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Special Report
Thanksgiving, Obama, and the Pilgrims
The several dozen Pilgrims who celebrated the first Thanksgiving in Massachusetts in 1621 would later fold their Plymouth Colony of religious Separatists into the nearby Massachusetts Bay Colony of Puritans. The arch-Protestant Separatists had quit the Church of England, while the theologically similar Puritans had originally hoped for Calvinist reforms within the state church. Once in America, the Puritans established their own new church system, into which the Pilgrim Separatists merged, that was Congregationalist in polity and Reformed in doctrine.
This Congregationalist Church of New England essentially became the state church for much of New England. It produced imposing preachers like Cotton and Increase Mather, and fostered widespread literacy, thrift, spiritual devotion and industry. The Congregationalists founded the great colleges of their region, which were originally Calvinist seminaries, and which would dominate the intellectual life of early and later America. Jonathan Edwards, author of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," was arguably the last great Puritan preacher and theologian, helping to ignite The Great Awakening of the mid-1700s that spiritually congealed the American colonies.
By the late 1700s, much of Congregationalism was trending towards Unitarianism. But most retained the orthodox Calvinist doctrine, and the Congregationalists of New England were the American Revolution's main political and intellectual instigators. Their faith was ascetic, rationalist and focused on conforming the world to their view of God's will. The Congregationalists were both soul savers (to the extent that Predestination would allow it), and social reformers. In the 19th century they were among the earliest abolitionists and proponents of women's rights.
In the 20th century, the Congregationalists eventually merged with theologically similar religious bodies to become what is today the 1.2 million member United Church of Christ (UCC). It is one of America's most liberal and fastest declining denominations, having lost over 40 percent of its membership since the 1960s. Until recently its most famous member was Barack Obama, who very publicly resigned from the only church to which he ever belonged, thanks to the verbal intemperance of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the UCC's most famous preacher.
How did the Pilgrims evolve into Jeremiah Wright? The progression was not a straight line. But the Congregationalist elites of the early 20th century followed other established Mainline Protestant church elites in abandoning Christian orthodoxy about human salvation in favor of a Social Gospel that emphasized political transformation. That progressive Social Gospel, which originally emphasized labor reforms, later came to champion centrist liberal causes such as civil rights and anti-war causes. But eventually it morphed into the liberation theologies of the 1970s, which portrayed America as a moral travesty, in contrast to the early Pilgrims and Puritans, who aspired that America should be a "city on a hill."
The Rev. Wright has been portrayed as a populist black preacher. Unusually in the nearly all white UCC, Wright's Trinity Church was a nearly all black congregation. But his theology is more tied to UCC/Mainline Protestant liberation theologies than to more traditional black church beliefs, which still adhere to Christian orthodoxy and center on salvation, not political redemption.
After 20 years of membership at Wright's church, which Obama joined after a largely non-religious childhood, Obama is now one of the few incoming presidents without a formal church affiliation. The UCC still regards him as one of its own. Obama in 2007 spoke to the denomination's national synod. After Obama's election in November, the UCC's president extended the church's "hospitality" to Obama through its 7 congregations in Washington, D.C., two of which have previously hosted regular worship by an American president.
Oddly, despite the prominence of Congregationalists among America's founders, Obama, if he retains his UCC affiliation, would be only the second president firmly in that tradition. John Adams was raised by New England Puritans, but his Congregationalist church in what is now Quincy, Massachusetts, evolved into Unitarianism, to which Adams largely adhered. His presidential son, John Quincy, also was a member there (both are entombed in the church), although he attended a wide spectrum of churches while in Washington. And, unlike his father, which whom he debated religious points by correspondence, the son had more orthodox beliefs about Christ's deity and the Trinity.
Teddy Roosevelt was Dutch Reformed and attended a German Reformed church in Washington as president. That church now belongs to the UCC. Calvin Coolidge was the only truly Congregationalist president. His taciturn silence, thrift, impatience with foolery, and quiet wit all neatly fit the accurate stereotype of New England Puritans. The old sanctuary of First Congregational Church in downtown D.C. that he attended is now gone. A more modern church has also been recently knocked down in favor of a new office building, in which the current liberal and gay friendly UCC congregation plans to worship starting in 2010.
Gay issues are paramount to UCC national elites. The UCC is the only major national denomination that is formally asking the California Supreme Court to overturn recently ratified Proposition 8, which defines marriage as man and woman. (Two Episcopal bishops and the California Council of Churches have also petitioned, along with the Unitarians.) "The United Church of Christ is honored to join other religious bodies in this challenge to Proposition 8," the UCC's president declared. "In 2005 our church's General Synod called for the extension of marriage rights to all couples. We believe our communities are strengthened and our religious freedoms protected by providing equality in marriage, rather than by erecting barriers to marriage."
It's tempting to say that the Pilgrims, Puritans, the Mathers, and Jonathan Edwards would be appalled. But unlike their spiritual descendants in the more utopian modern UCC, they emphasized human depravity and the intractability of human nature. So likely they would not be surprised. Fortunately, the tradition of Thanksgiving, and the even more important traditions of lawful and limited government bequeathed by the New England Puritans, stand as more lasting spiritual legacies for America.
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James| 11.26.08 @ 9:02AM
Actually, the Congregationalists/Puritans did not celebrate the first thanksgiving. Jamestown had already celebrated one. The "Pilgrims' Thanksgiving" is an invention from pure fiction.
William Smyth| 11.26.08 @ 10:28AM
"But the Congregationalist elites of the early 20th century.....in abandoning Christian orthodoxy about human salvation in favor of a Social Gospel that emphasized political transformation. That progressive Social Gospel, which originally emphasized labor reforms, later came to champion centrist liberal causes such as civil rights and anti-war causes. But eventually it morphed into the liberation theologies of the 1970s, which portrayed America as a moral travesty, in contrast to the early Pilgrims and Puritans, who aspired that America should be a "city on a hill." "
====
As a Congregationalist/UCC I like to have both. It is not an either or proposition. And we are still aspiring to the shining city on a hill, it is just that sometimes Government polices must be challenged to get there.
Kennett Backus| 11.26.08 @ 12:11PM
When churches and churchmen turn their focus to espousing popular social causes, and away from helping their parishioners to develop their individual relationships with God , be sure that God is not rejoicing.
Alan Brooks| 11.26.08 @ 12:50PM
Actually, the '70s 'liberation' theologists were correct that America is a moral travesty, but they got it-- in Marxist mirror-image fashion-- in reverse. We're not immoral because we're unliberated, were immoral because we're too liberated.
Liberation began in the '40s when morality understandably declined during the war, after the temporary slight ascension of morality from about, oh, 1946 to '56, the Elvis-pelvis Beatnik 'liberation' took root and a decade later, in 1966, a major magazine asked if God was dead on its front cover.
Only it wasn't really a question, it was more a statement.
William Smyth| 11.26.08 @ 2:21PM
It seems to me that Rev. Wright joins a long line of Puritan preachers who challenged the power structures of their day.
---
John Winthrop, Oliver Cromwell, and the Land of Promise, by Marc Aronson
--
The godly were determined to awaken everyone to God, and they did so with both bold passion and clear logic. Their ministers were the ancestors of modern-day revivalists. A great preacher such as John Rogers [1570–1636]would make the pulpit "roar," drawing crowds of more than a thousand people. His words would crash like thunder and flash like lightning.
--
From Divided We Stand By Roger Thompson
--
John Rogers taught that "our saviour comes not to such [good] fellowship, but debate," and puritans were popularly seen as troublemakers, agent provocateurs , and antagonists. The puritan zealot expected "storm and fret..stir and hurly-bruly" from the "the world."
Alan Brooks| 11.26.08 @ 3:11PM
Martin Luther challenged the power structure of his day, stirred things up in his calls for vigorous debate in Europe-- the eventual storm and fret leading up to the roar of the boldly passionate Thirty Years War..
400 years later what a stir and hurly burly so many Lutherans in Germany caused from 1933-- 45!
You can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs... you can't cut down a forest without having the chips fly.
Dropping By| 11.26.08 @ 4:09PM
"It is one of America's most liberal and fastest declining denominations, having lost over 40 percent of its membership since the 1960s."
And this exodus out of one powerful church didn't motivate (to my knowledge) a single gunshot.
We are all so blessed to live in a country where -- despite what the current power structure might prefer -- we can all choose our own organized religion (or none at all), voting with our feet. This is not the prerogative of billions of our fellowmen in less-free countries around the world.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Wayne| 11.27.08 @ 12:27AM
I putting together a blogroll of Thanksgiving posts ... I've added this one to the list.
http://www.jeremiahfilms.com/BlogWatch/thanks/11262122
Daphne Kenward| 11.27.08 @ 7:03PM
I am surprised that, we don't hear much about Rev Wright these days. I head some of his sermons, I thought they were fantastic.
There was a man who knew his history, where he was coming from. Willing to speak about his feelings, with passion. I was surprised that he was attacked for being anti-American, Slavery is a part of the American Dream, some did all the work and the rest could dream.
Some were unabled to vote and some had to fight to vote for the white guy who was never going to do anything for the Black masses anyway.
A man who pointed out the poverty and divisions in American society. As a Black American he expressed his feelings, and was ridiculed and condemed as anti-American, why? But it's acceptable when The Jewish people speak about the Holocaust, the Black people had a Holocaust, and that Holocaust must be spoken about more openly and honestly, people did not choose to be Victims of bruitality, no more than the people of Palestine chose to be victims of genocide.
Nor the poor people of Iraq chose to have laser guided missiles dropped on their homes, and their schools blown up with children in them.
If we don't speak about the past or the errors, how can we be sure not to repeate them again.
I watched a few interviews, and people expressed horror at giving to poor people in this hard times, and then I heard another argument of the possibility of having a leader who is a Muslim. Then I heard the word Christians, if the Bible say we must love one another as we love ourselves, what is the problem? There are hatefull Christians who would illtreat one another based on race and Religion, and there are some Muslims who would kill and slaughter one another based on sectarian violence. What is the difference between these people? they are all evil and prone to what is wrong.
Rev Wright was the first man I heard who was willing to tell the story of hatred and divisions and the effects it has on the lives of ordinary people.
The truth shocked alot of people, but in other part of the world, what they say was a man who was willing to say what people would rather avoid.
The truth is there is a Dark side to the American Story, and the truth has never really been told. A nation who proclaim freedom and democracy could have such a dark past?. And the worst part the horror of poverty and division still goes on.
The Obama story brought out the fears of the American people, they searched for reasons to hate a Man because of his colour, even though his mother was a white lady who love her son, and wanted the best for him to get a good education, can any one imagine, if all children in America had the chance of a good education, instead of becoming crack addicts became productive members of society.
Instead of people lost in dispair found hope, no one could understand what one man was saying to a country, when he spoke of hope, he was mocked. If we lack faith in ourselves, what do we have left? When do do not understand things we should ask questions, why would a man express such deep concerns about the future of his country, when a government spends more on wars than education and health.
And when 50% of the American people live in absolute poverty, lacking in basic education and decent living conditions. These are issues that must be addressed, all previous governments have ignored the issues of the vast majority of the people of America. Obama will have a difficult time because to address the real issues will take 20 years to touch the tip of this huge problem.
Larry Disney| 11.27.08 @ 11:49PM
50% of the American people live in absolute poverty?
What country are you talking about? When the "poor" have cell phones, cars, walkmen, color TV’s, and a standard of living well above all but the richest in most countries I’m not sure Absolute Poverty is an accurate description. For that you’d need to check out Obama’s African relatives.
Daphne Kenward| 11.28.08 @ 7:02AM
Larry Disney.
If America is a Developed country, and 50% of the population lack basic health care, propper housing, lack education, and a decent standard of living, having a cheap cell phone is no consulation.
When 35% of your population are drug addicts, 40% of women are willing to sell themselves in night clubs and bars and walk the street to make a few bucks, and buy a cell phone an an old clapped out motor, and have no where to live except in cramped condition, and their children don't go to school.
In my opinion that is a poor worthless existance. Infact I met a few people once who were in the armed forces and I was told they olny joined up because they had no future, no opportunity of finding gainfull employment, it was a choice of death and death because there is the chance of being shot in the streets, or shot in some foreign country, but the only difference is one pays you to do it, or selling crack on the streets to kids.
If we were to look at Africa, it is not a developed continent, parts of Africa suffers from major poverty, many have borrowed from the IMF, and world Banks, and are crippled by debt and all of their GDP goes to paying of loans, and have nothing left over for development, such as health, schools Hospitals roads, infrastructure and so on.
So there is a cycle of poverty and disease, and wars.
America has not had any wars on their soil, in over 300 years. But 50% of it's population live below the poverty line. And many borrow steal sell drugs, drop out of school, live in poor housing, many live on what is known as housing projects, we are not speaking about a third world country, this is said to be a superpower, and the richest country in the world, yet 50% of its people lack basic health care, and decent housing.
The fact that some one aquires a cel phone does not make you rich, when you have no pension, no investment, and no decent living accomodation and no basic form of education.
We are not speaking about Africa we are speaking about America, Africa never claimed to be a superpower. You have to stay focused on the subject.
John| 11.29.08 @ 10:29AM
Sorry James the earliest attested Thanksgiving celebration was on September 8, 1565 in what is now Saint Augustine, Florida, the traditional "first Thanksgiving" is venerated as having occurred at the site of Plymouth Plantation, in 1621 and it related to the deliverance of the English settlers by Native Americans after the brutal winter at Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Brad| 11.29.08 @ 7:37PM
Please cite sources when referencing ridiculous statistics such as the 50% of Amricans below the poverty line, 40% of American women willing to sell their bodies, 35% of American drug addicts, etc. Your arguments are laughable and, might I add, unsupported by even the ridiculous standards that "progressives" use to show what a horrible country the US is. As an aside, it was white men and women in the US who both fought for the rights of blacks to live as free people and for those same black people to have the right to vote, have the right to go to the schools they chose, and to have the rights to which all other Americans were entitled. Without the support of white America blacks would have never gained the rights they have and a black American would not now be our President. THINK people and don't merely parrot the Marxist claptrap you're fed in whatever country you post from! Our faults are many but we do still seem to be the country you flock to. Why if we're so awful and so poverty-ridden?
ruth| 11.30.08 @ 1:58AM
Insanity is interesting to observe for a short while, but I wouldn't want to stay around it too long.
Jim| 11.30.08 @ 3:15AM
Ms. Kenward,
Your statistics are simply unbelievable. when you state that 50% of the US lacks health care, I don't believe you. When you state that48% of women are willing to sell themselves on the street, when you say that 50% lack a basic standard of living, I don't believe you.
You claim a holocaust in Gaza. Over the last 60 years, perhaps 60,000 Arabs of all kinds were killed by Israelis. Of course, by comparison the Holocaust killed 6,000,000 Jews. But if we insist lives are important and numbers are irrelevant, we can note that France killed half a million Arabs in Algiers. Yet no one call that a holocaust. Nor do we hear about the 1.2 million Somalians killed in ethnic warfare.
I would say that Black Churches have a "dark side" (as you put it) but I can't say that because I am white. I can say that I think Reverend Wright hates me. Even though I have never done anything unethical to a black, my grandparents arrived here after slavery and were discriminated against themselves, and my family has been the victim of violent crime by three black men, Reverend Wright hates me because I am Caucasian.
If I have done anything wrong that I can fix, I will try. But Reverend White can go to hell.
Jeremiah| 11.30.08 @ 5:05PM
Jim --
I think if you consider a few sermons that were recycled on cable news and on Sean Hannity it makes perfect sense that you would believe Rev. Wright "hates" you.
The fact is, he does not.
I doubt you really care, because it probably feels good to have what you perceive as this grievance. Sanctimony is more narcotic than heroin.
In my town here in Wisconsin a preacher from that denomination (who happens to be white and conservative) wrote a defense of Wright to the local paper. I wish Sean Hannity had considered it, and I wish you would. But again, I think it's too delicious for you to pretend some big bad black preacher is out to get you.
Jim, don't be lazy, hateful, shallow, bigoted, foolish, selfish, or mean, and chances are, people will like you whether they're black or white. That's my experience of the world anyway -- a world that doesn't look anything like the one I hear portrayed on right wing radio or on Fox News.
You need to get out more, buddy.
Daphne Kenward| 12.1.08 @ 11:47AM
Brad.
I am not like most Americans, I travel and I do know what I am speaking about I have seen the poverty, I have seen the Drug addicts and the prostitutes in your country.
Quite frankly I wonder why the Armed forces don't spend more time in their own country cleaning up the street of what I can only describe as Sodom and Gomara.
America has the largest population of Blacks in Prison, yet they only make up 13% of the whole population. I have seen some of the wooden shacks people live in in America these are a people who have been in America for 400 years and yet are the poorest of all the people in America.
You see Bard when you live in a country who thinks it's acceptable, you don't notice it, it takes others who don't live there to wonder how does a country claim to be the richest in the world, and 50% of the population is living a third world life style. You seem to forget New Orleans was beamed across the whole world, those people were poor and impoverished, it was like a glimpse into Africa in a Famine, many who had never been to America was shocked. Your Country spend more money on Arms to kill people than the development of your country, and your people. Spend more money on attacking other countries than looking in your own back yard.
Daphne Kenward| 12.1.08 @ 12:05PM
Jim.
Have you ever been to a Black Church? how the hell can you know if they have a dark side?.
I sugest you try going to a Black Church with an open mind.
You don't think what I am saying is true relating to people who are sick in America, who have no health care, and who can't afford it, try doind a study and work out the persentages.
I could ask you how man Jewish people was living in Germany before the 2nd world war, when you find out let me know.
And you don't think Genocide is being commited in Gaza. Look for all the information you can find on Gaza, and the west bank, and find out who has the tanks and how many people live in Gaza and the west Bank, and how many are refugees in Syria and the Lebanon, and Iran and Egypt, and find out what kind of condition they live in. How many died last year and the cause of death, when you have found out let me know.