Thanksgiving and Liberty

"The cause of freedom is not the cause of a race or a sect, a party or a class—it is the cause of humankind." Dr. Anna Julia Cooper (1858-1964), A Voice from the South

Dr. Anna Julia Copper, an American woman of African ancestry wrote these words in 1892. She captured the Founders’ vision of liberty in America. She understood it well, having been born into slavery.

An acquaintance of mine, Pastor Chuck Baldwin, during his 2012 presidential run under the Constitution Party banner, often said, “If one of us does not have liberty, than none of us have it.” He was referring specifically to religious freedom, and to the idea that religious liberty is tied to the roots of American liberty.

November is the month of Thanksgiving – turkeys, pumpkins, family and community gatherings, Black Friday sales, and so much more. We occasionally stop for a moment in our busy lives, and remember the First Thanksgiving between the Pilgrims and the local Wampanoag people. But do we know who the Pilgrims were and why they came to America? Do we know who the Wampanoag are?

The Wampanoags are “the People of the First Light” or the “People of the Dawn”, as their tribe was the first among the Wampanoag Confederacy to see the morning light each day, as the sun rose over the Atlantic Sea coast. The Wampanoag Confederacy was a coalition of related tribes led at this time by Ousamequin who was the Massasoit, or Great Chief of them all. The Confederacy had been formed to end conflicts between various tribes through negotiation and peaceful resolution. It was most likely modelled on the Iroquois Confederacy which had been formed a few hundred years earlier.

The cultural beliefs of the Wampanoag were similar to that of the Pilgrims. They believed in a Creator God named Keihtan, in stewardship over Mother Earth, and in an intercessor between God and Man whom they called Hobbamock. Each morning began at dawn with prayer of thanksgiving to the Creator through Hobbamock.

The Pilgrims too, believed in a Creator God, in a stewardship over the earth given to Adam in the Garden of Eden, and in Jesus Christ, the intercessor between God and Man. They also believed in starting the day with prayer and a song or a scripture study.

While the Wampanoag tribes had created a coalition to keep the peace, the Pilgrims were Separatists, and that caused trouble for them in their homeland in England. It would eventually end in the English Civil War with a Separatist named Oliver Cromwell becoming the Lord High Protector of England. Under King Henry VIII, the English Catholic Church broke away from the rule of the Vatican in Roman, creating a new Anglican Church. Its power over the people was tied to the power of the throne.

The people we call “the Pilgrims” didn’t believe in rule by government nor did they believe in institutional churches. They believed that the individual relationship with God was the most important level of governance. They formed “congregations” of believers who studied the Bible and applied it to how they organized their communities.

The Mayflower Compact is the first European Christian document to define government in New England. It states, “Having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and honor of our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God and one another, covenant, and combine ourselves together into a civil body politick, for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends aforesaid; and by virtue hereof do enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience.”

Yet, one November week, these two peoples gathered together to share not only food and comradeship, but a common understanding of gratitude to a higher power.

Out of these humble roots grew a tree of Liberty for some but it took time for the roots to grow strong enough to acknowledge Liberty for all who choose to live on this sacred land –natural born, native, slave or immigrant alike. I personally strive to remember and practice living Liberty each day of my life. For if we do not live it, we will lose it.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has thirteen Articles of Faith. The eleventh states, “We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.”

It doesn’t matter whether we agree with what someone else believes. It only matters that we allow them the Liberty to believe it and live according the “dictates of [their] own conscience.”

God himself set the parameters of the Law of Liberty in the Garden of Eden, when He told Adam and Eve, “Nevertheless, thou mayest choose for thyself, for it is given unto thee” (Moses 3:17). Who am I to argue with God or limit His will by restricting the religious beliefs of my neighbor?

Let us remember Psalm 100:4 this season, and “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name”.

Karen Murray is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, experiencing life as a wife, mother, grandmother, family historian, writer, and political activist living in Meadow Lakes.