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Have You Read This Proclamation?

Nov 4, 2017Jerry CoxThanksgivingThanksgiving

We’re counting down to Thanksgiving at our office. Today we continue our series tracing the history of Thanksgiving.

In 1775—more than a year before the signing of the Declaration of Independence—the Continental Congress issued a proclamation setting aside a day for colonists to fast, pray for God’s blessing, and join together for worship.

A year later in 1776 Congress issues a similar proclamation. By that time, the American Revolution was in full swing and country’s situation was dire.

In November of 1777 Congress issued a third prayer proclamation—this time calling for citizens to “acknowledge with gratitude their obligation to [God] for benefits received.” In other words, to give thanks.

Throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was fairly common for Congress to issue proclamations each year calling on Americans to pray for the nation. The 1777 proclamation is significant, because it is one of the first setting aside a day for giving thanks. Congress did not only want people to pray for the nation, but also to thank God for the blessings He had already given.

You can read the proclamation from 1777 here.

Thanksgiving is deeply woven into the fabric of our nation. It is more than just turkey, football games, parades, and Black Friday. It’s about stopping to pray and give thanks to God.

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American Bar Association Targets Pro-Life Judicial Nominee

Nov 3, 2017Jerry CoxAbortionAbortion, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

In August we told you about Steve Grasz, an attorney from Nebraska who has been nominated for the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

While it is impossible to know for sure, Mr. Grasz’s track record working for the Nebraska Attorney General’s office leads us to believe he would make an excellent federal judge.

Now it is up to the U.S. Senate to review and confirm Mr. Grasz’s nomination. However, this week a committee with the American Bar Association said Mr. Grasz is not qualified to serve in the Eighth Circuit.

The American Bar Association committee cited Mr. Grasz’s “pro-life agenda,” saying his personal convictions “created a lack of objectivity” and that Mr. Grasz’s “passionately-held social agenda appeared to overwhelm and obscure the ability to exercise dispassionate and unbiased judgment.”

Writing at National Review Online, legal expert Ed Whelan notes the ABA’s statement was based in large part on a longer report written by University of Arkansas School of Law professor Cynthia Nance.

He writes,

Nance’s strong ideological bias is not difficult to uncover. Among other things, she signed a letter opposing the confirmation of Justice Alito. Given the ABA’s persistent complaints about Grasz’s supposed inability to separate his judging from his “pro-life agenda,” it’s notable that that letter against Alito complains about the impact that he would have on—euphemism alert!—“women’s reproductive freedoms.” Nance also signed a letter arguing that the “government’s interests in protecting women’s health and reproductive freedom, and combating gender discrimination,” meant that even religiously affiliated organizations—like the Little Sisters of the Poor—should be required to provide contraceptive coverage (including drugs and devices that can also operate in an abortifacient manner) notwithstanding their own religiously informed views on what constitutes illicit moral complicity in evil.

It is unfortunate anyone would try to argue that being pro-life or defending pro-life laws makes a person unfit to serve as a judge, but it appears the American Bar Association is doing precisely that.

Photo Credit: By Brian Turner (Flickr: My Trusty Gavel) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

Counting Down to Thanksgiving

Nov 1, 2017Jerry CoxThanksgivingThanksgiving

When people think about Thanksgiving, they probably picture the Pilgrims. That’s a major part of Thanksgiving’s history, but there’s a lot more to it than that.

Before it became a federal holiday, Thanksgiving was a day appointed by Congress, the President, or the state legislatures or governors.

Early in our nation’s history, Congress sometimes appointed more than one day of prayer of thanksgiving in a given year. That’s because Thanksgiving wasn’t simply a time for eating turkey. It was a time for prayer. Virtually every early thanksgiving proclamation includes calls for prayer along with fasting, corporate worship, confession of sin, and so on.

We have posted several of these proclamations as part of our Words From Our Founders series on our Family Council website. You can find excerpts from a few Thanksgiving proclamations issued from 1775 to 1813 by clicking here. I hope they give you an idea of what Thanksgiving was meant to be in this country.