Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2023 Blog #47
November 27, 2023
Thanksgiving Controversies
I had a great celebration for Thanksgiving Day this past week. The food was great, and family and friends gathered. There was no controversy, no political conversation, but a lot of eating, playing with my Grandsons, and feeling very thankful.
I know that for some, Thanksgiving becomes controversial. I have heard that some parents don’t want children to be taught about the Native Americans and the Pilgrims when being instructed about the first Thanksgiving. Many historians believe that the narrative of friendly natives and friendly pilgrims eating a feast together is really a false narrative. I have also ready social media posts from Native Americans who wish to protest Thanksgiving, as well as Columbus Day, because these are holidays that celebrate white oppression over native peoples.
I wish that we would return to the Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1864 authored by Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln kept us focused when he made the fourth Thursday of November a day of giving thanks. I encourage everyone to read it: https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
In this proclamation, Lincoln does not discuss natives nor pilgrims. Neither does Lincoln discuss politics. Lincoln, in his proclamation, given while the Civil War still raged, and families in the north and south of our nation mourning deceased loved ones, simply focused on giving thanks. That is a simple message that often gets hidden in the controversies that surround this holiday.
If anyone had a difficult life, it was Lincoln. He was born in poverty, had a wife who might have been bi-polar. Perhaps he himself suffered depression. By the time of his Thanksgiving proclamation, he had buried two of his sons from disease. In addition, his beloved nation was at war during his whole presidency. He didn’t have an easy life. And yet, despite all the suffering he endured, he could still find things to be thankful for, and call all Americans to be thankful.
If any of us feel that we have lives where there is nothing to be thankful for, I encourage us to look a bit farther. Even the least prosperous of us have things to be thankful for. If we think our lives are hard, would we rather be living in Ukraine, Sudan, or Gaza? All of us have a great deal to be thankful for. Let us continue to be thankful, not just on the Day of Thanksgiving, but every day of the year.
Let us wake up each morning thanking God for all our blessings. Our feelings of gratitude will translate into our acting our best selves and others will notice how graciously we treat others.
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