The War on Thanksgiving

Pilgrimslanding1About two holiday seasons ago we were all bombarded with the so-called "War on Christmas" in which salvos of vitriol were launched from certain sectors of Christendom toward the secularization of the day celebrating Jesus’ birth. Saying "Happy Holidays" in the checkout line at WalMart, for example, could get you a very nasty self-righteous response from that pridefully pious Christian pushing her shopping cart full of holiday materialism toward the door. I wrote a piece on this for Homiletics last year ("The War on Christmas," Nov-Dec 2006), which subscribers can find online.

Now that particular conflict has spread to Thanksgiving, with those same quarters of Christendom howling that people are being thankful but not necessarily to the right deity, if any at all. There seems to be a general thought in the culture to "thank goodness" instead of thanking God.

OK, I get this. If you’re a Christian you have a specific reason for thanking a specific God–the Creator God who provides the daily bread for all. Interestingly, however, not everybody gets their daily bread. People go hungry every day. How do we thank God for the abundance we have been blessed with? We gorge ourselves repeatedly. Perhaps Christians would be better served to quit grousing about their perceived dissing by the culture and instead treat these holidays for what they are–opportunities to DEMONSTRATE God’s grace and compassion for the world instead of simply making sure that people get their terms right.

I gotta say that I’m pretty tired of this kind of Rodney Dangerfield Christianity ("We don’t get no respect"). If the Christian world universally practiced what it preached then the whole world would be truly grateful.

We’ll be eating our Thanksgiving feast with some friends, but we’ll also be donating some hot food for a local detox center for the homeless, as will many others in our congregation. I hope you’ll show your thanks to God in some tangible way this Thanksgiving–without requiring the recipients to take a theology exam.

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