Subject: "Giving thanks"... Greetings: Thank you for sharing your insight, and wisdom. Your posts empower all of us to better understand the path that our forefathers walked.. In regard to the *faith* of those Pilgrims who were later referred to as "Saints": To me, their faith is most easily understood -- as my siblings and I were raised with a number of these same core beliefs, and principles. Sometimes, in understanding "from whence we sprang," we better understand ourselves. Have a blessed Thanksgiving... Most sincerely, Cathy PORTER-Maynard <>< [William Brewster / Richard Warren] ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ "GIVE THANKS ( ! ) ... during the good times; and, the bad. For Our God is not the *cause* adversity or sorrow; indeed, He is ' The Peace that surpasses all understanding ' in the midst of the storm... " ================================================= In a message dated 11/28/2002 7:53:09 AM Central Standard Time, chandler@firstva.com writes: -- snip snip -- > > Second thing. A couple of my posts have had to do with the religious > beliefs of the Pilgrims. Obviously I'm not trying to promote any > particular > beliefs. Their religion mattered to these people. They were living a > desperate life in a dangerous, harsh, and what had to be an almost > unbearably lonely place because of their religion. Again and again they > left what could have been a comfortable life had they simply gone along > with > the population as a whole and went off into terribly perilous situations. > How could it matter so much to them, and how could it matter so much to the > people they were escaping that the powers in England would be willing to > arrest, and even execute in ways that we don't want to think about, people > for their ideas? It seems to me that it is clear on the face of it that it > was religion that literally "set these people apart," and to try to > understand them and how they understood the meaning of their world we need > to try to understand their religion. > > At the same time it should be remembered that not all the settlers were of > the church, and there may have been those in early Plymouth who did not > drag > their semi-starved bodies out into the stinking muck at low tide to grope > for the same disgusting cold clams day after day and ankle deep in frigid > mud that smells like nothing good on earth and shivering in that cold, wet > Cape Cod fog that makes your bones ache raise their eyes to heaven and sing > out ,"Thank you God, for these blessings." But some did, and that seems > like something worth trying to understand. > > > > > > > > ==== MAYFLOWER Mailing List ==== > Check out the Mayflower FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)page at > http://www.macatawa.org/~crich/mayfaq.htm . > >