This Thursday, in the face of a recession and a national political transition, we will all break, take a four day weekend, and stare the national obesity epidemic in the eye as we go on a federally mandated turkey binge. But before our first delicious forkful of patriotic gluttony, we will each be asked what we are thankful for. So let us all be thankful for the internet, which brings us this roundup of all things about Thanksgiving and faith.
We all know religion had a role in the first Thanksgiving, but it was not necessarily the Christian role we would assume. The Indian Country Today reprints an op-ed by John C. Mohawk, in which he tells us that American Thanksgiving is actually part of a three day festival celebrating the harvest and the beginning of hunting season. The Native Americans celebrated a dance-less, singing-less (mayhaps puritanical?) version of this holiday with the Pilgirms, and thus, the first Thanksgiving was born.
For those more interested in the plight of the settlers on Plymouth Rock, Derek Keefe rounds up some interesting reviews of Sarah Vowell’s bestseller, The Wordy Shipmates, at Christianity Today’s live blog.
Both George Washington, when he established the first national Thanksgiving, and Abraham Lincoln, when he made Thanksgiving an annual American holiday, invoked the name of god. Rabbi Brad Hirschfield goes in another direction, and writes at his Beliefnet blog, Windows and Doors, about Thanksgiving as a secular holiday. He believes that prayer and thanksgiving can be just as meaningful without a belief in god. This belief is echoed by Pamela K. Talyor, a co-founder of Muslims for Progressive Values, who says that the government should not define to whom we are grateful, but should simply say that we give thanks. She points out that she celebrated Thanksgiving when she was an atheist as meaningfully as she celebrates it now.
A Newsweek article by Marc Gellman from 2007 is still timely, as he argues that Thanksgiving is a great holiday for moral reasons, whether it is celebrated religiously or not. It is a day when people of many faiths—and of no faith at all—can celebrate together and give back to the community. However, we often lose this moral power in the midst of the celebration, football, and tryptophan-induced naps.
Following on this idea of a moral Thanksgiving, lifelong Republican and former Religious Right leader Frank Schaeffer writes in The Huffington Post about why he voted for Obama, and how this Thanksgiving we have repented for our sins past. We should be thankful on this day, he says, for a second chance to redeem our nation.
For our Jewish (or philo-Semitic) readers, Rabbi Michael J. Brodye at Torah From Dixie rounds up the opinions of some great Jewish scholars (including that lonely man of faith, Rabbi Solveitchik) and tells us that yes, Thanksgiving is kosher, as long as you celebrate it as a secular holiday. At Kashrut.com Rabbi Ari Z. Zivotofsky not only lets us know that turkey can be kashrut, he also traces the English name of the bird back to the Ottoman traders who popularized it in Europe (the rest of the world calls it an “India bird,” even though the first turkeys were from Mexico).
Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi writes at Islami City that Muslims can, and should, celebrate Thanksgiving. Islam teaches its followers to be thankful, he says, and this holiday is a great way to celebrate. And, although it is sometimes difficult, Saad Fayed at About.com lets us know that you can find a halal turkey.
Some of the faithful struggle with the overindulgence inherent to Thanksgiving (and yes, for you Catholics, gluttony is a sin, but only in the old version—not the new—of the seven deadly sins). Christine B. Whelan writes in USA Today’s opinion blog about religious dieting organizations that have become mainstream, and brings in textual support against overeating in Islam, Christianity, Judaism, and Buddhism. It’s not about size, Whelan lets us know. It’s about having room in your heart for god and for pie.
As always, Slate has a succinct analysis of the issue, and this article by Andrew Santella pinpoints the crux of any religious debate over Thanksgiving—the nefarious “War on Christmas” has extended its grasp to a “War on Thanksgiving.” However, we shouldn’t fear the wholesale secularization of Thanksgiving because, as Santella points out, Thanksgiving never had the same overtly religious quality that Christmas does, and its history is more than a little muddied. He argues that Thanksgiving is a truly American mix of religion and secularism, and that we should appreciate it for that quality.
So whether your idea of Thanksgiving is secular or religious (or both), whether you serve at a soup kitchen (as 24% percent of respondents to a Guidepost survey intend to do) or overeat at home with family (as I intend to do), whether you stay in and watch football or try to singlehandedly save the economy by shopping on Black Friday, even if you don’t celebrate at all—have a happy Thanksgiving and a nice long weekend.