Posted on 11/25/2008 5:44:35 AM PST by Kaslin
Is the government's observance of Thanksgiving a violation of the separation of church and state?
This past week, a Newsweek/Washington Post editorial labeled presidential Thanksgiving Day proclamations as "cracks in the wall of separation." The author explained, "The problem with these proclamations, it seems to me, is that they pave the way for public acceptance of gross violations of the constitutional separation of church and state." What?!
Forget for a moment that nearly every president since George Washington (and the Continental Congress before him) has given Judeo-Christian proclamations for Thanksgiving (except between 1816 and 1861) and also has declared other national days of fasting and prayer. Secularists, such as the author of the editorial, get almost giddy every time they highlight that Thomas Jefferson rejected the notion of proclaiming Thanksgiving spirituals and prayers. But the truth is Jefferson was far from the modern-day secularist they make him out to be.
Sure, Jefferson was adamant (as we all should be) that there should be no federal subscription to any one form of religious sectarianism. That is largely what the First Amendment is all about -- establishing the free exercise of religion and restricting sectarian supremacy in government, as well as government intrusion in churches.
But secularists make two grave mistakes when it comes to Jefferson and the First Amendment. First, they misconstrue his understanding of separation. Second, they overlook how Jefferson himself endorsed and intermingled religion and politics, even during his two terms as president. Let me explain, as I believe it is a timely reminder, given that we are experiencing a new round of battles in our Christmas culture war, too.
The phrase "separation of church and state" actually comes from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1802 to the Danbury Baptists. He told them that no particular Christian denomination was going to have a monopoly in government. His words, "a wall of separation between Church & State," were not written to remove all religious practice from government or civic settings, but to prohibit the domination and even legislation of religious sectarianism.
Proof that Jefferson was not trying to rid government of religious (specifically Christian) influence comes from the fact that he endorsed the use of government buildings for church meetings and services, signed a treaty with the Kaskaskia Indians that allotted federal money to support the building of a Catholic church and to pay the salaries of the church's priests, and repeatedly renewed legislation that gave land to the United Brethren to help their missionary activities among the American Indians.
Some might be completely surprised to discover that just two days after Jefferson wrote his famous letter citing the "wall of separation between Church & State," he attended church in the place where he always had as president: the U.S. Capitol. The very seat of our nation's government was used for sacred purposes. As the Library of Congress' Web site notes, "It is no exaggeration to say that on Sundays in Washington during the administrations of Thomas Jefferson (1801-1809) and of James Madison (1809-1817) the state became the church." Does that sound like someone who was trying to create an impenetrable wall of separation between church and state?
Let's face the present Thanksgiving facts. President Bush likely will give the last explicit Judeo-Christian Thanksgiving proclamation that Americans will hear for the next four to eight years, as President-elect Obama likely will coddle a form of godliness in his Thanksgiving addresses (if he indeed gives them) that appeases the masses with a deity that fits every politically correct dress.
But I'm an optimist. And because so much attention is being given right now by the media and the president-elect himself regarding his parallels to and lessons learned from President Abraham Lincoln, I recommend Obama heed Lincoln's Thanksgiving wisdom. Don't mince or water down the God of the Pilgrims, as is being done in public schools across this land through the retelling of the first Thanksgiving.
Obama doesn't even need a speechwriter for Thanksgiving 2009. He simply can recite Lincoln's Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, in which Lincoln thanked the Almighty for America's bountiful blessings and providential care despite enduring a war and grave economic hardships. The content seems divinely timed for even such a wintry season as our own:
"No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the interposition of the almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union."
Whatever your religious persuasion, don't hesitate this Thanksgiving to bow your head, give thanks to God, and follow Lincoln's advice. And when you do, don't forget to say a prayer for our troops and their families. While they serve us so we can serve our Thanksgiving feasts safely, the least we can do is serve them a little honor and remembrance.
“The vast ignorance of people who were educated in modern public schools is ASTOUNDING.”
I totally agree....as I taught in public schools earlier in my career.
Michelle Obama told us there would be a day when our traditions and history would have to change (revisionist history is a Socialist concept).
One day we with thank Karl Marx for the wonders of his book on fairness and redistribution of wealth.
Incan gold, Mesopotamiam religious figures, Roman and Greek statuary and pottery. ALL of it should go back.
Fill our nation’s museums with black canvasas of black utter black painted by Rothko. And hang them upside down because our European betters know better than the artist.
The public wanted to know what kind of puppy the Obamas would be getting. The public wanted to know what schools the obamakids were going to go to when they move into the White House. I wanted to know what CHURCH he will be attending and if he’s FINALLY going to be baptized.
I feel for you. There are many smart and dedicated educators who have given up their careers rather than suffer through the politically-correct fluff and soul-deadening conformity that characterize too many of our public schools.
Thanks, but I honestly felt that I achieved terrific results with my students in public school. At present, I can do the same, except that I work in the private education arena. ;-)
Thanks for your work: we need as many smart, dedicated and intellectually honest teachers as we can get today. There is so much nonsense and noise in this world to overcome.
Go ahead, Newsweek/Washington Post maroons, propose to eliminate Thanksgiving.
Really.
Go ahead.
Do it.
Either you’ll lose much of your much-reduced readership (much-reduced thanks to your similarly bone-headed editorials of the past and your failure to accurately and completely report the news), or you’ll be shown for the cowardly chicken droppings that your are.
Come on - DO IT!
(unfortunately this probably won't be sarcasm in the near socialist future.)
The "establishment" clause also refers only to Congress, not the president. Thanksgiving is not an "establishment" of religion in the legal sense referred to in the Constitution because no one denomination is favored or given preferment over others. The "establishment" clause also does not refer to atheists, agnostics, secular humanists, or non-Christians being protected from hearing religious speech or public prayers or seeing Nativity displays in public. None of those things are the "establishment" of one denomination as a state church. It refers to the legal issue of establishment regarding Anglicans, Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Catholics as existed in England and the American colonies in the controversies following the Reformation. It's not a Christianity vs. atheism or secular humanism issue as liberals have tried to spin it.
The "wall of separation of Church and State" specifically refers to the controversy in Virginia between Baptists and Episcopalians as Thomas Jefferson understood the issue. Two different groups who both believed in God, Jesus, and the Bible. None of those things were considered as banned since Congress and schools had Bibles, Christian chaplains, and public prayers in the 1700s and 1800s. Anyone who wants to ban Jesus, the Bible, prayers, or Thanksgiving from American public life needs to find something other than the "establishment" clause in the U.S. Constitution which does not apply to those things.
Quite right. The very branch of government designed to be the last bulwark protecting our liberties has become the first abuser of them.
It is largely nonsense that Scotus serves as a check against the other branches. It has been handmaiden to the destruction of our Constitutional liberties.
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