DESPITE immense changes in American life since the 17th century, the early Puritans, honored (well, kind of) every Thanksgiving Day, live on.

The material success of this country speaks of their industry. The Puritans were not lazy people. The Northern colonies rapidly became scenes of busy commercial manufactures and trade under their enterprising efforts. (As an aside, the honesty that still characterizes all kinds of commercial and personal transactions is reminiscent of the strong ethical sense they upheld in business.)

But the Puritans elevated work to a religious calling; if one was not successful at this calling, one was not one of the spiritually predestined. Many families today arrive at the Thanksgiving table exhausted from the pace of life. Everyone must be ambitious and prove himself by work outside the home. Workaholism even afflicts high school students. The decline of private home life and the family is the inevitable by-product of their intense commercial spirit.

The uniform style of dress popular today, though much more scruffy, casual and immodest than that of the Puritans, shows evidence of their disdain for material finery. The rejection of color and patterns is Puritanical.

Radical politics will be in evidence at Thanksgiving dinners throughout the land and, yes, the Puritans did not believe in gender equity or mandatory “diversity.” Nevertheless, they brought a zealousness to their work, along with a disdain for intellectual activity, contemplation and the passive virtues, that would lead to a hyper-active do-goodism. The have-nots of society are utterly condemned under the Calvinist work ethic (the Puritans did not see poverty as potentially virtuous) and so one of the unintended consequences of Puritanism is a compensatory effort to elevate the losers who have no inherent value because they do not have successful careers. Behind the strident calls for equity in the corporate workplace is the belief that if any group or individual does not possess material success through work they are nothing.

The food at many American tables will, let’s face it, be bland and dull. The Puritans would not have envisioned or necessarily desired packaged meals, but could they really condemn their necessity? There is no time to produce meals, let alone elaborate meals, today and for the Puritans, time was money — and money was a means of salvation. The cookbooks of the Pilgrims may be treasured for their antiquity, but hardly for their great recipes.

Finally, the fact that a surprising number of people will spend Thanksgiving either alone or with few, though certainly not a common phenomenon in the colonial settlements, is the inevitable result of the intense individualism of the Calvinist theology embraced by the Pilgrims.

— Comments —

Tony S. writes:

Your points regarding the Puritans are on the mark. Their beliefs and complete repudiation of Catholic thinking was the beginning of what has become the modern American moral landscape.

I would add that the Puritans belief regarding individual interpretation of the Christian faith was a sure path to damnation. You state that the Puritans “did not intend dramatic or negative effects” but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The fact is that within a couple of generations the Puritans had split into dozens of competing denominations that each held to a different form of Christianity (as if Christ’s teachings and truth itself could be divergent).

Their effect on modern family life that you mention is just the tip of the iceberg; their promulgation of the interpretation of Scripture by the individual has led to the dismissal of Christ’s statements in Matthew chapter 5 regarding divorce and remarriage. The destruction of the nuclear family and its effects on children are the outcome.

And “the fact that a surprising number of people will spend Thanksgiving alone or with few” is due to the effects of the Puritan promotion of individualism which has led to modern American faux-Christianity and its belief that the individual can subjectively decide that artificial contraception is not only no longer a sin but actually the responsible thing to do.

The Puritans were the beginning of a long, divergent road away from the true path of salvation.

Laura writes:

Thank you for writing and expanding on these points.

You write:

And “the fact that a surprising number of people will spend Thanksgiving alone or with few” is due to the effects of the Puritan promotion of individualism which has led to modern American faux-Christianity and its belief that the individual can subjectively decide that artificial contraception is not only no longer a sin but actually the responsible thing to do.

We are steeped every day in the chaos and loneliness this has caused.

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