{"id":11711,"date":"2012-11-22T12:14:30","date_gmt":"2012-11-22T17:14:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=11711"},"modified":"2012-11-22T12:14:30","modified_gmt":"2012-11-22T17:14:30","slug":"hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/","title":{"rendered":"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>\u2022 Wonkette has your <a href=\"http:\/\/wonkette.com\/490608\/wholesome-american-guts-your-thanksgiving-prayer-2012\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">traditional Thanksgiving Day Burroughs<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u2022 M.K. Hobson tells us about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.demimonde.com\/2012\/11\/happy-thanksgiving\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Thanksgiving with the Wobblies<\/a> (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jlake.com\/blog\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">via<\/em> Jay Lake<\/a>).<\/p>\n<blockquote>Far from saluting God for our prosperity, genuine thanksgiving generates a deep desire that others may also have enough to meet their needs. If praying for daily bread means to pray for enough, then surely the implication is that when we have more than enough we will share the \u2018more\u2019 so that others may also have enough. Such sharing is an indication that our hope in Christ is deep and true.<\/p>\n\u2014 <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.bread.org\/2012\/11\/quote-of-the-day-art-simon-1.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Art Simon<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u2022 \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/paulbibeau.blogspot.com\/2012\/11\/happy-thanksgiving-you-buckle-hatted.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Happy Thanksgiving, You Buckle-Hatted Jackasses<\/a>\u201d \u2014 Paul Bibeau writes to the pilgrims of the Mayflower:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Every day those who\u2019d agree with you get shriller and more powerless. They\u2019re still here, of course. We will never get rid of them. We don\u2019t need to. We won\u2019t take away their rights. But we\u2019ll win when they can\u2019t take away ours. This big crazy country is becoming the kind of place that stands in opposition to every sick thing you ever wanted.<\/p>\nAnd as we stop pretending you\u2019re the good guys, we appreciate the subversive character of freedom more deeply. We realize it has a pitiless and undeniable logic \u2013 in claiming it for yourself, you allow others to claim it for themselves. In ways you can\u2019t predict. In ways you might not like. Freedom spreads, because we always end up discovering we\u2019re going to have to let others have it, to keep it for ourselves.<\/p>\nThank you, Mayflower crew. You enemies of liberty, you opponents of everything America can be. We\u2019ll take it from here.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nOne problem with trying to make the pilgrims the heroes of the First Thanksgiving (besides the fact that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.post-gazette.com\/stories\/sectionfront\/life\/was-first-thanksgiving-in-st-augustine-fla-367975\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">it was not the First Thanksgiving<\/a>) is that the pilgrims aren\u2019t even close to being the most interesting people in this story. Nobody on board the Mayflower was anywhere near as interesting as, for example, Squanto.<\/p>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2012\/11\/WKRP.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-11712\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/52\/2012\/11\/WKRP-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\"><\/a>I get that the pilgrims represent one particular strand of How Americans Got Here. They sailed from England in a rickety boat. But there were also Americans who were here before any Europeans arrived, there were Americans who came here by way of Spain, and there were Americans who were kidnapped by slavers and transported across the Atlantic against their will.<\/p>\nAnd <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Squanto\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Tisquantum, or Squanto, lived every one of those stories<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe pilgrim story seems like a good one \u2014 like an epic tale of bold explorers on an unfamiliar shore. But that whole narrative fell apart as soon as Squanto\u2019s buddy Samoset walked up and greeted them, saying \u201cWelcome Englishmen.\u201d<\/p>\nI\u2019m still waiting for the epic movie that can do Squanto\u2019s story justice. It\u2019s an almost unbelievable tale \u2014 a strange man, the last of his people, with a penchant for popping up out of nowhere to rescue Englishmen who find themselves over their heads in an alien world. So until we get that Squanto movie, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/2012\/11\/doctor-who-christmas-special-prequel-and-trailer.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">I\u2019ll have to make do with this variation on his story<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe pilgrims also aren\u2019t nearly as interesting, or as inspiring, as the people they kicked out of their little \u201ccity on a hill\u201d colony \u2014 people like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.dohiyimir.org\/2012\/10\/behind-every-great-school-theres-an-uppity-woman.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Anne Hutchinson<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.christiancentury.org\/reviews\/2012-10\/original-separationist\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Roger Williams<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>Williams\u2019s most important contribution was his articulation of a biblical philosophy of religious liberty. During a return to England to secure a charter for Providence and its neighboring settlements, and in the context of the English Civil War, Williams wrote The Bloudy Tenent, of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience.<\/em> It was his life\u2019s work, and it pushed the conversation about church and state beyond religious toleration to complete religious freedom. The Bloudy Tenent<\/em> challenged the notion, made popular by Winthrop and the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay, that Old Testament Israel could serve as a model for a modern society. He attacked the idea that God gave material blessings or material punishments to societies or nations on the basis of their collective obedience to God\u2019s will.<\/p>\nToday, as many Christians appeal to the Puritans, Plymouth Rock or the Mayflower Compact as the source of America\u2019s supposed biblical and Christian foundations, Barry reminds us that there was an alternative vision to the intolerant Calvinism of early New England. Williams was a Puritan outcast, a defender of \u201csoul liberty\u201d and a devout Calvinist who rejected Winthrop\u2019s city on a hill and established a colony for some of the most controversial religious dissidents of his age.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nI\u2019ll take Providence over Plymouth any day. I\u2019m thankful that Providence won \u2014 \u201cthat it is Williams, not Winthrop, who best represents the historical roots of the religious liberties that citizens of the United States enjoy today.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims — “enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;” Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I’m grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-11711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-church-state"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims -- "enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;" Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I'm grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims -- "enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;" Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I'm grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"slacktivist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2012\/11\/WKRP-300x225.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Clark\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/\",\"name\":\"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47\"},\"description\":\"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement","description":"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims -- \"enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;\" Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I'm grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement","og_description":"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims -- \"enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;\" Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I'm grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/","og_site_name":"slacktivist","article_published_time":"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/files\/2012\/11\/WKRP-300x225.jpg"}],"author":"Fred Clark","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Fred Clark","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/","name":"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00","dateModified":"2012-11-22T17:14:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47"},"description":"Happy Thanksgiving from WKRP; Art Simon on gratitude; Goblinbooks on the pilgrims -- \"enemies of liiberty, opponents of everything America can be;\" Squanto and Doctor Who; and why I'm grateful that Providence beat Plymouth and Williams beat Winthrop.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/11\/22\/hitting-the-ground-like-bags-of-wet-cement\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hitting the ground like bags of wet cement"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/","name":"slacktivist","description":""Test everything; hold fast to what is good."","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/32666545e535b697afb93d9848dcfc47","name":"Fred Clark","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7083ccd514d4fb8d5043041756d766a0?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Fred Clark"},"description":"Fred Clark is a graduate of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (now called Palmer Seminary), of Eastern College (now called Eastern University) and of the fundamentalist Timothy Christian High School (still fundamentalist and still called Timothy Christian High School, but not really thrilled to have a snarky, liberal, tree-hugging, pro-choice, pro-GLBT, peacenik, commie, evolutionist as such a vocal alumnus). A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11711\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}