There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
Thanksgiving is an interesting exercise. It implies that the thanks given can be received. When growing up my mom would make my favorite dish on my birthday. I would thank her, and she would receive the thanks with a hug. It is this very thing that shows the inadequacy of idolatry. The idol is unable to receive the thanks of the worshiper.
Just think about the description in Isaiah 44:12-17. The prophet tells us that a man plants a tree, he prunes it, cares for it and when it is tall enough, he cuts it down and cuts it in half. With one half he builds a fire. He cooks his food and warms himself with it. And he says, “Ah, I am warm; all is well!”
But with the other half of the log, he takes a tool and shapes it. He measures it and uses a chalk line to make sure the lines are straight. He labors long like this even going without food and water using his strength to craft the wood and in the end the piece of wood looks like an image. The man sets up the image and then does the oddest thing, he bows down to the wood in thanks!
There are several oddities about this depiction of an idolater but the oddest is the offering of thanks to a thing that cannot receive it. Now, perhaps someone will say, “But aren’t we thankful for many inanimate things?” Of course, we are, but I don’t thank the sun for its warmth. I thank God for the sun. He is the giver of the sun, and he is able to receive my thanks.
Now, this perspective helps us. This year as we sit around the table for Thanksgiving, we will be asked to enumerate the things for which we are thankful. We will likely hear a wide variety of answers. Some will be thankful for their job and others thankful for a day off and the littlest among us for their new toy. How might we help them to be thankful for these things without becoming a spoiler of the occasion? Well, we might use Ephesians 5:20, which says, “giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” In this way we can remind people that God is the ultimate Giver of gifts, and we ought to be thankful to Him. But God often gives his gifts through others. There was an employer who gave the job and parents who gave the toy. Therefore, little Susie ought to be thankful to mommy and daddy who gave her the dolly.
Yesterday’s promise secured us strength for what we have to do, but this guarantees us aid in cases where we cannot act alone. The Lord says, “I will help thee.” Strength within is supplemented by help without. God can raise us up allies in our warfare if so it seems good in His sight; and even if He does not send us human assistance, He Himself will be at our side, and this is better still. “Our August Ally” is better than legions of mortal helpers.
His help is timely: He is a very present help in time of trouble. His help is very wise: He knows how to give each man help meet and fit for him. His help is most effectual, though vain is the help of man. His help is more than help, for He bears all the burden and supplies all the need. “The Lord is my helper, I will not fear what man can do unto me.”
Because He has already been our help, we feel confidence in Him for the present and the future. Our prayer is, “Lord, be thou my helper”; our experience is, “The Spirit also helpeth our infirmities”; our expectation is, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, whence cometh my help”; and our song soon will be, “Thou, Lord, hast holden me.”
“Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139:23-24
Thought
God does know us. We cannot pretend we are something we are not with him. He knows us — inside and out, through and through. This should liberate us to share a remarkable degree of intimacy with him, but most of us run from such a close relationship with our Father. If our desire, however, is to become more like him, the only way to be transformed is by inviting him in to look at our hearts, our motivations, and our desires.
Prayer
O God, I know you are the one who “searches hearts and minds.” Yet because of the grace you demonstrated in Jesus, I am confident that you love me. My heart is sorry for the sin I have committed, but I am really trying to serve you in honor and purity. Please fill me with your Spirit to enable me to become more like Christ. In the name of your holy Son I pray. Amen.
“So I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground.” Matthew 25:25 NRSV
Do you run and hide from things you are afraid of, or if you think they are too difficult for you?
I must admit I have slumped down in my chair to hide when a request for volunteers has gone out. That’s not my gift I would think to myself. Not my skill set. I have no experience in that area. And there’s fear. I’m afraid I’ll fail, even make a big mess of it all. How could that possibly benefit anyone?
God has given each of us certain skills, special talents and unique gifts, something of great value. Our job is to recognize these abilities and use them as He enables us.
In the parable about the talent, Jesus tells of the servant who was afraid of his harsh master and hid his one talent (a type of currency or money) in the ground. The master entrusted something of value to his servant, but his fear prevented him from increasing it or making the best use of it.
We don’t have to be afraid of using whatever resources God has blessed us with for His kingdom. The Holy Spirit will guide us according to God’s will and help us achieve His purposes.
As we agree to take that first bold step of faith to serve the Lord we will grow and mature in whatever gifting he has given you. Our mindset will change from one of fear and self-doubt to one of focus on glorifying God. We will be able to accomplish more than we could ever imagine when we walk in step with the Lord. Others will be blessed, and you will find that you will be blessed as well.
Prayer: Lord, thank you for the special gift you have given me. Help me to understand my gift, use it wisely and to the best of my ability, so that it will bring honor and glory to You
OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO ouster -sources Ahead of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s four days in exile, several staff researchers sent the board of directors a letter warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
US, Philippines launch joint sea and air patrols The Philippines and United States began long-anticipated joint sea and air patrols off the Southeast Asian archipelago on Tuesday, in a show of bilateral muscle-flexing in the face of perceived Chinese aggression in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
Hamas leader’s call on Morocco to end relations with Israel backfire, ignite uproar Comments by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal calling on Moroccan citizens to pressure King Mohammed VI to end his country’s relations with Israel have caused an uproar in the country. Mashal’s comments came as he took part in a “political festival” in Rabat over the internet, an event organized by a group affiliated with the Moroccan Islamist Justice and Development
JFK Assassination Doctors Break Silence, Dispute Key Government Claim Several doctors who were in the emergency room when former President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963 raised serious doubts about the official narrative that says a lone gunman was responsible, according to a new documentary featuring interviews conducted in 2013. those who witnessed the wound to the president’s neck “believed it was an entrance wound,” which would dispute the Warren Commission’s findings. “Several of them saw a gaping hole in the back of JFK’s head,” she said. there was more than one shooter,”
It’s Official: Geert Wilders And Conservative Freedom Party Win Dutch Election A surge in the number of refugees since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as the spiraling cost of food and energy, has fueled support for far-right groups across the European continent. Germany’s Alternative for Deutschland now has more support than any of the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, while Giorgia Meloni came from nowhere to take power last year in Italy.
Netanyahu on hostage deal: ‘The war continues’ Shortly after Netanyahu’s speech, Israeli National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi announced that no hostages would be released before Friday. “I want to be clear: The war continues. We are going to continue until we achieve all our objectives,” he stated, including destroying Hamas, freeing the estimated 240 hostages in Gaza, and “ensuring that, the day after Hamas, there will be no more threat to Israel.”
Israel-Hamas war: Shin Bet interrogations break open Hamas strategy The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) has obtained intelligence regarding the most intimate and sensitive issues related to Hamas operations, their forces’ thinking, and internal dealings, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Further, the agency has interrogated dozens of the more senior Hamas terrorists who participated in the October 7 slaughter of Israelis in the South.
Hamas leaders make billions while killing Israelis and dooming Palestinians The ironies of “social justice” leftists supporting Hamas — a group of self-proclaimed genocidal jihadists — are indeed endless. “Colonizer!” is one of the leftists’ favorite words to shout at those they’re told to hate, including Israel. The fact that Arab countries have historically been big colonizers — and that the main intent of Hamas is global colonization in the form of a caliphate — are merely inconvenient truths. one could argue that the only two things truly shared by some leftists and jihadists is a fondness for dead babies and unthinking conformity.
IDF bombs Hezbollah positions near Damascus as US carries out airstrikes in Iraq Israeli warplanes struck multiple positions used by the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah in Syria Wednesday, ahead of a ceasefire with Hamas that Hezbollah has indicated it may join Thursday. Syria’s Sham FM radio reported that Israel Air Force jets opened fire on targets in the Damascus area Wednesday, including striking two positions in the Sayyidah Zaynab area south of the capital. The report claimed that the Assad regime’s air defense network opened fire on the Israeli warplanes.
Vehicle explosion at Rainbow Bridge closes U.S.-Canada border crossings The Rainbow Bridge, which connects the United States and Canada at Niagara Falls, N.Y., has been closed after a vehicle exploded at a checkpoint on a bridge, authorities said Wednesday. Two occupants in the vehicle that exploded are both dead, according toThe Associated Press and other media reports citing law enforcement sources.
God is Coming for You, Rashida Every day, we are treated to sickening footage of yet another violent anti-Israel and antisemitic rally. Every day, we watch thousands of people shouting their support for the vicious terror group Hamas and screaming their hatred of Israel and the Jewish people. If given the opportunity, you can be sure that these lowlifes would murder Jews. But there is one vile antisemite in particular who I hate – yes, hate – with a unique passion: Rashida Tlaib.
BREAKING: Palestinian Christians are beginning to safely leave Gaza – here’s what we know right now The situation facing the 1,000 or so Palestinian Christians in Gaza City is very dangerous and very complicated. But by the grace of God, we are seeing signs of hope. ALL ARAB NEWS can now report that in the last few days, at least 25 Christians were able to leave the churches in Gaza City, get safely to the South, and were allowed to enter Egypt via the Rafah Crossing. We understand that they are not staying in Egypt, or staying long.
Hamas fires more than 10,500 rockets toward Israel in 47 days of war “The Government of Israel, the IDF and the Israeli security forces will continue to fight the war for the return of all hostages, the elimination of Hamas and to ensure that Gaza will not pose a threat to Israel,”
Strong and shallow M6.7 earthquake hits Vanuatu – small tsunami waves produced A strong earthquake registered by the BMKG as M6.6 hit Halmahera, Indonesia at 02:48 UTC (09:48 LT) on November 22, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 109 km (67.7 miles). USGS and EMSC are reporting M6.0 at a depth of 119 km (73.9 miles).
Strong M6.6 earthquake hits Halmahera, Indonesia at intermediate depth A strong earthquake registered by the BMKG as M6.6 hit Halmahera, Indonesia at 02:48 UTC (09:48 LT) on November 22, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 109 km (67.7 miles). USGS and EMSC are reporting M6.0 at a depth of 119 km (73.9 miles).
‘The river took it all’: Somalis wait for waters to recede as floods kill dozens Just a few weeks ago, Somalis were praying for the heavens to open after a prolonged drought, following an unprecedented six failed rainy seasons, forced many to abandon their cherished nomadic way of life for ever. Now, they are praying for the rain to stop.
Pope Francis Invites 44 Transgenders Who Work as “Prostitutes” to Vatican for Lunch The commie Pope invited a busload of 44 transgenders to the Vatican for lunch. “On Sunday, the women — many of whom are Latin American migrants and work as prostitutes — joined over 1,000 other poor and homeless people in the Vatican auditorium as Francis’ guests for lunch to mark the Catholic Church’s World Day of the Poor,”
Cosmopolitan Magazine Promotes Satanic Abortion Ritual: ‘This Is the Most Demonic Thing I’ve Ever Seen’ Cosmopolitan was always the trashiest of the ladies’ magazines one could pick up at your local Shop-Rite check-out aisle, but the dying of print and the squeeze put upon whatever shopping lane business they were still doing by self-checkout apparently has the editors over at Cosmo pretty desperate these days. So, they decided it was high time to profile Samuel Alito’s Mom’s Satanic [Abortion] Clinic. Seriously.
Trans students to be admitted to Saint Mary’s women’s college in 2024 | The Post Millennial Saint Mary’s College, a Catholic School in Notre Dame, Indiana, will be accepting trans-identified biological males starting in 2024. The women’s-only college announced the policy changes on Tuesday, which was initially approved during a meeting in June, according to The Observer.
OpenAI researchers warned board of AI breakthrough ahead of CEO Sam Altman’s ouster Ahead of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s four days in exile, several staff researchers sent the board of directors a letter warning of a powerful artificial intelligence discovery that they said could threaten humanity, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Biden Signs Funding Bill Omitting Ukraine On November 16, President Joe Biden signed a stopgap spending bill into law, thus forestalling an impending government shutdown. The limited appropriation of funds, which excluded aid to Ukraine, passed the Senate on November 15.
Synod reveals Catholic Church directly infiltrated at highest levels Pro-life trial attorney and author James Bogle delivered a powerful message at the LifeSiteNews 2023 Rome Life Forum, declaring that Pope Francis’ Synod on Synodality is a fraud designed to achieve a pre-determined outcome and a sign of the “direct infiltration of the Church by an alien spirit at the highest levels.”
Don’t bother explaining the science, just use religious and military leaders to get people vaccinated President of the European Research Council says …“I wish it had improved,” Leptin responded, “and I am passionate about science.” But she thinks the science behind vaccines shouldn’t be explained and the public should be kept in the dark. Leptin believes vaccination campaigns shouldn’t be carried out with informed consent but imposed on populations by manipulative or coercive means. Presumably, this tactic is most useful when evidence-based science doesn’t support “the science” and populations are likely to challenge it.
Greg Kelly exposes the two lies that are being spread in America, explains how President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign was built on a lie, discusses the movie “The Fall of Minneapolis” and more on NEWSMAX. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
Support for right-wing parties across Europe has been surging in a trend that shows no sign of abating. Everything from the spiraling cost of food and energy, triggered in part by anti-Russia sanctions, to the surge in refugees – most recently from Ukraine as a result of NATO’s proxy war against Russia – has spurred Europe’s shift to the right.
Chris Salcedo honors the late Rush Limbaugh, as he tells the story of the first Thanksgiving, the power of the free market, and more on NEWSMAX’S “The Chris Salcedo Show.” Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
On Thursday’s “National Report,” Dr. Jameson Taylor says pushing woke agendas in the Thanksgiving Day Parade is about sexualizing kids and separating them from their parents. Watch NEWSMAX, an independent news network with a conservative perspective, available in 100M+ U.S. homes.
BURLINGAME, CA — Atheists around America spent the day sitting patiently around dining room tables waiting for a wonderful Thanksgiving meal to materialize itself from nothing.
“I was feeling confident this was the year something magnificent would spring up from the absolute void,” said Heather Fairchild, looking slightly famished. “But after no food evolved on its own without proximate cause, we just went around the table saying all the things we aren’t grateful for.”
For many, this annual tradition of waiting for complex food to spring into existence without cause has resulted in doubts about atheism. Arlo Wagoner, another member of the faithless group, said he too was disappointed, but found comfort by watching inspirational videos of Neil deGrasse Tyson and Richard Dawkins talking about the earth’s eventual annihilation and no hope of an afterlife.
“Today was disappointing for us in terms of food,” Wagoner said. “But at least our soulless bodies were fed with despair and hopelessness. We’ll meet again at Christmas to again sit around and wait for presents to evolve from total formlessness.”
At press time Wagoner was headed outside hoping a car created itself so he doesn’t have to walk back to his commune in Berkeley.
Their culture is not your costume. DO NOT appropriate ghost, zombie, or vampire culture this Halloween.
On Oct. 3, 1789, America’s new president, George Washington, designated the last Thursday in November of that year a day of “public thanks-giving” for the new republic and its Constitution. However, the concept didn’t stick.
A family enjoys Thanksgiving dinner together, just as many generations did before them. (Biba Kayewich)
Sarah Hale, author of “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” had labored for years to make Thanksgiving a national event. Finally, in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln revived President Washington’s day of gratitude. This time, the idea stuck.
In 1901, President Theodore Roosevelt made November’s fourth Thursday an official national holiday intended “to thank the Giver of all good for our national blessings.” In 1939, to extend the holiday shopping season so as to help battle the ongoing Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved Thanksgiving to a week earlier. This shift of dates met with resistance, and in 1941, he signed a bill officially declaring the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day.
Thanksgiving today remains centered on gratitude, family, and food, yet there were moments in our history when circumstance and custom shaped this holiday in unusual ways. Here are some memories from the past that might enlighten and enliven our own celebrations this year.
Good Times
At the beginning of the 20th century, American pride and confidence in itself were at a peak, and the lavish Thanksgiving dinners of the wealthy reflected the country’s abundance. The 1900 “Thanksgiving Dinner” menu for New York’s Park Avenue Hotel offered patrons their choice of such foods as oysters, creamed fresh mushrooms on toast, boiled Kennebec salmon, saddle of lamb with kidney beans, potted quail, diamondback terrapin, Rhode Island turkey, ribs of prime beef, and much more, including a sizable array of vegetables, potato dishes, desserts, candies, cheese, nuts, rum, and coffee.
Meanwhile, that same year, Good Housekeeping magazine offered its subscribers a menu more in keeping within the means of a middle-class American family of the time, with fare more familiar to us today: cranberry sauce, turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie. By then, clearly, these foods had become as much a part of Thanksgiving as they are today.
President Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House, and two Thanksgiving stories from his presidency tell us a little about the man and his times. In 1902, carpenters and painters were pushing to finish work on the White House’s West Wing. When the president learned that these men were laboring away on Thanksgiving Day, he insisted that they put down their tools and enjoy some of the food being prepared in the White House kitchen.
Two years later, the Boston Herald, no friend of President Roosevelt’s, reported that upon receipt of the Thanksgiving turkey from Rhode Islander Horace Vose, the president had released the turkey from its cage and then gleefully cheered as his young children chased the bird all over the White House lawn, shouting, plucking its feathers, and running the poor creature nearly to death. Some Americans expressed astonishment and dismay that President Roosevelt, a lover of wildlife, would allow this behavior.
As it turned out, the story was an utter fabrication. The bird had arrived dressed and ready for the kitchen stove, and President Roosevelt’s secretary furiously condemned the attack from the paper. For the rest of his presidency, he refused to have anything to do with the Boston Herald.
Nothing new here. Some in our news and social media still commit this same sort of “fowl.”
Tough Times
In “What Thanksgiving Dinner Looked Like During the Great Depression,” Kirstie Bingham writes that in 1933, turkey was $0.23 a pound. Today, that pound will cost the consumer about $1.27. The turkey from a century ago sounds cheap until Ms. Bingham reminds us that the hourly wage at the time, for those who could even find work, was about $0.53 and that a Thanksgiving dinner for six would cost approximately $5.50, which could easily equal 10 hours of work or more.
So those folks, as some of us may do this year, substituted less expensive foods for Thanksgiving. Old chickens were cooked slowly to tenderize the meat. Oyster stew was exchanged for side dishes such as sweet potatoes. Cheap canned vegetables such as peas and green beans were added to the Thanksgiving fare. An Indiana cream pie, known popularly as “Hoosier cream pie” and consisting mainly of milk, sugar, and butter, was substituted for the more expensive pumpkin pies.
For these families, the menu changed, but the Thanksgiving spirit lived on.
Wartime
World War II brought new challenges to chefs and celebrants. Though factories and farms were soon booming, shortages limited access to certain foods, and gas rationing meant that visits with Grandma might be impossible. With so many men overseas and in military camps, many households also saw some empty chairs around the dining room table.
Yet Americans endeavored once again to brighten the holiday. Vegetables grown in “victory gardens” were canned and made their way to the kitchen. If there were bases nearby, soldiers were often invited into homes for the season’s big meal. The United Service Organizations (USO) and other volunteer organizations worked hard to make Thanksgiving special for soldiers stateside. In Olympia, Washington, for instance, the high school’s YMCA club, along with various churches, organized ecumenical Thanksgiving services to raise money for prisoners of war, while the USO club held Thanksgiving Day buffets along with games and a dance.
Thanksgiving from the war years was also commemorated in Norman Rockwell’s “Freedom From Want,” which many of us today simply call the Thanksgiving painting. Here, Rockwell depicts a joyful family gathered around a table just as the turkey is being served. The painting was immensely popular, with millions of reproductions, and reminded both civilians and soldiers what they were fighting for.
By November 1944, it was clear that America and her allies were winning the war. Aware of the cost and the sacrifices still being made by so many Americans, one newspaper editorialized the following at Thanksgiving: “Above all, let us be grateful not only for the success of our cause, but for the courage and sacrifices of our brave sons, brothers, and husbands that made the victories possible.
“And then we must always be grateful for tomorrow when life will resume its normal course and time mercifully will heal the wounds of mankind.”
In that editorial is the word that belongs with Thanksgiving as surely as turkey and backyard football games: grateful.
Thanking the Thankful
President Washington asked America to give thanks after 14 years of upheaval and war. President Lincoln issued his proclamation in the middle of the bloodiest war that our country has ever fought. Our recent ancestors celebrated Thanksgiving through a decade of hard times, and then through four more years of a horrible world war that left hundreds of thousands of families bereft over the death of a loved one.
Now, we’re the ones living in a moment of history when trials again plague our country, so that when we gather for Thanksgiving this year, we may have trouble summoning gratitude and appreciation. We may be thankful for our friends and family, but we look around the table at our children and grandchildren and rightly wonder what sort of world they’ll inherit.
Maybe, then, this is a good year to pause, look over our shoulders, and thank the thankful of earlier generations. Maybe if we remember the gratitude that they felt and expressed, and their tenacity in the face of their own trials, we might better remember the blessings in our own lives, and so add to our store of strength and courage.
“When I started counting my blessings,” said songwriter and singer Willie Nelson, “my whole life turned around.”
That’s a step in the right direction.
And Thanksgiving is tailor-made for those acts of gratitude.
Political humorist T.J. McCormack spotlights the year’s biggest political blunders and gaffes, from the Chinese spy flight to Karine Jean-Pierre’s word salads. #FoxNews
First Baptist Church Senior Pastor Robert Jeffress discusses what impact faith voters will have on the 2024 presidential election and shares his Thanksgiving message. #foxnews
Hundreds of police officers searched the properties of Hamas members and followers in Germany on Thursday morning following a formal ban on any activity by or in support of the militant group.
In 1803, President Thomas Jefferson envisioned a peaceful and prosperous future for American Indians.
“[I]n truth the ultimate point of rest & happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend together, to intermix and become one people, incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the US,” Jefferson wrote.
Alas, the nineteenth century did not unfold as the author of the Declaration of Independence had hoped. U.S. federal agents lied, broke treaties and made war. Indian Removal — symbolized by the shameful “Trail of Tears” in 1838 — wrote the epitaph for Jefferson’s vision of harmonious assimilation.
Why, therefore, should we give thanks to American colonialism? And how can we do this without trampling the graves of its Indian victims?
The answer to the second question is simple. Giving thanks to American colonialism does not require ignoring or even extenuating those historical injustices. Every horrific thing U.S. citizens and their colonial ancestors did to their Indian neighbors remains worthy of condemnation.
On the other hand, those horrors and injustices tell part of the story, but they do not tell all of it. Here, then, is one crucial reason why American colonialism gives cause for thanks: It presents us with a complex story.
Once we appreciate this complexity, we have inoculated ourselves against the shallowest and most dishonest intellectual framework ever built: the binary Marxist narrative in which all human beings fit into either an “oppressor” or an “oppressed” category.
Thus, the mere fact of American colonialism’s complexity allows us to refute Marxism’s “oppressor-oppressed” narrative. And that alone constitutes ample cause for gratitude.
Furthermore, the most significant details of that complex story present us with a second crucial reason for giving thanks. In short, things could have turned out much differently — and potentially much worse.
To fully understand this second reason for gratitude, however, we must examine three of those significant details.
First, when we refer to “American colonialism” in the traditional Thanksgiving context — Squanto, the Pilgrims and so forth — we mean primarily the people of the 13 British mainland North American colonies who eventually came together in 1776 to form the United States.
This is an important point. It reminds us, for instance, that not all European colonizers came from the same places or shared the same ideas and interests. In the Old World, they fought one another, and they would do so again in the New. Europeans, in short, did not think of themselves as Europeans.
In like manner, Indians did not think of themselves as Indians. They belonged to tribes, nations and confederations. Likewise, they fought one another long before Europeans arrived and would continue to do so long afterward.
With this in mind, instead of “Europeans” and “Indians” we should think in terms of people from different places with different ideas and interests, belonging to different tribes, etc.
In this context, the agents of American colonialism — those English and later British settlers whose descendants created the United States — appear as only one among many groups of North American actors.
Second, depending on the date we choose as our starting point, those English settlers might look comparatively insignificant. At a minimum, they certainly would not strike us as a sure bet to emerge triumphant and become progenitors of a continental republic.
Take the year 1650, for instance — a relatively late date in the history of colonization. Were we to project forward from that date and guess which European colonial power would win control of North America, we would have had little reason to guess the English. New Spain lay to the south and New France to the north. Dutch colonists had established themselves in the Hudson River Valley.
England, meanwhile — emerging from a civil war that ended in the execution of King Charles I in 1649 — had only the Chesapeake colonies of Virginia and Maryland to the south of the Dutch and Puritan New England to their north.
Thus, American colonialism did not begin from a position of strength.
Third, in their relations with neighboring Indians, English (and later British) colonists had such a variety of experiences as to defy any simple narrative.
Again, Indians did not think of themselves as Indians, so they did not all behave the same way. This point is so crucial to destroying the “oppressor-oppressed” narrative that it requires some elaboration.
Take, for instance, the Indians of Virginia — England’s oldest mainland North American colony. When Englishmen arrived and built Jamestown in 1607, they encountered a local Indian confederacy led by Powhatan, the paramount chieftain.
A shrewd diplomatic character, Powhatan sought primarily to contain the tiny English settlement. He treated the new arrivals as tributary, much like he would treat any other weaker tribe. In 1613, the colonists enlisted the help of one such weaker Indian tribe to gain leverage over Powhatan by kidnapping his daughter Pocahontas.
After Powhatan’s death around 1618, however, his younger brother Opechancanough became paramount chieftain. On Good Friday in the year 1622 — after long and secret preparation — Opechancanough launched a surprise attack that killed 347 English settlers. Jamestown survived thanks to a warning from a sympathetic Indian boy.
Thus, two brothers — both paramount chieftains — pursued very different policies toward the English. One group of Indians lured Pocahontas to her capture. Another Indian boy probably saved the Virginia colony.
In such stories, where do we find “oppressor” and “oppressed”?
Meanwhile, in New England, colonists also encountered Indians who did not behave like members of a monolithic group.
In 1675, for instance, the Wampanoag chief Metacomet (aka “King Philip”) allied with the Narragansetts and other local tribes. Together, they launched a war that inflicted heavy casualties and terrorized western Massachusetts.
New England survived, however, thanks to in part to its Mohegan, Pequot and especially Mohawk allies. The Mohawk, in fact, formed part of the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, which maintained close ties with the English.
King Philip’s War of 1675-76 constituted nothing less than an Indian civil war. It decimated the Indian population of New England.
Again, where do we find “oppressor” and “oppressed”?
England’s Restoration Era (1660-85) colonies also had different experiences.
On one hand, William Penn’s “holy experiment” of Pennsylvania, founded in 1681, maintained peaceful relations with Indians. Penn made treaties and kept all of them.
Those peaceful relations continued until December 1763, when a group of Pennsylvania vigilantes known as the “Paxton Boys” — their paranoia and hatred inflamed by Indian violence on the distant frontier — slaughtered a group of peaceful Conestoga Indians who had lived among the English for decades.
This terrible massacre divided the whites. Some tried to justify the vigilantes, while others rallied around the surviving Indians and gave them protection.
In January 1764, Benjamin Franklin offered a scathing indictment of the Paxton Boys and their tortured way of thinking. “If an Indian injures me, does it follow that I may revenge that Injury on all Indians?” Franklin wrote.
Indeed, “The only Crime of these poor Wretches seems to have been, that they had a reddish brown Skin, and black Hair; and some People of that Sort, it seems, had murdered some of our Relations. If it be right to kill Men for such a Reason, then, should any Man, with a freckled Face and red Hair, kill a Wife or Child of mine, it would be right for me to revenge it, by killing all the freckled red-haired Men, Women and Children, I could afterwards any where meet with.”
Thus, in Pennsylvania, whites battled whites over the fate of peaceful Indians.
On the other hand, English settlers in Carolina — divided North from South in 1712 — pitted Indian against Indian for profit.
Historian Alan Gallay’s outstanding book, “The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717” (2002), explained how English Carolinians acquired Indian slaves. In short, they sold guns to other Indians and paid them to prey on weaker tribes.
Then, having procured Indian slaves, English Carolinians often traded them to Barbadian planters in exchange for African slaves. When those African slaves ran away in Carolina, Indians with guns served as fugitive slave catchers.
We could fill volumes by multiplying examples from across the American colonies. Indians appeared on every side — on all sides, in fact — of every conflict.
Indeed, only at the highest level of generalization does history support depictions of “Europeans” as winners and “Indians” as losers. Still, less does it support an “oppressors vs. oppressed” narrative along those lines.
Rather than judging everything in binary terms, we should instead compare the result of American colonialism with what might have occurred had things not unfolded the way they did.
England’s North American settlements, for instance, might not have grown in strength relative to those of their European rivals. The French, Spanish or Dutch might have prevailed in the long run.
Had that occurred, how might North America have looked for the last two-and-a-half centuries? What kind of states — enjoying what civil liberties and what level of material prosperity — might have emerged?
Given what we now know about the subsequent history of each nation, do we have reason to prefer French, Spanish or Dutch ascendancy in North America to that of the English and later the Americans who emerged from those English settlements?
Thus, we should give thanks for American colonialism, In fact, we might even extend some of that gratitude to the English settlers’ Indian allies.
“Any decision that goes against the Word of God is wrong — even if it’s called a trial.”
He was responding to a narrow win for activists within the Anglican church who’ve been pushing to convert the ecclesia for decades.
As reported by the C of E, “special services of prayer and dedication asking for God’s blessing for same-sex couples” will be in place by December.
The move opens the door for same-sex couples “who love one another” to “give thanks for, and mark that love in faith before God.”
An additional part of the meeting involved “reviewing” the progress of the Church’s offering of “lament and repentance” for the “[mis]treatment” of those who identify as LGBTQI+.
Man-made Folly
Christian Concern (CC) said the three houses of Synod voted.
“Blessing” SSM’s only landslide win was among the Bishops, with 23 supporting the motion. Ten were against, while four sat on the fence.
Among the clergy, 100 signed on; 93 were opposed.
For the laity, the numbers weren’t much different.
104 jumped off the heretical precipice. 100 were against, choosing instead to stand firm on 2,000 years of sound, science-supported biblical doctrine.
Present on the day, CC representative Benjamin John protested,
“Instead of proclaiming the will of God clear in scripture, we say, “What is God doing, what is the Spirit saying?
“This is a blasphemy against the holiness and power of God.
“I’ve been struck speaking to a group outside from X-out-Loud, who’ve described to me the transforming work of God in their lives.
“They said, these blessings are curses.
“Bishops, at the end of your ministry, do you want to be able to say: I fought the good fight, I’ve kept the faith, or will you reject it?”
He concluded by quoting 1 Thessalonians 4:
“For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification: abstain from sexual immorality.
“For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. Therefore, whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God.”
Suffer the Children
“Blessing” the redefining of marriage is to bless all that goes with it.
As Katy Faust, Lyle Shelton, and many, many others have argued, so-called “marriage equality rights” undermine the rights of others.
Children have a right
⁃to life
⁃to their mother & father
⁃to sexual innocence (no sex/gender ideology in school)
⁃to intact bodies (not chemically/surgically mutilated)
Their rights are being attacked.
Screw your social acceptance. Start defending children.
This is why the term Gay Christian, much the same as the phrase Gay “parenting”, is and always will be an oxymoron.
No amount of doctrinal abuse or serpent-like scripture twisting changes these facts.
What was once rejected as the territory of the father of lies and the delusion of demons is now being embraced as Deus vult!
No dissent or opposing viewpoint is allowed.
Men, women, society, corporations, Churches, and non-government organisations are all either an ally or the enemy.
Such is the LGBTQ+ movement’s “convert, pay a tax or die” fascist political platform.
This is evidenced by the many victims of LGBT lawfare and the movement’s weaponisation of litigation.
Sadly, all of this is what the Anglican communion is erroneously co-opting in the name of “love and faith.”
Franklin Graham is right.
A society in decline needs people of conviction who are consistent and capable of holding fast to the Spirit of truth against the assaults of the spirit of error. (1 John 5)
Attempting to head off a major schism, Bishop of London Sarah Mullally – an apparent key player in the LGBTQ+ assimilation program known as “Living in Love and Faith” – called for unity in disagreement.
Regardless, the apparent dismissal of widespread warnings about Synod’s slicing up scripture to serve “passions and lusts of the flesh” pre-empts a split.
It’s doubtful Mullally’s “love is love” appeal to “diversity is our strength” will stop the God is love faithful from “abhorring what is evil and holding fast to that which is good.” (1 Thess. 5:21 & Romans 12:9)
Even as Israel has agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza to facilitate a ransom deal with Hamas for the release of some of the hostages taken by Hamas in the October 7 attack on Israel, pro-Hamas protesters in New York City staged a blockade of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade on Thursday. Some of the protesters reportedly glued their hands to the street. The blockade followed a float featuring a Palestinian flag being displayed by the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts and protesters in the reviewing stands holding up banners.
Screen image.
Communist groups were behind several of the protest groups including ANSWER and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. Banners displayed readers, “Liberation of Palestine and the Planet” and “Genocide Then Genocide Now.”
BREAKING: INDIGENOUS SOLIDARITY WITH PALESTINE
The Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe of Massachusetts stands in solidarity with Palestine during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade pic.twitter.com/e6TNbqZp6e
BREAKING: Several pro-Palestine activists were arrested for staging a sit-in on the march route of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York City pic.twitter.com/kv9pUQgO77
Protesters block the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade and hold the street! No celebrating the genocide of the indigenous people of the americas, no funding genocide in Palestine pic.twitter.com/iH0mLlrVDT
BREAKING: Activists in NYC for Palestine disrupt the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade from the Grandstand demanding No More Aid for Israel and Free Palestine! #ShutItDown4Palestinepic.twitter.com/qWK3tSpZfD
The blockade of the Macy’s parade was announced in advance and was apparently allowed to happen:
When saying there’s a time in a place for everything that’s liberal logic.. I hope the Macy’s day Thanksgiving parade is flooded with Palestinian flags tomorrow🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸 pic.twitter.com/QOhvA2BaYQ
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