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In 1630, as the Arbella lay at anchor off Southampton, England in preparation for its journey to the New World, John Winthrop proclaimed to his fellow passengers that “we shall be as a city upon a hill.” By mid- century the notion of an exemplary New England, a light for nations of the world, had seized the imagination of New England’s cultural establishment. “And thou New England,” wrote Peter Bulkeley, one of its chief ministers, “which are exalted in privileges of the Gospel above many other people, know thou the time of thy visitation, and consider the great things the...

The celebration we now popularly regard as the "First Thanksgiving" was the Pilgrims' three-day feast celebrated in early November of 1621 (although a day of thanks in America was observed in Virginia at Cape Henry in 1607). The first Thanksgiving to God in the Calvinist tradition in Plymouth Colony was actually celebrated during the summer of 1623, when the colonists declared a Thanksgiving holiday after their crops were saved by much-needed rainfall. The Pilgrims left Plymouth, England, on September 6, 1620, sailing for a new world that offered the promise of both civil and religious liberty. The Pilgrims had earlier...

Thanksgiving: Reflection, food, thanks ... and Dallas Cowboys http://www.lompocrecord.com/articles/2007/11/20/opinion/112007b.txt http://tinyurl.com/33tapv November 20, 2007 Ron Fink Thanksgiving is the time of year when we sit back, smell the turkey, stuff ourselves with too much good food and then reflect on the good things that have happened to our families in the last year. Basically, we “give thanks” for the small and large successes we have enjoyed during the year, just as the pilgrims did. Thanksgiving Day as national holiday wasn't celebrated at Plymouth Rock, as lore would have it, but over 200 years later when President Lincoln declared the “last Thursday...

The Puritans were a particular kind of Evangelical Christian who arose in England and later in North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. We meet them first of all in England in the early 1560s, where the name 'Puritan' was first given to them. The Puritans were so called because, while appreciating all that had been gained in the Reformation, they wanted to ensure that without losing these gains the work of reforming the church according to the Word of God was taken further. When Queen Elizabeth I came to the throne in 1559, opinion in England was divided...

ANYONE WHO THINKS of American foreign policy in the Middle East as cussed, overzealous, hot-headed and hypocritical will be unconsoled to learn that this was the kind of thing people were saying about Puritanism and its adherents some four hundred years ago. Like so much else in modern America, its actions abroad should be viewed through the prism of the country’s root religion, Puritanism. To understand its continued centrality, imagine an America with no Mayflower and no New England. The national temperament would be less earnest, less moralistic, gentler. There would be fewer people in jail, and no executions. There...

NEW YORK - Pornographic movies now seem nearly as pervasive in America's hotel rooms as tiny shampoo bottles, and the lodging industry shows little concern as conservative activists rev up a protest campaign aimed at triggering a federal crackdown. A coalition of 13 conservative groups — including the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America — took out full-page ads in some editions of USA Today earlier this month urging the Justice Department and FBI to investigate whether some of the pay-per-view movies widely available in hotels violate federal and state obscenity laws. The coalition also is trying to...

Social Conservatism Posted 8/1/06 (By Travis)Social Conservatism8/1/06 Neoperspectives.com In principle, Conservatives and Libertarians see eye to eye in regards to economic freedom. They believe that individual Americans will collectively spend their own money much more efficiently and benefit society more than government spending. They believe burdensome regulations limit prosperity and harms business. They understand the harmfulness of socialized health care and retirement schemes.      However, there seem to be differences in scope between the two ideologies. Conservatives don't seem to have the same degree of, for lack of a better word, anti-governmentism. They don't seem to realize the degree which government...

THE GREAT DIVIDE Ever since its first European settlements, in the early 1600s, America developed as two completely different republics. We have been politically divided ever since, and will always remain so. This is because our two founding republican traditions are both opposite and irreconcilable. On one side of the divide were the agrarian republicans like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. They gave us the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, with their foundation stones of equal creation, personal freedom, and the inalienable rights of every citizen. Theirs was a republic of innate virtue, where crime and vice were nothing...

Too Glad to Be True: Puritan Culture David P. Henreckson A vast and untamed wilderness surrounded the first Puritans who landed in New England. Civilization was unknown in this land of dense forests and deadly natives. Yet, miraculously, these same Puritans were able to carve out of this wilderness an oasis for cultured learning, the poetic arts, and theological training. As one Puritan recorded, “After God had carried us safe to New England, and wee had builded our houses, provided necessities for our livelihood, rear’d convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the Civill Government; One of the next things ...

A Missouri couple say they were denied an occupancy permit for their new home because they're not married. Olivia Shelltrack and Fondray Loving have been together for 13 years and have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports. The couple are appealing the occupancy permit denial from the Black Jack, Mo., board of adjustment, which requires people living together to have blood, marriage or adoption ties. Loving is not the father of Shelltrack's oldest child. I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than...

The residents of early New England were strongly influenced by the traditions of Calvinism and the routine of the established Congregational church, honoring hard work and stern independence, which were interpreted as self-sufficiency. They were proud of observing Thanksgiving as the most important day of the year and self-righteous in refusing to observe Christmas day, which they considered an emblem of the Roman Catholic Church. The Presbyterians, Quakers and Baptists also followed the teachings of John Calvin and chose not to celebrate Christmas. It was a day when farmers slaughtered hogs and farm wives dipped their candles. "It was remembered,"...

Yankees Touching Harps of GoldAppropriately, it was 1984. The Reagan-Bush ticket had won reelection. The U.S. Olympic team had destroyed everyone else at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. The HIV virus had been identified, and a cure for AIDS would surely follow. Hezbollah terrorists had bombed the U.S. embassy northeast of Beruit, and the CIA was busy training terrorists to carry out covert operations in Lebanon to stamp out terrorism. All was right with the world. Except in Africa, where people were starving, while American yuppies sat at home in the lap of luxury. Fortunately, a collective of British...

Save Our Strippers! Lawmakers want to kill gentlemen's clubs -- and the livelihoods of the women who run them. By Joe P. Tone If the "Stripper Bill" passes, dancers will have to zip up at 11 p.m. She knows you won't believe her, and she knows the starched shirts in Columbus won't either, but Robyn wants you to hear it anyway: The strip club saved her life. "I found my independence," she says, hands tucked nervously between her knees, as she sits in the champagne room at Diamond Men's Club on the East Bank of the Flats. It's early in...

My apologies for not bringing a should-be classic, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History," to the attention of our Internet readers in a more timely fashion. What Dr. Thomas Woods does is directly confront many of the falsehoods that are weighing down Americans with boatloads (dwarfing the Mayflower) of junk knowledge. Frankly, many well-meaning people, including many educators, have been sucked into thinking things "that just ain't so." In fact, I have been divested of quite a number of things in my head. The academic world has miserably failed the public in accepting, teaching, and promoting many "clichés," to...

VANCOUVER (CP) - The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that masturbating at home is not an offence, even if the activity can be seen by peeking neighbours.   The case centred on whether a private space - Daryl Clark's living room - became public because others could view it. The high court said No in a unanimous ruling Thursday. "The living room of his private home was not a place 'to which the public (had) access as of right or by invitation, express or implied,' " Justice Morris Fish wrote, quoting the Criminal Code. "I do not believe it (access)...

SpongeBob in crosshairs The New York Times WASHINGTON — On the heels of electoral victories to bar same-sex marriage, some influential conservative Christian groups are turning their attention to a new target: the cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants. James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, said that SpongeBob's creators have enlisted SpongeBob in a “pro-homosexual video,” in which he appeared with other children's television characters. The makers of the video, Dobson said, plan to mail it to thousands of elementary schools this spring to promote a “tolerance pledge” that includes tolerance for differences of “sexual identity.”

WASHINGTON (AP) - You might say the Janet Jackson moment of President Bush's inaugural festivities came Tuesday at a youth concert with hundreds of preteen Hilary Duff fans in the audience.No nudity was involved, but the Vince Neil-style profanity probably didn't win rock band Fuel any fans at the Federal Communications Commission, nor from the parents at the concert. Now the Pennsylvania band is just hoping the concert, "America's Future Rocks Today," wasn't aired live. Borrowing a word from Motley Crue's Neil, the lead singer of Fuel proclaimed, "Welcome to the greatest ----ing country in the world." Brett Scallions followed...

(CNSNews.com) - Rock artist Kid Rock will not perform at the youth concert for the presidential inauguration, and conservatives are applauding the news because of outrage at the content of his lyrics. "We have been informed that Kid Rock will not perform," said Donald E. Wildmon, chairman of the American Family Association. According to Wildmon, over 100,000 people called and e-mailed the Presidential Inauguration Committee to voice their concerns over news that Kid Rock was invited to perform. Wildmon said Kid Rock's lyrics focus on recreational sex and send a message of female sexual exploitation, both of which contradict...

Lord God Almighty, Thou art beforehand with men for thou hast reconciled thyself to the world through the cross, and dost beseech men to accept reconciliation. It is my responsibility to grasp thy overtures of grace, for if thou, the offended part, act first with the word of appeasement, I need not call in question thy willingness to save, but must deplore my own foolish maliciousness; If I do not come to thee as one who seeks thy favour, I live in contempt, anger, malice, self-sufficiency, and thou dost call it enmity. Thou hast taught me the necessity of a...

FINDING the perfect gift has long been a national pastime. But the celebration of Christmas, and the culture of gift giving that accompanies the holiday, have changed significantly in America over the years. Economic and social pressures have transformed how, and with whom, we celebrate Christmas, altering it from a holiday that was at times illegal, or limited to adult parties, or a gift-giving child-centered extravaganza like today's. There are several popular misconceptions about the origins of the American version of the holiday. To start, Christmas was actually suppressed in New England's colonial days. The Puritans found no affirmative command...