Thanksgiving Proclamations and National Religion
By L. A. S.
The customary Thanksgiving proclamation was issued by President Roosevelt, November 1. In it he sets forth that it has pleased the Almighty “to bring the American people in safety and honor through another year,” during which there has been “peace within our own borders as well as between us and all other nations,” and that in various other ways the nation has been favored of heaven; in view of which the author of the proclamation does, as president of the United States, appoint and set apart Thursday, November 24, “to be observed as a day of festival and thanksgiving by all the people of the United States at home and abroad,” who are enjoined to observe the day by religious gatherings, “devoutly to give thanks unto God for the benefits he has conferred upon us as individuals and as a nation, and to beseech him that in the future his divine favor may be continued to us.” If it is proper that there should be a national recognition of God and a national petition to him for a continuance of the divine favor, why should not the nation also set up and enforce the divine will within its borders? If the nation may properly perform one act of religion, why not any and all other acts? Thus the National Reformers reason, and they reason correctly from the premise laid down in national and State Thanksgiving proclamations. They ignore the difference, which is as wide as the world, between an individual’s acting for himself in religion and a governmental act of religion, in which one individual acts for others. Theodore Roosevelt, as president of the United States, represents the people of the United States. In his official capacity he acts for them. The members of Congress and of the State legislatures represent and act for others in all that they do as such. They are elected by the people for that purpose. But no man, from the president down, is elected to act for the people in religion. And even were our public officials chosen for that purpose, God would not accept their service in such capacity; for “without faith it is impossible to please him,” and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” Each individual must believe and act for himself in things pertaining to God, as he must also give account of himself to God in the judgment day. One man can not speak for another at the judgment bar; so neither can one man speak and act for another now in those matters which the judgment will consider. National Thanksgiving proclamations may work no apparent harm, but they are wrong in principle, and the indorsement of wrong principles is always a thing to be carefully avoided. L. A. S.