Pilgrims, Thanksgiving and BEER

I think I will write something appropriate for Thanksgiving, so here goes.

Why did the Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock?

If you remember your history (if your American) you know that the Pilgrims were headed for the British colony of Virginia, when a storm blew them for off course to the north. They started back southward when the emergency hit that caused them to abandon their quest for Virginia and to make for the nearest land.

The emergency was they were about to run out of BEER. Yep, those devout Protestant, evangelical, fundamentalist Pilgrims settled at Plymouth because they were running dangerously low in their supply of beer. One of the first things these Pilgrim Fathers did when they made it to shore was brew more BEER!

I believe that BEER is an important part of America's Christian heritage, and we should all have beer or a similar beverage (in moderation of course) when ever we celebrate Thanksgiving. Neither the Pilgrims nor their Puritan cousins were teetotalers.

Another important thing to remember on Thanksgiving is the Pilgrims came here to escape religious persecution and tyranny. The intolerant, oppressive king that the came here to escape was King James I of England. The guy who gave us the King James Bible, which should really be called the "Authorised Version" of the Bible.

King James was a Scot (he's James VI of Scotland). He hated Calvinists and Calvinism, and the Pilgrims were Calvinists, and this is one of the reasons for his persecution of them. King James was also a drunk and a flaming homosexual. The only reason he "authorised" a new translation was so that he could rid Britain of the Geneva Bible, which was loaded with Calvinistic footnotes.

Oh. One more thing. These early Protestant Bibles all contained those extra books that you still find in Catholic Bibles today. Read about it here.

Coram Deo,
Kenith