Thanksgiving or Penance?

AM: Psalm 147 • Deut. 26:1-11 • John 6:26-35
PM: Psalm 145 • Joel 2:21-27 • 1 Thess. 5:12-24

Each November 25th, our denomination celebrates the life and work of James Otis Sargent Huntington, an Episcopal priest who worked among the immigrant poor of New York’s Lower East Side and later helped found the Order of the Holy Cross, of which he served as Superior for several terms. He also worked in the labor union movement and the land-tax movement (Kiefer, satucket.com). His involvement in the latter makes him an ironic yet rich contributor to this year’s Thanksgiving celebration.

Huntington was a disciple of Henry George, the author of the influential book, Progress and Poverty. In it, George argues that wealth produced by human activity and ingenuity is rightly considered as individual property, but land and natural resources are “bestowed by God on the human race,” (Kiefer), and each person is entitled to use a share of the land. In other words, “every one of the N inhabitants of the earth has a claim of 1/Nth of the coal beds, 1/Nth of the oil wells, 1/Nth of the mines, and 1/Nth of the fertile soil. God wills a society where everyone may sit in peace under his own vine and his own fig tree” (Kiefer). We each are entitled to use a share of the land. Of course, one owns and can thus sell any improvements he has made to the land such as roads, bridges, hotels, shopping districts and the like, but he has no ownership in the raw land itself. This is not the place to get into the weeds of George’s proposal, so if you are interested, James Kiefer provides a thorough and intriguing explanation.

Suffice it to say that the purpose here is to solve the problem of poverty, and it echoes the Law of Moses. Even our language gives a nod to this idea of common ownership. English-derived law distinguishes between real property and personal property. Kiefer tells us that “real” is a form of the word, “royal,” which means that the true owner of the land is the king, a symbol of the people. English-derived law does not recognize landowners, but “landholders.” The practice of eminent domain is a further example of this communal viewpoint.

George’s followers include some famous folks: Aldous Huxley, Woodrow Wilson, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Leo Tolstoy, William F Buckley Jr., Sun Yat-sen, eight winners of the Nobel Prize for Economics, and, of course, the one we celebrate today, Father Huntington.

This brings us to the historical basis of Thanksgiving Day. Native Americans more and more refer to this day as The National Day of Mourning, and we all, sadly, know why. A big part of the reason is that Wampanoag tribe (as well as the other tribes of the region) viewed land as communal property and thought that they were giving the Pilgrim immigrants the right to use the land, not to own it. Perhaps we would have more reason to be thankful for this day if the Father Huntington’s view had prevailed.

Written by Grimsley Graham

...who is eternally grateful to St. Pauls for introducing him to the Contemplative Movement.