This week Americans worldwide will be celebrating our national Day of Thanksgiving. It’s a longstanding tradition, dating back to 1619 at Berkeley Plantation in Virginia and followed by more recognized event in 1621 in Plymouth Colony hosted by the Pilgrims. Over three hundred years later, we still carry on that tradition of thanking God as a nation for His protection, providence and blessing.

In his 2007 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, President Bush said, “Our country was founded by men and women who realized their dependence on God and were humbled by His providence and grace.” Today, when a small minority of people very vocally want God entirely banished from the public sector, this nation, with presidential sanction, still sets apart a day to express thanks to God for His goodness and grace to this country. As the President has intimated, we do know Whom we should thank for all our national and individual blessings.

Thanksgiving is one of the most poignant reminders we have of our Christian heritage. Our history is literally strewn with this traditional declaration of thanksgiving to God. President George Washington declared the first official day of Thanksgiving for the new United States, proclaiming that Thursday, November 26, 1789, was to be a day of thanksgiving to God for his “care and protection.” Abraham Lincoln, our sixteenth president, set the last Thursday of November as a national Day of Thanksgiving; and Congress permanently established the fourth Thursday of November as a national Thanksgiving holiday in 1941.

Since that time, American families have faithfully gathered together on the fourth Thursday of November to give thanks to God. We cherish this national celebration, this time to recognize how blessed we are as we’re surrounded by family, friends, laughter, love and too much food and enjoying our liberty. Even this innocent right to recognize this national holiday and give thanks to the Lord cannot be taken for granted, however.

This year, teachers in the Seattle, Washington’s Public School System are being told that Thanksgiving is actually a time of “mourning” for “500 years of betrayal.” Apparently, the seven members of the Seattle School Board believe that we have no right to celebrate our freedom because, in their opinion, our forefathers set us on a course that has resulted in 500 years of grief for Native Americans. According to the school board, the Thanksgiving tradition is founded on “myth and deceit.” One of these so-called myths the school board alleges is that the Pilgrims did not come to this land seeking religious freedom, but to rob the Native Americans!

We need to recognize this blatant attack for what it is—not a promotion of tolerance for another culture, but a shameless revision of American history to further an anti-American, anti-Christian agenda. While we certainly recognize that Native Americans have not always been treated justly in our nation, recognizing and celebrating Thanksgiving Day is an entirely separate issue.

In 1621, under the direction of William Bradford, the Pilgrims set apart a 3-day feast to thank God for His providence and care, and even invited the Native Americans to join them. It wasn’t then, and it’s not now, a celebration of the destruction and plundering of Native Americans. Rather, the original Thanksgiving Day celebrated the values of both Pilgrims and Native Americans—life, liberty, friendship and gratitude. In fact, one of the blessings the Pilgrim Fathers were grateful for was the assistance and friendship of their Native American neighbors, as their letters and writings indicate.

Why are the members of the Seattle Public School Board rewriting history to deceive children and promote hostility between Native American and non-Native American students? Make no mistake: this school board’s agenda is not to debunk the so-called Thanksgiving Day myths. It is to undermine our Christian history.

We must not allow historical revisionists and misguided educators to deceive our children, especially regarding our rich tradition of a national Day of Thanksgiving. We have a responsibility to teach them about their Christian heritage; how the hand of God has blessed our nation so that after only a little more than 200 years, we are the most prosperous and the most free people on the face of the earth.

In Psalm 78 the psalmist reminds us God has commanded that we faithfully recount His goodness to our children so that they can acknowledge His works and keep His commandments. We have a responsibility to truthfully recount our national history so that our children will understand and acknowledge that it is God Who bestows liberty, blessing and protection on our nation. One thing we can be thankful for this Thanksgiving season is that, at least for now, Wisconsin is not Seattle, Washington.

For Wisconsin Family Council, I’m Julaine Appling reminding you the Prophet Hosea said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.