Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Cosmos The In Lost

Home
Catholic
Thanksgiving: An American Celebration of a Deadly Sin?

Thanksgiving: An American Celebration of a Deadly Sin?

Last updated on: November 26, 2015 at 2:34 pm by Artur Rosman

Thanksgiving: An American Celebration of a Deadly Sin? 2015-11-26T14:34:30-07:00 Artur Rosman

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The Spirit of Thanksgiving (Georg Emanuel Opiz, The Glutton, 1804; Source: Wikimedia Commons, PD-Old-100).

I’m spiritual but not religious about Thanksgiving.

I show up only once a year, go through the motions, and don’t really make too much of a fuss about it.

You can’t sell out or profanate Thanksgiving, which is always-already a festival of gluttony. By the way, you should ironically use your promo code to purchase this book.

However, I’ve noticed that in some Catholic quarters there is a push to make Thanksgiving Catholic.

I don’t know, I could be wrong about this, but isn’t it a little blasphemous to want to appropriate the only holiday that celebrates gluttony?

The last time I checked, gluttony, despite what all the postmodernists might say, is still one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

On thanksgiving you stuff yourself with junk food and then proceed to watch gladiators of the gridiron give each other concussions.

If this isn’t enough, the connection between piety and the worst elements of capitalism continues with what used to be Black Friday, but now extends from Wednesday to Monday.

If you insist on sinning and using the 30% off Amazon code HOLIDAY30 during checkout for your book purchases then at least be subversive in your sinning. Like a good cultural Marxist subvert late modern capitalism from within late modern capitalism.

Any purchase you make, not just books, after clicking on the links in the following pious book lists will charitably kick back money to our needy family.

If you’re going to be a glutton, then at least have the sense of humor to be a theologically serious glutton with the help of the following lists:

1. Top 10 Theology Books of the Last 10 Years (That I’ve Read)

2. Thanksgiving Special: Eating, Theology, Philosophy, and the Hungry Soul

3. TOP10 Books On Theology and Neuroscience

4. Or indulge in my many other booklists.

But in all seriousness, there is no better analysis of American Catholicism’s (and Christianity’s) decadence, of which appropriating Thanksgiving is but a minor symptom, than the following excerpt from David Bentley Hart’s post on American reactions to Pope Francis:

Who knows? America is such an odd combination of Christian pieties and post-Christian habits of thought. What other country could produce persons, for instance, who believe it possible to be both Christian and libertarian (which makes me think of Enoch Soames, the “Catholic diabolist”)? With our occult belief in the possibility of limitless “wealth creation,” how do we dare acknowledge the limits of nature, human or cosmic? But Francis cannot really concern himself with our peculiarities and perversities. For all its economic power, American Catholicism is only one minor and rather aberrant party within the worldwide communion; and Francis is writing for his Church, not for America. Of course, it is possible that one day a Christian view of reality will take root even here, in this the first constitutionally and culturally post-Christian land in Western history. But—and, again, not being a Roman Catholic, I may have no right to say this—I do not think it is incumbent on the pope to hold his tongue until it does.

You already knew that and didn’t fall for making Thanksgiving Catholic.

But beware of the other national holidays, which celebrate wrath and pride, and so on.

Previous Post

November 25, 2015

Thanksgiving as Forgiveness

Next Post

November 28, 2015 American Conservatives Are, After All, What They Said They Were

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category #WhyRemainCatholic Abortion Advent Anti-Catholicism Arts Atheism Beauty Benedict XVI Bible Book Review Catholic Cinema Comedy Cosmos: A Space-Time Odyssey Czesław Miłosz Dariusz Karłowicz Devil Easter Eastern Orthodoxy Economics Environment Family Famous Atheists Who Weren't Atheists Guest Post Hans Urs von Balthasar HHS Mandate History Imagination Interview Islam Jean-Luc Marion John Paul II Judaism Just War Lent Literature Little Sisters of the Poor Liturgy Martyrdom Music News Paganism Patristics Phenomenology Philosophy Pierre Hadot Poetry Poland Pop Culture Pope Francis Poverty Prayer Protestantism Rabelais Race Remi Brague Rene Girard Russia Sam Rocha Science & Religion SCOTUS Secularization Sexual Abuse Sexuality Silence Solidarity Stratford Caldecott Synod14 Terrorism Top 10 Uncategorized Walker Percy War Weakened Edition World War II World Youth Day WYD Krakow

Select a Month July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which New Testament book quotes Psalm 110 to describe Jesus as the eternal High Priest?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Romans Hebrews Acts Revelation