Capitalism Magazine published an article they summarized as follows:
Summary: Thanksgiving, a uniquely American holiday, celebrates man's productive ability. It is not a day of national guilt or a religious festival. This holiday is designed to celebrate, not faith and charity, but thought and production.
To say that Thanksgiving is not about faith or charity is to ignore the obvious. The name of the holiday inherently has religious implications. After all the Puritans we call The Pilgrims did not give thanks to man's productive ability but to God. In fact, Governor Bradford declared the pilgrims second day of Thanksgiving in 1623 because of an answer to prayer. The pilgrims had been through a severe drought and gathered to pray for ran - rain fell the following day.
This last week The History Channel ran a program on the history of Thanksgiving. The program described how the earliest Thanksgiving observances started in New England (of course commemorating the Pilgrims first Thanksgiving). Back to its earliest roots before President Lincoln declared in a holiday, Thanksgiving observances had a strong connection to charity.
The article claims that it is an insult to hard working people to believe in God's blessings. That view ignores that our we do not control everything that happens to us (though we are responsible for how we react to it). Christians ascribe some of those things as blessings from God. Our hard work from those blessing results in bounty such as Thanksgiving feasts.
Its amazing that someone would be able to ignore the facts and say that Thanksgiving is not a celebration of faith or charity. It is significant that this uniquely American holiday has such strong roots as a celebration of faith and expressions of charity.
