier if Christian ethics were once again admitted into the fabric of America.