Thanksgiving Celebration

We in America have grown sorely destitute in the qualities that made our abundance possible: trust, a confidence in the goodness of man, basic decency and honesty, the immeasurable value of a fair chance, and the freedom from any kind of tyranny, but most important, the tyranny of the crowd.

 

At the very heart of our comfortable communities, behind the moats of security, privilege, and financial power, there hide too many “empathy deserts,” places where it is still okay to use racial epithets, or mock gays, or abuse women and children. Safe in enclaves of people just like us, we fortify the invisible walls that we’ve erected between us and the strangers among and around us.

 

…. In the small micro-culture of Plymouth, Massachusetts almost 400 years ago, one of our greatest iconic national stories is also one of Christian resurrection and hope: desperate exiles found a place to call home, welcome in a cold, hard world.

 

The Pilgrims believed to a person that God was present in the welcome and the mutual aid that was offered them from strangers. Their response was nothing but extravagant gratitude.

Let us this Thanksgiving give thanks for the stranger.

 

Thanks to Mr. John Majka

Read more at...

http://www.cruxnow.com/faith/2014/11/27/giving-thanks-for-the-stranger/?s_campaign=crux:email:daily