Happy Thanksgiving

The first Thanksgiving was in November 1621.  Today marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving.  Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

Today as I was contemplating the multitude of things I am thankful for, I want to share with you just one.  I am thankful for religious freedom.  In fact, religious freedom is the reason the United States of America exists.  After all, it was because of religious oppression that the Pilgrims left England to seek religious freedom.

Rush Limbaugh had a tradition of telling the true story of Thanksgiving.  I will borrow from him:

“The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century… The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize [the church’s] absolute civil and spiritual authority,” actually, the state.

“Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down…” This is in England in the 1600s. They “were hunted down and imprisoned, and sometimes executed for their beliefs. A group of separatists,” people who didn’t want any part of this, “first fled to Holland and established a community."

“After eleven years, about forty of these separatists agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World…”

They knew they would “face hardships,” but paramount importance to them was living freely and worshiping God according to the dictates of their own consciences, their own beliefs.

That’s what they were denied the freedom to do in England. On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty of these separatists, the Pilgrims. There were just 40 of them.

They were led by William Bradford. On the journey across the Atlantic…

The Mayflower was not much bigger than a 50-foot boat, and 102 people on it. “On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract” if you will, “that established just and equal laws for all [40] members of the [Pilgrim] community, irrespective of their religious beliefs.” It didn’t matter what their religious beliefs were.

These are the laws they were all agreeing to live by. “Where did the revolutionary ideas,” these laws, come from? We’re talking about the Mayflower Compact. That is what Bradford wrote. The Mayflower Compact derived “[f]rom the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments.”

They were devoutly religious people. No matter what else is said about them (and even that is denied), they were devoutly religious. “They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in Scripture, they never doubted that their experiment would work.”

They never doubted they would get to the New World. They never doubted that once they got there, they would thrive. The journey was long; it was arduous; it was dangerous. And when they finally landed, when the Pilgrims finally landed in New England in November, according to William Bradford’s detailed journal, they found a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. Imagine New England as it exists today as nothing but rocks, forest, undeveloped nature in November and getting colder.

 ...I mean, this was real hardship. The sacrifice that they had made for the freedom to worship was just beginning.

During that first winter — remember, they arrive in November — during that first winter, half of them, including William Bradford’s own wife, died of starvation, of sickness, exposure to the elements.

We’ve never done anything like that first winter in the New World. They survived it. Spring finally came. They did meet the Indians, the Native Americans who were there, who did help them in planting corn and fishing for cod. They showed ’em where the beavers were so the beavers could be skinned for coats, other things.

But even at this, even with this degree of assistance from the Indians, the Native Americans, there wasn’t any prosperity yet. They had the Mayflower Compact. They had these laws they were living by, and there was no prosperity. And I wonder why. Now, this is important to understand here, folks, because this is where modern American history lessons end, with the Indians teaching the Pilgrims how to eat, how to fish, how to skin beavers, and all that.

That’s where it ends. And that’s the feel-good story. But that doesn’t even get close to the true story. You know, Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives. It wasn’t that. That happened, but Thanksgiving was a devout expression of gratitude, the Pilgrims, to God for their survival, and everything that was a part of it.

Rush goes on to tell how the Pilgrims started practicing socialism and it didn't work.  So William Bradford introduced what is now capitalism and they started thriving.  If only people would learn from history.  But that's a topic for another blog post.  You can read or watch the entire story here. 

Religious freedom is the reason there was a first Thanksgiving.  The Pilgrims sacrificed much for religious freedom.  Many lost their lives in pursuit of religious freedom.  The United States of America was founded on the principle of religious freedom.

Today I am extremely grateful to live in a country founded on freedom.  I am thankful for the Pilgrims for their sacrifices in helping to establish a country where religious freedom is paramount.  I am grateful to live in a country where everyone can worship God as they see fit.  To quote the Prophet Joseph Smith in the 11th article of faith:

"We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may."

I have been extremely blessed in my life, and I'm thankful for so many things.  But today I'm especially thankful for religious freedom.

That's my two cents.