Charlie Kirk (4:00)

Can you talk about how important it is to give thanks and then go through the actual story of Thanksgiving with Square Squanto? And I forget some of the details, but tell us about that.

Bill Federer (4:12)

Yeah, this is really fascinating. So the pilgrims were a church group and so the King of England, Henry viii, breaks away from Rome and his advisors tell him if he's serious about it, he needs to stop using the Latin Bible, get himself an English Bible. The German princes have Martin Luther's German Bible that help them to break away. Well, Henry VIII says, great, get me one. Well, it just so happens a few years earlier, Henry VIII had William Tyndale burnt at the stake for translating the Bible into English. And William Tyndall's last words were, lord, open the King of England's eyes. And now it's a couple years later, the king wants to divorce his wife, Catherine of Aragon, because she didn't have a son after 18 years and Mary Ann Boleyn. The Pope won't recognize the divorce. Henry breaks from. The Pope, gets this English Bible, spreads it around the country, dusts his hands and says, that's it, we've broken from Rome. But something unexpected happened. People began to read it and began to compare what's in this Bible to this king divorcing and beheading his wives. So a group starts that wants to purify the Church of England and they are nicknamed the Puritans. The king doesn't like them. But then there's another group that said it's beyond hope of purifying. We're going to separate ourselves. And they go by different names, Baptists, Congregationalists, eventually the Quakers, and. But this one group we call the Pilgrims. And so they were a church group that had a Congregational church model, which is different than the hierarchical clergy laity model. And so for most of history, you had the clergy do the ministry and the laity was lazy and watched. And the congregational model is everybody's involved. The pastor helps everyone to have their relationship with God through Jesus and then coaches them to become mature Christians and then plug into the body and do something, because any muscle to grow has to be exercised. You have to get involved. And so the King didn't like this congregational model. And so King James said, I will make them conform or I will harry them out of the land. And so, so the King of England passed the act of Uniformity of Common Prayer. You do not make up prayers because you could make up one that's wrong. And so the government wrote all the possible prayers they could think of down in a book called the Book of Common Prayer. And when you wanted to pray, you just opened it to the, to the right page and you would read the prayer. And if you're caught having a little group at your house and you're making up your own prayers, the government, like the FBI, will kick in the door and they will arrest you and they'll drag you off to some government hearing room. It's called the Star Chamber because it had stars on the ceiling, sort of a January 6th type hearing room. And they would interrogate gate you and they would make you confess to stuff you didn't do and they'd make you try to snitch on your other praying friends and. And then they would brand you on the face as a heretic and even cut off your ear. And then they would stick you in a cell and let you rot away in there for days, weeks, months, years. Could you imagine the government doing this to their own citizens? And one person that was caught was named John Bunyan, and he was having a Bible study. He had not gotten approval of the government. He spent 12 years wasting away in prison. And that's when he wrote Pilgrim's Progress, this famous novel. And anyway, so. So these pilgrims decide to flee. They flee to Holland. Holland was seven provinces breaking away from Spain. It took them 80 years to break away from Spain. And they did not believe exactly the same thing religiously, but they hated Spain so much they were willing to work together. And so Holland had a little give and take with religion and also with morals. They had a little more immorality, but nevertheless it was the most tolerant place in Europe was Holland. And so the pilgrims go there and when Spain threatens to attack, they decide to flee. Originally they were going to go to Guyana, South America. They heard of the perpetual spring, but then they heard it was too close to the Spanish Main. That's the Caribbean era. People forget the first European settlement in North America is, was the French Protestants. They were called Huguenots. And they settled around Jacksonville, Florida in 1565. And Spain found out about it and butchered them. And so the Pilgrims didn't want to go anywhere near where Spain was. And so they decided to settle in Jamestown, which was started 14 years earlier. It was a king run colony, but they figured there were 3,000 miles away and they could do their little pilgrim thing and not be noticed. And so they set sail and they get caught in a storm. The boat leaks, they got to recock it. They set sail again, it leaks again. They got to swap it out for the littler Mayflower. They're in freezing North Atlantic. They've ate through a bunch of their food. The main beam cracks. It's a 3,000 mile journey, 66 days they're confined to a between deck, a little four foot high space. One dies, another baby's born. I mean, they make it to the New world and they're 500 miles away from Jamestown and the captain, Christopher Jones tries to sail south. But off the coast of Cape Cod it's really shallow if you've ever been there. It's one of those beaches where you could walk, you know, 200 yards out and it only comes up to your waist. I mean, and plus it's really cold. But you. These ships would get stuck on the sand like a half mile out and in a storm the waves would beat the ship. And 3,000 ships have sunk off the coast of Cape Cod. But the pilgrims almost sink. The captain gets free, goes back to Cape Cod and says, too dangerous to sail. Everyone off the boat. And they raise their hand and say, we have a question. Who's going to be in charge? So these pilgrims are coming across and they land at Plymouth Rock. And the captain of the boat says, everyone off. And they say, well, who's going to be in charge? We were going to go to Jamestown and it's a King run colony. And we were going to submit to the king's government. But there's no government here. We can't be lawless. Who's going to be in charge? They do something unique. They give themselves the authority to start a government. It's called the Mayflower Compact. The word compact means covenant. And it says we in the presence of God, covenant ourselves into a civil body politic. So this is a church group forming itself into a civil body politic. Again, a church group forming itself into a political group. This is the birth of America. A church group forming itself into.

Charlie Kirk (11:07)

They wrote that while they were still at sea, if I'm not mistaken. Right. They weren't sure their fate. I mean they were blown off course and basically this was a promissory note if they hit the shore, is that right?

Bill Federer (11:20)

Right. And so. But this was unique. Where did they get this idea? From their pastor, John Robinson, who was not an Anglican king appointed pastor. He was one of these congregational pastors. He was one of these Calvinist Puritans that looked back to this ancient Israel, that first 400 years out of Egypt period, before King Saul. And so they formed themselves into a civil body politician. And it goes on to enact just and equal laws and shall be thought most meet unto which we promise all due submission. Simple, revolutionary. It was a polarity change in the flow of power on planet Earth. Instead of top down ruled by kings and sultans and czars, it's ruled bottom up by we. Just us in this little boat. We're going to decide. And it's the difference between a dead pyramid ruled top down and a living tree where every root and every tiny capillary root sucks in nutrients to keep the tree alive. Every citizen is involved in church and every citizen is involved in the community. And so this becomes the model for the other New England colonies and eventually the U.S. constitution.

Charlie Kirk (12:30)

And yeah, so then talk about, just for a second here, Bill. They tried socialism, didn't they? And it didn't go well.

Bill Federer (12:37)

Yeah. This is interesting. So the pilgrims didn't have money and so they approached investors in England who formed the London company. And the company had bylaws and they weren't really thrilled with this and they were sort of at the very last minute already on the boat and they come with these papers and you say you got a shot, so they sign it. But these bylaws specify that everything would be owned in common. Everything gained by cooking, hunting, fishing, trading shall go into ye common stock. And everyone's already have their meat, drinking, apparel and all provision out of ye common stock, right? So everybody works, goes into this pot, and then everybody gets paid out of it. They tried it and they almost starved to death. William Bradford, the governor of the Pilgrims, writes, the failure of that experiment of communal service, which was tried for several years by good and honest men, proves the emptiness of the theory of Plato and other ancients applauded by some of latter times that the taking away a private property and possession of it in community would make a state happy and flourishing as if they were wiser than God. For in this instance, community of property was found to breed much confusion and discontent, retard much employment for the young men who were most able and fit for service objected to being forced to spend their time and strength in working for other men's wives and children without any recompense. The stronger man or the resourceful man had no more share of food, clothes, et cetera, than the weak man who was not able to do a quarter with the other good. This was thought injustice. The aged engraver men who were ranked and equalized in labor, food, clothes, et cetera, with the humbler and younger ones thought it some indignity and disrespect. And then I thought this was interesting. He says, as for men's wives who are obliged to do service for other men, such as cooking, washing their clothes, etc. They considered it a kind of slavery, and many husbands would not brook it or allow it. And William Bradford goes on, let none argue that this is due to human failing rather than to this communistic plan of life in itself. He says, I answer that God had another plan of life fitter for them. And so they began to consider how to raise more corn. After much debate, it was decided each man would plant corn for his own household. What a novel idea.

Charlie Kirk (14:58)

Incredible.

Bill Federer (14:59)

And it says every family was assigned a parcel of land. This was very successful. It made hands more industrious. The women now went willingly into the field, took their little ones with them to plant corn, while before they would allege weakness. And to have compelled them would have been thought great oppression. So here are these really religious people. I mean, they're as good as you can get. They tried owning everything in common, almost starved to death. They scrap it, give you a plot of land. They began abundant harvest. And that's when we celebrate Thanksgiving.

Charlie Kirk (15:26)

And this entire conversation is really kind of brought to you by Turning Point Academy. I want to encourage all of you, if you want to homeschool, start a church hybrid school. Get involved in our educator summit. You guys can check it out. It is a movement to reclaim, revive and restore education, virtuous education, focused on truth, goodness and beauty in the classical tradition. Turning point Academy@TurningPointAcademy.com Bill, continue on what you were saying and tell us about Squanto.

Bill Federer (15:53)

Yeah. So the pilgrims switched from company to covenant. The company bylaws that says, okay, here's this system. We're going to take it away from you, and we're going to distribute it to. Look, you get your own plot of land, you grow, you become prosperous, and then you voluntarily take care of your neighbor because you're doing it as unto God. And so you have. The pilgrim pastor was John Robinson. He says, we are knit together as a body in covenant of the Lord. We so hold ourselves tied to all to care for each other's good. Margaret Thatcher, she writes, your founding fathers look after one another not only as a matter of necessity, but as a matter of duty to their God. And then the founder of the Puritan Massachusetts, John Winthrop, gives his famous speech in 1630. This love among Christians is a real thing, not imaginary, as absolutely necessary to the being of the body of Christ. We are accompanied, professing ourselves, fellow members of Christ, we are to account ourselves knit together by this bond of love. We must make one another's condition our own. Rejoice together, mourn together, labor and suffer together. We shall find that the God of Israel is among us. You know, people say, well, wasn't the early church socialist? No, the early church was the early church. Socialism is counterfeit early church and the differences between the word voluntary and involuntary. Right. So you're blessed with goods, and then you voluntarily take care of your neighbor because you're doing as unto God. Socialism, there is no God. You get the goods from the state and you don't own anything. So if you don't own anything, how can you be charitable? How can you give away what you don't have? No. God entrusts you with stuff and then gives you opportunities to give them away anyway. So that's an important aspect that we look back to the pilgrims. But one of the stories that we. We have to include is Squanto. And if I have a few minutes, I'd be happy to share that.

Charlie Kirk (17:51)

Continue.

Bill Federer (17:52)

So the pilgrims were religious, but there were other groups that weren't, and they were pirates. So Spain had a monopoly on the New World for at least a century. And they had gold from Inca Peru and from Portobello Panama, and they'd take it to Cuba and ship it. And these Dutch and French And English pirates would raid the gold, but they would also sail up the coast of North America, lure unsuspecting Indians on board, lock them below deck, take them over to Malaga, Spain, and sell them into slavery. So one of the Indians that was captured was Squanto. And the story is he was purchased by some monks in Spain who gave him his freedom. He hitchhikes his way across Europe, gets to England. He's there for a dozen years, working, learning the language, and he finally finds some business that takes him to Newfoundland, right? A fishing type outfit. And then he gets the boat to drop him off at Plymouth, Massachusetts, only to find his whole tribe is dead, Right? They were wiped out by a plague. William Bradford writes that three years earlier, a French ship was shipwrecked off the case, the coast of Cape Cod. Sailors got ashore, Indians never left. Watching them and dogging them till they got the advantage. Killed them all. But three or four made sport with them. Worse than slaves. Anyway, one of those Frenchmen must have had an illness, and the Indians didn't have immunity, and it wipes out the tribe. So sort of in a reverse sense, had Squanto not been captured and kidnapped, he most certainly would have died. But Squanto's living with the neighboring Wampanoag tribe. And then that fall is when the Pilgrims show up. Half of the Pilgrims die the first winter. They wouldn't have survived another year. Spring of 1621. Walking into their camp is Squanto. And you can just picture the conversation. I mean, he's in his loincloth, and he goes up and he goes, oh, yeah, you guys from London? I used to live there, you know. Oh, yeah, the pub down on Wharf street or St. Paul's Chapel goes, oh, yeah, yeah, I know that place. And then he says, oh, this place here? I grew up here. I know this place like the back of my hand. Over that hill is a spring. And William Bradford says he taught him how to catch fish. He said, you know, that they weren't successful. But he says, no, these salmon, they spawn, this river is going to be packed. And then he taught them how to plant corn. They said, we tried it. He goes, no, you got to dig a hole, put some fish in, then put the kernel of corn in to cover it up. The fish decompose, fertilizes the soil. You have a nice harvest. Taught him how to take the corn and put it in a pot, shake it, and make popcorn, right? And then he taught him how to go down to the riverbank, squeegee in the mud. And catch eels and clams and lobsters and then how to catch beaver skins. It took 40 years worth of beaver skins to pay off their debt for the boat ride. Right. They didn't have. Wasn't like Latin in South America with gold. It wasn't like tobacco in Virginia. It's sort of interesting that the Indians in Virginia were healthy and they smoked tobacco and peace pipes. And so the Englishmen were like, okay, Indians are healthy, they smoke tobacco. Tobacco must make you healthy. And so it became a craze in London where doctors would prescribe tobacco anyway. But that was Virginia's cash crop. Massachusetts didn't have anything other than beaver skins. And it took 40 years of beaver skins for these Pilgrims to pay off those investors for their boat ride. But Squanto was their interpreter, put them on good terms with the Indians and they had an abundant harvest. And they had their first Thanksgiving. Now, half the Pilgrims died the first winter, so there's 102 of them. So you're basically down to 51, 90. Indians show up. Nearly twice as many Indians were at the first Thanksgiving than Pilgrims. And the Indians show up with deer and turkey. And the end of the day, the Indians roll up in their blankets and go to sleep. And the next day they're there and Thanksgiving goes on a second day and they're doing foot races and arm wrestling. And then they roll up in their blankets, go to sleep, and the next day they're still there. So the first Thanksgiving went on for three days. And so it's just an interesting aspect that they were at peace with each other. Matter of fact, a year later, the Chief Massasoit gets sick and the pilgrim, Edward Winslow, goes and doctors him up and he recovers. And so that turned into a 50 year peace that the Pilgrims and the Indians had. And now a little fine print. If you doctor an Indian chief and he dies, you die. So sort of serious when he went in there, but. But this was just a wonderful. The Pilgrims would not have survived had it not been for Squanto. And then another. Yeah.

Charlie Kirk (22:48)

So to kind of summarize all that, what. What do you think, you know, Bill, are some of the one or two big lessons from all that that apply to. To today and, you know, that we can. We can really kind of pry away from then and internalize for what we're living through.

Bill Federer (23:03)

Well, personally, the thought of Squanto being sold into slavery and then rescuing the Pilgrims, you got the Bible story of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers, but then he goes down to Egypt and becomes right hand of the pharaoh, and he provides for the other children of Israel to survive. So sometimes the pains that you go through in your life, the good Lord can use those to later have you be able to minister to somebody else that's going through struggles. One of the things I point out in history is there's two threads, greed and the gospel. And you always have people motivated by the gospel. And they're the ones that want to be friends with the Indians. And today, you know, they dig wells and villages and start hospitals and medical clinics and schools. Most of the schools and universities were started by churches. But then you always have people motivated by greed. And they're the ones that take land from the Indians, sell people into slavery, and vote for candidates they think will help their pocketbook, even though they stand for immorality. Those two threads go through each of our hearts every single day. And we have to make choices. Are we going to do what benefits us or what's better for our kids and the next generation?

Charlie Kirk (24:12)

That is the question, isn't it? And so we're living through a period of time right now, Bill, where a lot of people are looking for things to be thankful for. Can you just talk more broadly about the moral necessity to be deliberately thankful at least a day or a season every single year?

Bill Federer (24:30)

Yeah. Well, the founding era, they had this understanding of a relationship with a personal God. And so you read through the history. When things were bad, they would have days of prayer. When things were real bad, they would have days of fasting and prayer. And then when things turned around, they would have days of thanksgiving. One time there was actually a famine, and they had a day of fasting, and a boat comes in the harbor with supplies. They cancel the day of fasting, and they have a day of thanksgiving. And then you go through the Continental Congress, they had a day of prayer and fasting two months before they did the Declaration of Independence. And then you have, after the victory at Saratoga, they have a day of Thanksgiving. They captured 6,000 of the British. I mean, this British have the most powerful military in the world, and we capture 6,000 of their soldiers. So we have a national day of Thanksgiving. And then George Washington had the day of Thanksgiving when we finally do the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. So he's thanking God for our form of government. You come up to, oh, the War of 1812. James Madison has a day of fasting. And then after the war, as a day of thanksgiving. And but Lincoln's the one who made the day of thanksgiving an annual event. And then Every president from Lincoln up to the present has had a national day of Thanksgiving. But it's, you know, it's important for us to be grateful, you know, when you are thankful that it is something that the good Lord will bless you even more if you're thankful for what he's given you. I tell people, you know, in a sense, just sort of simplifying. God has plan A and Plan B. Plan A is he blesses us so much and we turn to him out of gratefulness. If that doesn't work, there is plan B. It says he withholds his blessings, right? And he hides his face is what it says. And he lets us experience the consequences of our selfish decisions. And when it gets bad, we cry out to him out of desperation and then he delivers us. His goal is to have us turn to him and it's a whole lot easier. He blesses us and we turn to him out of gratefulness.

Charlie Kirk (26:39)

Amen. It's beautifully said, Everybody. Email us freedomarliekirk.com Also check out Bill Federer's American Minute at americanminute.com I also want to reinforce for those of you that might be in the car right now on Thanksgiving or watching Unreal America's Voice or listening on podcasting if you are upset with your child's school or if you want to have an alternative, we at Turning Point USA are really building something substantial and real. The church hybrid model, the homeschool, the pod schooling, all the resources we have for you guys@ turningpointacademy.com you guys can fill out an inquiry form there and contact us right there. The team at Turning Point Academy is working very hard. We'd love to hear from you. Bill, what did you see that is giving you hope? That historically shows us that the citizen is rising and that the authoritarianism is going to finally be put on its heels.

Bill Federer (27:30)

Well, it is a crisis that causes people to wake up. I tell people it's in times of crises that people turn to Christ. But it's also in times of crisis that leaders are raised up. And, and what are the stories in the Bible that we love the most? It's when it looks hopeless. You got the Pharaoh charging in with his chariots and you got an 80 year old man Moses that stands up. Or you have a huge Goliath and it looks hopeless and God raises up a teenager. David, there's Gideon, there's a hundred thousand midianites coming in and here Gideon with 300 defeats him. It's almost like the good Lord likes to wait until Things look hopeless. And then he raises up little nobodies with faith and courage to turn things around. And this is just our turn. But I do see that, for example, the COVID causes parents to look over the shoulder of their kids and see what they're being taught, all this transgender stuff. And they're like, wait a second. And now parents are beginning to say, maybe I do need to take a more of an interest in what my kids are being taught. You know, I use a little illustration that you are a spirit, mind, and body. So your mind, in a sense, is like a super fancy computer. It's more than that, but it's at least that. And your body's like the computer case, which makes it silly for people to argue over what color the computer cases. Imagine if I were to say blue computers are better than red computers. Right. It doesn't really matter what color the case is. What matters what software is running on it. And so the battle is who gets to load the software on the next generation's brains. And is it love your enemies, do good to them that bless you, or is it cancel them, get them to lose their job? And the other side wants to put their malware and their viruses and their corrupted files on these little kids brains. And so the battle is who gets to teach the next generation. That's the prize. And I think that parents are finally waking up and realizing that we need to be involved.

Charlie Kirk (29:27)

Amen. Bill, tell us about historically. You write a lot about this, about how sometimes your back is up against the wall and the odds seem against you, but we as Americans never give up, talk about that.

Bill Federer (29:42)

Yeah, well, here when the revolution was taking place, we were breaking away from a globalist king. The king of England could control 13 million square miles, half a billion people. The sun never set on the British Empire, you know, in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, British Guyana, Canada, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, and America. Yet here we are with a ragtag group of people that decide, we're going to stand up to this globalist. We're not going to cave. And the good Lord brings in France on our side, and the Spanish help us behind the scenes, and then the Dutch. And so it ends up with us standing in courage that the British Empire is forced to let us go. And we're able to have a country where the citizen, the word citizen is Greek. It means co king. So you get to be a king with a little K over your life. And all of us together are king with the little K of the country. And you have a voluntary opportunity to surrender your life to Jesus, the King of kings. But it's voluntary. We're not talking dominionism or theocracy or we're shoving stuff down your throat. No, our founders were dedicated to you having the freedom of conscience. And it goes back to the concept that God is love and he wants you to love him. But for love to be love, it must be voluntary. The moment it's forced, it evaporates. Jesus never forced anybody to follow him. We can't force anybody to follow him. But we want to have an atmosphere where there's the freedom for people to choose. And we don't want kids being indoctrinated with something that's anti faith and. But, but we're a country, so you have us breaking away. You look at the War of 1812, the, the British had a lot, invested a lot of money in the bank of the United States and they were beginning to control our politics, sort of these globalist bankers. And you had James Madison cancel the charter of the bank of the United States because it had, you know, a good percentage of it was European and English investments. And then they decided, well, they weren't happy. They declared war on us. And so the war of 1812 and then you look at the Civil War. Anyway, a lot more there.

Charlie Kirk (31:56)

But never surrender is the lesson this Thanksgiving. A lot to be thankful for. Bill Federer, you're amazing. God bless you, man. Everyone, check out turningpointacademy.com or get your tickets to americafestamfest.com have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Bill. Thanks again. See you guys soon.

Unknown Speaker (32:15)

For more on many of these stories.

Bill Federer (32:17)

And news you can Trust, go to charliekirk.com.