Joyous & Penitent Thanksgiving, Lincoln-Style

The spirit of our current age in America is ingratitude. Many imagine we are living in the worst of times, justifying anxiety and anger. But, of course, Americans are, by most standards, living in the best of times, with more materials good and advantages than any other people who’ve ever walked the face of the earth. And while formal religious participation has declined compared to much of the post-WWII era, Christianity remains vibrant in America. The church in America has never been more diverse and offered more options to more people.

Vice, injustice, and criminality abound in America. So too do virtue, generosity, hospitality, social harmony, goodwill, fairness, and aspirations for greater justice. More than any society that ever existed, America still largely sees people as equals, each one deserving his or her fair chance. Probably no society as religiously and racially diverse as ours has ever existed with such relative comity.

Our nation is relatively at peace, and relatively secure, to the extent possible, in our always troubled world. Many millions around the world would like to live here. Similar millions are not dreaming of moving to Russia, China, or Iran. America remains, compared to the rest of the world, the land of almost unlimited opportunity.  Almost every ride with an Uber driver offers a window into what people from every region of the world are willing to sacrifice to come to America, and how grateful they are to be here. Typically, they are struggling but also full of hope and ambition.

Recently I conversed with a Nigerian Catholic priest studying here. I observed to him that American Christians, so full of privilege, like to complain and are pessimistic. But African Christians, who often struggle with poverty, war, famine, and repression, are typically optimistic. He agreed but also pointed out that African Christians are often resignedly passive, praying but not acting.  He said Americans like to solve their problems. So true.

America’s can-do attitude is a divine gift, shaped across centuries, by rugged settlers and immigrants who left all they knew to build a new world. Older traditional societies often accept their social problems as intractable, part of the natural order. Corruption, poverty, gross social disparities are to be assumed and, if possible, exploited. Americans tend to see all their problems as needing solutions, now. We are impatient, in good ways and bad. That impatience stimulates action.

In his famous Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863, Abraham Lincoln recognized all these qualities in America. The country was then in civil war, killing hundreds of thousands, destroying vast regions. America then was much poorer, more corrupt, more unjust, physically unhealthier, and more dangerous. Life was often brutal, even for the wealthiest. And yet Lincoln saw endless reasons for gratitude and hope. He was grateful that rule of law still prevailed, that foreign nations had not attacked, there was widespread prosperity, and the population was growing, with freedom expanding. Here’s what he said:  

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and even soften the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggressions, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people.

Lincoln designated a Day of Thanksgiving for “offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings” with “humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience” and prayers for “peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

What Lincoln said then is as true today. We have so much for which to be thankful, far more than did Americans in Lincoln’s day. And we have so much for which to repent. Much of our current unpleasant temperament ascribes “national perverseness and disobedience” to others.  But Lincoln never made that distinction. We are all complicit in national sins meriting God’s wrath. Yet God is merciful.

Chief among our national sins is ingratitude. This Thanksgiving we all should look around and be grateful for the bounty and opportunities that surround us. And we can always ask ourselves: How can we serve Him better, aligning ourselves more closely with Him, with mercy and generosity for all? That attitude exemplifies a true Thanksgiving.