Thanksgiving, Pilgrims and Freedom

Our American day of Thanksgiving is coming up next week, and my thoughts are beginning to turn toward family gatherings, plenty of food and American football!

I was reading British historian Paul Johnson's excellent book A History of the American People, and his treatment of the Puritan settlers of Massachusetts put my mind to something more than the traditional Thanksgiving themes. The real reason we had a "first thanksgiving" on America's northeast shore had more to do with religious freedom than food, sports and family.

In 1620 freethinking English people sailed from the old world to the new seeking a place where they could worship God according to their conscience. Religious discrimination had built up in England, leaving these men and women no choice but to migrate. It is difficult today for us to imagine moving to another land, away from all that is familiar, to seek religious freedom. But that is what they did.

These men and women were "utopians"—they desired to create God's Kingdom on earth. They used all the biblical stories of the Exodus and pilgrims to describe their journey toward a just and equal society. They even used the term "a city set on a hill," taken from Christ's Sermon on the Mount, to describe what they hoped to build. It was all a great and noble effort.

A key event occurred when they reached the North American coast. They drew up an agreement called the Mayflower Compact, based upon the idea of a covenant between man and God. It was an agreement to build a society to provide "just and equal laws." This agreement represented a good faith effort among a group of sincere believers seeking a place where they could worship God in peace according to their conscience.

Time and events, along with a measure of human nature, led to a society somewhat different than they envisioned. But what did spring from their efforts contributed to a great single nation based on individual rights and freedoms. It has endured through the generations and continues to provide a beacon of hope for many who seek a new start, a "new birth" as Abraham Lincoln said, in life.

So this Thanksgiving I turn to a higher theme of religious freedom. It is easy for us to forget this God-given blessing if all we focus upon is our material abundance.

History turns on the actions of individuals. This season, as those of us in the United States look out on a land of great material wealth, let us not forget we enjoy these blessings in part because a group of pilgrims set sail for a new world, looking for a place to worship God.

Let us give thanks for the God-given freedom we've been given.