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{"id":2866,"date":"2011-11-25T07:21:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-25T07:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/11\/fair-enough-3.html"},"modified":"2011-11-25T07:21:00","modified_gmt":"2011-11-25T07:21:00","slug":"fair-enough-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2011\/11\/fair-enough-3.html","title":{"rendered":"Fair enough"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Over at Catholic Online<\/a>, there\u2019s\u00a0a pretty good unpacking of Thanksgiving.\u00a0 OK, we know the pilgrims didn\u2019t invent giving thanks go God.\u00a0 You know, it\u2019s strange, but I don\u2019t remember ever thinking that they did.\u00a0 I just thought it was all part of the whole being religious package.\u00a0 I may not have known the roots of historical harvest and thanksgiving celebrations, but it didn\u2019t matter.\u00a0 The Pilgrims gave thanks for surviving.\u00a0 And they shared their meal with the American Indians who helped them survive.\u00a0 Fine. <\/p>\n

In our usual way, we spend much time telling people what they don\u2019t know about the past.\u00a0 That\u2019s fair enough, since there\u2019s enough in the past that most people probably don\u2019t know.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth pointing out that Catholics were out and about, giving thanks, long before the Pilgrims came.\u00a0 It\u2019s worth noting that harvest celebrations of thanks are rooted in Jewish and Christian traditions, as well as other cultic traditions.\u00a0 I\u2019m fine with remembering how the holiday came to be an official national holiday.<\/p>\n

But the thing that always made the Pilgrims stand out is what they did and how they did it.\u00a0 They came here against all odds, not in service to king and crown, not to make money, but to have the freedom to worship.\u00a0 They broke the bonds, and railed against convention, and risked their lives (and many lost their lives) to have that freedom of worship.\u00a0 I know, I know.\u00a0 But they were intolerant and drove non-conformers out of town on a rail.\u00a0 And?\u00a0 When we say freedom do we mean anyone should be able to do or believe anything?\u00a0 If someone is hot on Hitler, do we say \u2018no problem, come and let\u2019s celebrate\u2019?\u00a0 Do we tell people who are opposed to homosexuality that all is well, we can respect that, so let us sit and celebrate together?\u00a0 Do Catholics say anyone should be able to do anything they want, including advocating abortion, and all is well?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Was a time in the 70s and 80s, when liberalism promised\u00a0a Utopian paradise of absolute freedom, openness, tolerance, and respect.\u00a0 Didn\u2019t matter what you wanted to believe, stand for, advocate, or think, a truly enlightened society would open its arms to all comers.\u00a0 So it\u2019s easy to see why, in those days, we tended to look down on the Pilgrims and their intolerant ways and see a dose of serious hypocrisy.\u00a0 But today, I think the hypocrisy is on us, especially if we want to get on the Pilgrims for doing what we so gladly do ourselves.\u00a0 They did, after all, what any society does. They simply established a community of values they expected folks to live by.\u00a0 And they wanted the freedom to do it.\u00a0 In so doing, they should be the poster-children of our 21st century society, where endless advocacy groups make it clear that this country isn\u2019t big enough for those who don\u2019t conform. <\/p>\n

So while the article is good, and gives a nice take down on the history of the holiday without the digs and dismissals I\u2019ve seen too often in some Catholic writings, and certainly without the scorn and contempt heaped upon it by our post-Christian society, it\u2019s worth remembering why the Pilgrims.\u00a0 Why the honor given them?\u00a0 Because they didn\u2019t just give thanks.\u00a0 They gave thanks doing what Americans always valued, and that\u2019s laying it all on the line for freedom and the right to live as we would, based upon the calling we felt God placed upon our lives.\u00a0 They were what Americans always aspired to, and what it wouldn\u2019t\u00a0hurt more, including American Catholics, to aspire to as well.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"