The American Spectator

p>Here’s how Abraham Lincoln put it in his 1863 proclamation of a “Day of Thanksgiving, Praise, and Prayer” (in August, by the way, not in November): br> /p>

I invite the people of the United States to assemble…in their customary places of worship and in the forms approved by their own consciences render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation’s behalf…and finally to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the divine will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace.

br> We can’t be thankful without at the same time being humble and submissive.

The balance struck by most Presidents in their proclamations, looking outward at the nation while also looking upward to God, reminds us of our limitations and our responsibilities, and of the resources beyond ourselves upon which we can call to overcome the one and fulfill the other. This is a civic religion, but not one that glorifies the country or the state. It conjoins liberty and limited government, on the one hand, with responsibility and limitless love, on the other. It acknowledges and indeed cherishes our religious diversity, seeking to include all rather than to exclude any.

That makes it just about my favorite civic holiday. Let us all give thanks.