I love our Pilgrims. I love their story, their courage, their virtue. We need to have a constant connection with these amazing people more than just once a year. Today, let's celebrate the historic document "The Mayflower Compact".
Welcome to Politics by Faith. Thanks for being to be the beginning of a few Thanksgiving themed episodes. Love Thanksgiving. I love Thanksgiving because I love our pilgrims. I love our Puritans, our ancestors, our heritage. I think about them all the time.
I talk about them to my kids all the time. Amazing people. They're very short of the story. And then there's like two or three points I want to make here. And we'll, we'll do some more next week. Just the short of the story.
So these pilgrims, they were called separatists. So back in England, there was the church of England and there were about four different groups of people who weren't happy with the church of England. They're on a spectrum. So the first group is like, man, we don't like this thing. And then the second group is like, we don't like a bunch of these things. And the third group is like, we don't like anything you guys do, but we're not really going to leave.
And then you're the fourth group, the separatists. That's us. I said, we got to get out of here. They're getting killed too. So they went to Amsterdam. I didn't know that until a couple of years ago, they went to Amsterdam first and they were there for 12 years.
And it was really tough for them to be there. And they said, this isn't good enough either. And the reason they left is because their kids were starting to embrace their pay, the pagan culture that was around them. William Bradford said, kids were drawn away. by evil examples into extravagant and dangerous courses departing from their parents. So they left to the new world.
So 1620, they got on two boats, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, and they left their community, they left their church, in many cases, parts of their family. They would leave young kids behind. The idea was that they'll come in later, later boats, maybe some elderly family members. We're just going to go get things set up over there and then you guys can come later. William Bradford, he said, so William Bradford, he wrote this book afterwards, turned into a book called Of Plymouth Plantation. And he always wrote everything in the third person, which is weird.
I don't know why he did that. So I'm just going to change they. He would say like, so they left that goodly and pleasant city. as if he's talking about someone else, but he's not, he's talking about him. So I'm just going to change it. So we left that goodly and pleasant city, which had been our resting place for nearly 12 years.
But we knew that we were pilgrims and looked not much on those things, but lifted our eyes to the heavens, our dearest country, and quieted our spirits. Heaven was our dearest country. Sure, we're from England. We escaped Amsterdam. We're pilgrims on this earth. no matter where we live, but chased all over the world.
Heaven is our real country. So they got on the two boats and the Speedwell started taking on water. Not a good start. So they all crammed onto the Mayflower, 102 people in total. But here's what's super interesting about this. Well, it's a lot of interesting things.
Another interesting thing, half the people on the boat were not pilgrims, the crew. There were 41 pilgrims, 61, they called them strangers. And it didn't go great between these two groups of people. And then you cram them on this little old wreckety boat. It's wet, damp. dark, disgusting.
It's a cargo ship. This was the cargo ship. It's not even four people. You put 102 people on there and two very different groups of people on this boat. And then you send them on a journey for 66 days. 66 days to sail across the ocean.
I bring this all the time up with my kids whenever they start to complain about a long car ride. We say, well, our pilgrims got on a boat for 66 days. And then if they groan, I say, well, you want to make it 40 years in the desert? Which would you prefer? 40 years in the desert or 66 days across the ocean? or the two and a half hours we have left on this car trip.
66 days. They finally make it here and they get off and they go to Bucky's and they all have a barbecue sandwich. Oh, they get here and it's winter time. They got to stay on the boat for six more months. And that is when half of the pilgrims, half of everyone on the boat died. And I just, I, we can't conceptualize this because we were so distant from death and we've sanitized death in many different ways, but, but it's not like they were doing okay.
And then boom, you die one day. It was six months of dying. six months of starving, six months of disease, six months of like scurvy, six months of suffering, agony, pain, screaming, and then dying, six months of dying, and then finally, and like all night long, there's nothing you can do. What do you do at night? What do you do at night all night long? There's no phones to scroll, just sit there in the dark.
Even if you're doing well, everyone around you is dying. Six months. Think about that this weekend. Truly, think about that all week. Today we had some fun on SiriusXM. We were joking around because none of my kids like turkey.
And I don't either. My wife doesn't like it. So everyone's like, no turkey this year. Dad was like, I finally do ham. I thought about it. Well, that's not American of me.
So I brought it up on the radio and everyone called in. Not one person said stick with the ham. Every single person's like, you're a terrorist. And I reckon I recognize it, too. Right. But everyone is making these really good arguments about why we should still do Turkey.
I'm not going to do it here. But it really had to do with manhood and tradition and conservatism and the pilgrims. Not no one made the claim. It's good. A couple of people did at the end. But that's ridiculous because Turkey's not good.
Oh, but Slater, if you inject it with butter and you pour spices over it and you deep fry it... and then smoke it for 20 hours. You're like, okay, I guess maybe then it's edible. But no one eats turkey any other time of the year. I don't mean turkey sandwiches, I mean like a turkey. No one's, what's the big of turkey, honey?
And just get a whole turkey and put the whole bird in the oven. No one does that except for this one time of year. It's not good, it's okay. There's other reasons why we're still having turkey in the Slater home. But I bring it up because someone said, Slater, I know the way to make turkey taste good. 24 hour fast before the turkey.
Absolutely brilliant. Can my children make it 24 hours before the meal? Tastes delicious then. Because our pilgrims went 66 days on the boat and six more months hanging offshore. And then when they got off the boat, they still had all the work to do, but everyone was so sick. There were only six men who were able to do any work and they had to do all the work and all the work needed to be done.
But I want to, my first main point here is I want to talk about the Mayflower Compact because we had this problem here with the 61 strangers. with the 41 pilgrims. So they're supposed to land in Virginia. That's where their legal authority was to set up, but they got blown off course and they landed in Cape Cod. So the patent they had, the permission was null and void and the strangers are going to kill the pilgrims. So William Bradford wrote up this Mayflower Compact.
It was the first document ever creating a consensual government between individuals without a king. So all the other declarations in the past were in agreement with the king and the people like the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta was the king saying, all right, fine, I won't do these things to you people. But this was just people coming up with their own separate agreement. John Quincy Adams says it was the first example. in modern times of a social compact or system of government instituted by voluntary agreement conformable to the laws of nature by men of equal rights, so no king, and about to establish their community in a new country.
And this was the beginning of Thomas Jefferson when he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the government. This is the Mayflower Compact. So I want to read it to you here. Again, my first point is how secular this document was. Just more evidence that, of course, we were founded as a Christian nation. Let's go back to the very beginning.
The Mayflower Compact. It said, this is the whole thing, I'm going to read the whole thing. In the name of God, Amen. That's a great opening. The Constitution has a great opening too. We the people.
That's a good opening. The Declaration opens with when in the course of human events. That's a good opening too, but this is a strong opening. You can't get better. In the name of God, Amen. We whose names are underwritten, having undertaken for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.
Oh, they were deists and not, they didn't really believe. In honor of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia. Due by these presents, these present, solemnly and mutually in the presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves into a civil body politic for our better ordering and preservation and furtherance of the ends of Forset. The ends are the glory of God and the advancement of the Christian faith. And by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, and constitutions, and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the general good of the colony, unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof, we have here under subscribed our names at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of our sovereign Lord, King James, Anno Dominio Lievre Lord, 1620.
This is our heritage. This is our country. This is where we come from. And I'll leave you with this, Anne Bradstreet. We're going to talk more about her next week. Anne Bradstreet came over to New World with her dad and her husband in 1630, first to Salem Mass.
And then two years later, they settled in what's now Cambridge, Mass. She had eight kids, incredible life. She was our first poet. She's a wonderful poet. I've read a couple of things of hers in the past, and she's a fantastic poet. Our very first.
I just want to share this again, more evidence of where we came from is who we are. And I hope this inspires you to reconnect to this. This is, uh, the church covenant 1630 and a bunch of men. And also Anne Bradstreet signed this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and in obedience to his holy will and divine ordinance. We, whose names are here underwritten. being by his most wise and good providence brought together into this part of America, in the Bay of Massachusetts, and desirous to unite ourselves into one congregation or church, under the Lord Jesus Christ our head, in such sort as becometh all those whom he hath redeemed and sanctified to himself, to hereby solemnly and religiously, as in his most holy presence, promise and bind ourselves to walk in all our ways according to the rule of the gospel, and in all sincere conformity to the
ordinances, and in mutual love and respect each to other. So near as God shall give us grace.
" The beginning of the church is now known as the First Church of Boston.
Still around. I'm so inspired by these amazing people. It's so important for us to reconnect to them. We know their courage. We know their bravery. We know their virtues.
We know what mattered most to them. And the more we can reconnect to that, the better off we'll all be. I was going to say, better off we'll all be even today. Better off we'll all be especially. A few more Thanksgiving points we'll make next week. But I hope you have a wonderful weekend thinking about that. MikeSlater . Locals . com for the transcript and commercial free.
