Thanksgiving

We often read that our founding fathers were "Deists," meaning that they believed in God but that they did not believe that God "meddled" in the affairs of mankind.  However, when we read the words of the 1777 proclamation by the Continental Congress, which established our first Thanksgiving Day, we get a different picture altogether of what they believed.  Every line of this original document proclaims faith in a God who is immediately and directly involved in man's activity:

....that it may please him graciously to afford his Blessing on the Governments of these States respectively, and prosper the public Council of the whole:  To inspire our Commanders, both by land and sea, and all under them, with that Wisdom and Fortitude which may render them fit Instruments, under the Providence of Almighty GOD, to secure for these United States, the greatest of all human Blessings, INDEPENDENCE and PEACE:

That it may please him, to prosper the Trade and Manufactures of the People, and the Labor of the Husbandman, that our Land may yield its Increase:

To take Schools and Seminaries of Education, so necessary for cultivating the Principles of true Liberty, Virtue, and Piety, under his nurturing Hand; and to prosper the Means of Religion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom, which consisteth "in Righteousness, Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost."

Reading this document has made me think that we need to have school children read the original words of our founding fathers, rather than the opinions of text-book writers who tell us what the founders believed.  Then we could form our own opinions.  I wonder how many of our present leaders would subscribe to the words of this document and ask God to "prosper the means of Religion for the promotion and enlargement of that kingdom which consists in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost."