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From: Betty Wallace <>
Subject: FW: HEROES OF THANKSGIVING
Date: Wed, 24 Nov 2004 10:05:28 -0600
In-Reply-To: <00d301c4d180$62ff8af0$6401a8c0@robert>

I think this is one of the best Thanksgiving artical I have read,Please
enjoy.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING to all. Betty

Falwell Confidential

Date: November 23, 2004
From: Jerry Falwell

HEROES OF THANKSGIVING

Throughout our nation’s history there have been champions of freedom who
bore a dramatic influence in the rise of freedom in America. I wish to
honor these Christian leaders with this column.

William Bradford

Gov. Bradford came to America on the Mayflower with his wife Dorothy, who
drowned on December 7, 1620, when the ship was anchored in Provincetown
Harbor. Despite the anguish of losing his wife, Gov. Bradford wrote “Of
Plymouth Plantation,” which gave account of the Plymouth Colony.

In 1623, the notion of Thanksgiving was born as Gov. William Bradford
declared: “Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant
harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables,
and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and
clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages,
has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship
God according to the dictates of our own conscience.”

This man of faith proclaimed that November 29, 1623 (their third year on the
new continent) serve as a day for “render[ing] thanksgiving to ye Almighty
God for all His blessings.” The colonists had actually celebrated with a
feast in 1621, as Indian chiefs Massassoit, Squanto and Samoset and many of
their men joined with the Pilgrims for a three-day event.

George Washington

Throughout the 1700s, individual colonies initiated individual days of
thanksgiving each year. Informal Thanksgiving festivities were held in 1777
throughout the colonies as a form of celebrating the surrender of British

General Burgoyne at Saratoga.

But in 1789, military hero George Washington, who was serving as America’s
first president, declared that America should officially honor God with a
National Day of Thanksgiving. Recalling the many blessings on the young
nation, President Washington wrote a proclamation setting aside Thursday,
November 26 as “A Day of Publick Thanksgiving anf Prayer.”

Signed on October 3, 1789, the decree designated the day “to be observed by
acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty
God.” It was an important declaration that reminded all Americans
throughout the young nation that God had indeed blessed them with the gift
of freedom.

Abraham Lincoln

On October 3, 1863, with our nation embroiled in a bitter conflict that set
brother against brother, President Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation
calling for a national Thanksgiving holiday to take place on the fourth
Tuesday of November. This great man, noting the “severity” of the war, said
the nation needed to turn its collective hearts heavenward in the time of
national struggle.

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things,” President Lincoln wrote. “They are the gracious gifts of the
Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath
nevertheless remembered mercy.” He noted that the way to bring the nation
back to unity was by imploring “the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the
nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.”

What truly inspiring words these are. And they remain pertinent today as
our nation is embroiled in a type of war Mr. Lincoln could have never
imagined.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

In 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday to the third
Thursday of November (to extend the Christmas shopping season and boost the
economy). After a storm of protest, Roosevelt changed the holiday again in
1941 to the fourth Thursday in November, where it stands today.

On Thanksgiving Day 1943, with the world at war, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt issued this proclamation: “God’s help to us has been great in this
year of march towards world-wide liberty. In brotherhood with warriors of
other United Nations our gallant men have won victories, have freed our
homes from fear, have made tyranny tremble, and have laid the foundation for
freedom of life in a world which will be free.”

Several other presidents issued Thanksgiving proclamations. In 1898,
President William McKinley said the blessings on the nation should “inspire
us with gratitude and praise to the Lord of Hosts ….” In 1917, President
Woodrow Wilson described the annual tradition of giving “in praise and
thanksgiving to Almighty God for His many blessings and mercies to us as a
nation.”

And in 2001, President George W. Bush issued his proclamation, saying: “In
thankfulness and humility, we acknowledge, especially now, our dependence on
One greater than ourselves. … May Almighty God, who is our refuge and our
strength in this time of trouble, watch over our homeland, protect us, and
grant us patience, resolve, and wisdom in all that is to come.”

This year, as we celebrate Thanksgiving 381 years after Gov. Bradford’s
first official proclamation, we continue to see an aggressive assault on the
Judeo-Christian values that served as a foundation for the young nation. As
we can see from the writings of great men of the past, these values have
sustained and strengthened our nation at critical times.

It is imperative that those who understand the Christian heritage of this
nation ensure that future generations have the ability to defend
Thanksgiving and other God-inspired celebrations and observances that define
our nation against those forces that wish to drive us into secular oblivion.

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