Thanksgiving, Lincoln and Civil Rights

Most of us associate Thanksgiving with the Pilgrims, but it wasn’t until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln established it as a national holiday.  Here’s an excerpt from his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens …to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwells in the heavens.   And I fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”  

Motivated by his religious and moral beliefs, Lincoln wrote this in the midst of the Civil War when he was the most hated man in America.  Yes, hated.  He was reviled by the South for abolishing slavery, and deplored by many in the north for waging the bloody civil war which had already taken over 100,000 lives   100 years later, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would be jailed for his non-violent protest against the violation of civil rights imposed on minorities.  Both men were motivated by their religious belief that freedom is God’s gift to all humanity. 

Lincoln’s plea for peace is apropos once again, as our country has just come out of a contentious election cycle that has divided the nation along ideologies.  From my perspective, the issues today are similar to those faced by African Americans 50 and 150 years ago.   The Obama administration insists on violating the civil rights of our most vulnerable citizens, the unborn.  Many at the Democratic National Convention (perhaps a majority) wanted to remove all references to God from their platform.  The Obama administration is violating the religious freedom of people who belief that abortion is intrinsically evil, by using federal tax dollars to fund abortions.  Planned Parenthood receives about $1 million every day.   Every employer is now required to pay for contraceptives, abortifacient medication, and surgical sterilization, even though many Christians believe this violates their moral convictions and religious belief.  

All of the great advances in civil rights took place because of the religious convictions of people like Lincoln, King, and their followers.   But rather than celebrate faith in God, our nation has moved in the direction of criticizing Christians for speaking and acting on their religious beliefs.  The government has made itself the arbiter of which religious beliefs are to be tolerated, and which are not.  Christians who object to gay marriage, or the use of their tax dollars to fund abortions, are now labeled as intolerant and accused of waging a war on women.  Employers whose religious convictions preclude them from funding abortifacient mediation and sterilization, will be severely fined unless they are officially deemed to be religious organizations according to the narrow definition of the government.   Let’s hope that the 33 lawsuits brought by more than 100 large employers, challenging this violation of religious liberty, make their way to the Supreme Court before next August when the grace period for imposing fines expires.