c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ From the first Thanksgiving _ a day set aside in 1621 by the first Pilgrim settlers to be mindful of God’s blessings _ to the football-rooting food-binge typical of the holiday today, the thoughts of Americans about the fourth Thursday of November have undergone a dramatic metamorphoses.

How has Thanksgiving changed?

Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, believes the answer is simple: The gratitude is gone.”Gratitude presupposes that we think we have gotten something that we don’t deserve,”said Mouw.”As we see the world less in terms of a wonderful universe that is created by God … and see the world in terms of cause and effect, manageable by technology, then we are much more inclined to think that what we have we got by manipulating reality.” In other words: People today are less likely to believe they received something they did not deserve.

Of course, stripped of gratitude, or”thanks,”the Thanksgiving holiday becomes little more than a state-sanctioned day of excessive eating rounded out by ecstatic or woeful yelps directed toward the television set.

Not that eating and watching television is bad, added Mouw. But there is another, more important, reason to pause and reflect on Thanksgiving Day: A keen awareness of life’s blessings honors an important aspect of our humanity.”We are created with the potential for gratitude and a sense of wonder in God’s presence. Then, it can only be to our psychological, spiritual and even physical health that we learn to be thankful.” No matter how corrupted, the practice of Thanksgiving is still vital.”It is a good thing that we have Thanksgiving Day, as a day to pause and allow the call to gratitude to get through to us,”he said.

Getting that call of gratitude out of Thanksgiving is key, said U.S. religion historian Jon Pahl of Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind.”A person who is grateful won’t be obsessed with trying to grasp and acquire but will be able to appreciate and enjoy the opportunities that life provides,”said Pahl.

The call to gratitude transcends any particular faith, said Pahl.”All the great religious teachers have taught this: The Buddha taught that suffering comes from attachment, from clinging to things. Jesus taught that true happiness comes not from clinging but from giving up one’s life. The Koran teaches that true devotion is submission to God out of gratitude for mercy. The Jewish faith teaches thankfulness for the law.””Of course,”he admitted,”putting that into practice is another matter.” Why does gratitude seem diminished today? What has changed?

Mouw said he believes part of it has to do with the family meal, which has become an increasingly rare phenomenon. It is a trend not without consequences, said the ethicist and philosopher. “I think that the breakdown of civil society has important links to the breakdown of the family meal,”said Mouw.”People are dining together less often these days.”The changes can be seen simply by observing the students at colleges and universities, said Mouw.”The folks that run the university food services say that people are grazing these days, not dining. That is an extension of the home where the family meal is no longer as important.” But his desire that more families gather around meals is more than mere nostalgia, said Mouw. “Thanksgiving was one of the special family dinners, when people not only took the leisure to eat together, but to pray and enjoy being a family.”Family meals teach tolerance, and other lessons that are still vital today, said Mouw. “We learn to sit at the table with people that we are mad at, that we don’t get along with __ we learn to be polite.” Pahl took a slightly different stance on the fundamental importance of the Thanksgiving meal. “Eating is a spiritual act and a family that eats together stays together … We need food, and I am of the opinion that when we attend to those things that we need, mindfully, that not only is our body fulfilled but also our spirit is enhanced,”he said.

What this is not, said Pahl, is a green light to pig-out.”This would mean more than mere gluttony, that, I fear is often the way Thanksgiving meals are often practiced,”Pahl said.”It would mean savoring the flavors of the food, receiving the labor it took to produce it and being grateful for the lives that went into it; both on the part of the people that cooked it, the people that harvested it and the animals and plants that gave their lives so that we can eat. Every meal has a cost.” Because Thanksgiving is about recognizing the interconnectedness of humanity, piling the kids into the minivan to go grab a Turkey Club sandwich is not acceptable. Being active in the food preparation is a vital part of the Thanksgiving ritual, said Mouw.

In a very tangible way, working to produce a meal, from stuffing the turkey to mashing potatoes and pounding out a pie crust, invokes gratitude when it is finally done, he added.”In the past,”Mouw said,”Thanksgiving was a time when a lot of people worked together to get a meal on the table. Now people may just go down to Boston Market … and pay $12 for a meal. You are not grateful for that. That is a business transaction!” Jan Connell, author of bestselling Christian books, agrees with Mouw and Pahl on the importance of Thanksgiving.”I don’t know any other nation that has a holiday like we have. It is God-centered, and anything that is God-centered is family and friends-centered; because grace unifies,”said Connell.

Connell believes so strongly in the benefits of a grateful life that much of her writing teaches people how to praise and thank God more effectively.

In her recent book,”Prayer Power: Secrets of Healing and Protection”(HarperSanFrancisco), Connell deals extensively with prayers of thanksgiving to God, angels, health and the planet.”Gratitude is a condition of the heart that all good people have … we share a deep belief that a heart that praises is a heart that brings God’s blessings upon us,”said Connell.

The holidays, Connell said, give people a chance to develop and express gratitude.”Thanksgiving encourages us to play to our strengths as a nation … It encourages us to take a moment, everyone, although we are all different, to say thank you. It is really a great blessing to thank God, no matter which name we know him as.”

DEA END RNS