Thankful For Theocracy?: TVC’s Sheldon Tries To Make Thanksgiving A Vehicle For Bigotry

What is it with Religious Right zealots and holidays?

In recent weeks, Focus on the Family, the American Family Association and other Religious Right zealots have ginned up their annual assault on “Happy Holidays.” In a shameless bid to raise money and add a dollop of bitterness to the Christmas season, these folks are DEMANDING that merchants use the term “Merry Christmas” in their advertisements and in-store greetings.

There may have been no room at the inn for Christ, but there better be room for Christmas in the Nieman Marcus catalogue this year — or there’s going to be trouble. (Whether Jesus, who urged the rich young man to sell all of his possessions and give the money to the poor, would want to be in the Nieman Marcus catalogue is another issue altogether!)

Now, the Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition has set his sights on Thanksgiving as a propaganda and fund-raising vehicle. In his most recent e-mail appeal, Sheldon urges pastors — and the rest of us — to declare Nov. 23 “America’s Christian Heritage Sunday.”

The bombastic California preacher wants sermons on “America’s Christian founding” and church bulletin inserts that insist America was “founded because of prayer.” He takes the project one step further and seeks government endorsement of the occasion, urging his troops to contact local mayors and city councils for resolutions in honor of the special day.

Sheldon regurgitates a lot of the usual “Christian nation” baloney to bolster his case. Much of it is outright false; all of it is so wrenched from historical context that it should be regarded as fiction.

America was founded for a lot of reasons: imperial expansion by European powers, the hunt for wealth by adventurers of all stripes and the search by some for religious freedom. Many colonists came here just because they wanted a better life.

Sheldon, of course, focuses only the Pilgrims. He says they gave us “America’s first Constitution, the Mayflower Compact,” and argues that “our founding fathers never forsook Christ or the role of Christianity in their duties, and in fact, they used it as their basis for America’s founding.”

Sheldon falsely claims that Ben Franklin persuaded the Constitutional Convention to turn to prayer when delegates reached a difficult spot in the negotiations. (Franklin did make the appeal, but the delegates decided not to take him up on it.)

Predictably, Sheldon excoriates the Supreme Court for endorsing the secular humanists’ “perverted doctrine of ’separation of church and state.’”

Sheldon also celebrates the fact that many early state constitutions included religious tests for public office! He notes that the Pennsylvania constitution required officials to express belief in one God and acknowledge the “divine inspiration” of the Old and New Testaments. He happily cites the constitution of Delaware (home, Sheldon notes, of Vice President-elect Joe Biden), which required office holders to “profess faith in God the Father, and in Jesus Christ His Holy Son and in the Holy Ghost.”

What a turkey! Does Sheldon really want to go back to the days when various denominations of Christianity were state-established faiths and all Americans had to profess faith in them or become second-class citizens? He clearly does!

As for the Mayflower Compact, it is, indeed, an important document from American history. But what counts today is the U.S. Constitution, with its ironclad provisions for church-state separation and religious liberty for all.

The framers of the Constitution — some orthodox Christians, some not — sought a nation where persons of all beliefs (and none) were guaranteed the right to follow their own consciences on matters of religion. The church-state provisions of the First Amendment have ensured that some 2,000 denominations, faith groups and traditions are free to operate in America today. Millions of Americans profess no religious affiliation at all.

The Constitution even protects the right of fundamentalist prevaricators like Sheldon to make a nice living spreading historical lies, pushing divisive and hateful religious and political extremism and engaging in ethically dubious but lucrative conduct. (Remember “Lucky Louie’s” role in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal?)

Here’s an idea for America’s clergy. Instead of joining Sheldon’s misguided crusade, why not preach a sermon this weekend praising church-state separation and the role that beneficent principle has played in giving each of us religious liberty?

The freedom to believe as we wish, or not to believe at all, is something to be truly thankful for, this week and every week.

Tagged In: America's Christian Heritage Sunday, Jack Abramoff, Lou Sheldon, Traditional Values Coalition