Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Why Thanksgiving Matters

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20071121/30166_Why_Thanksgiving_Matters.htm

[The Christian Post] 21 Nov 2007--The holiday police are at it again – looking for violations of the nation's new policy of separating faith and civic celebrations. The same folks who will soon be trolling courthouse squares looking for manger scenes are now calling on Americans to have a happy Thanksgiving . . . but leave God out of it.

School textbooks filled with revisionist history tell children that the first Thanksgiving was a celebration at which the Pilgrims thanked the Indians for teaching them how to survive the harsh New England climate and plant successful crops. God is simply not part of the picture.

Some educators, worried that even the word "thanksgiving" might be too controversial, have renamed the holiday "Turkey Day." Of course, this implies that the central thrust of the celebration comes down to poultry.

The revisionist historians want to have it both ways. They present the Pilgrims as wild-eyed religious fanatics – precursors to the Religious Right – and then suggest that the first Thanksgiving was essentially a secular holiday.

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