感恩节的历史背景与清教徒的社会政治经济观

以下是摘之Rush Limbaugh III的"瞧,我告诉过你吧."一书,由纽约Pocket books 书
行出版(也是Simon & Schuster的分行之一)1993年,第69到第72页

清教徒的故事起源于十七世纪前页(对加州Rio Linda一带的人来说,是1600世纪).英
王詹姆斯一世统治期,大英国教教会大肆迫害任何一个不认同它专制宗教权威和世事
势力的人.那些置疑主教权威,那些坚信崇拜自由的人无不被追,被捕,甚至为他们的
所信被处死.

一群主张脱离国教的人率先逃离,来到荷兰建立了聚居地.十一年后,其中四十来人相
约要冒险远征新大陆,那里,他们必会面临艰难险阻,但也可能生存下来,并可听由他
们良知的引领去礼拜上帝.

1620年八月一号,五月花号启航了,带着一百零二位船客,期中四十位正是牧师威
廉.布莱福特 带领的分离派清教徒(PILGRIM又称朝圣者，和以后大批移民新大陆的
清教徒PURITAN英文名有所不同，这里暂以大家熟知的清教徒称之------译者按).在
航程中,布莱福特主持制定一份共守合约(即著名的"五月花号公约"----译者注),拟
定了无关人们的宗教信仰的,新移居团体中所有人合守的公正平等法律法令条例.这
革命性的五月花协定的思想是从何而来的?正是从圣经而来.这群清教徒在新旧约教导中浸淫良多.他们视远古的以色列人为榜样,而且正是因为圣经经文里列
列记载了这些神圣先贤事迹,清教徒们也从不怀疑他们的实践将会成功.

不过朋友,这可不是一趟令人愉快的巡游.新大陆迁徙之征十分漫长而艰苦.当清教徒
们十一月在新英格兰登陆时,他们发现,就象布莱福特日记中仔细描绘的:这是片阴冷
,贫瘠,废弃的荒原野地.他写道:没有友朋的迎接,没有遮身的片瓦,更没有客栈可以
容他们稍复体力.

而这,仅是为自由而牺牲的开始.第一个冬天,一半的清教徒,包括布莱福特的太太,死
于饥饿,疾病和寒冬无遮.当春天终于来临时,印地安人来了,教这些殖民者如何种玉
米,抓鳕鱼,剥海狸皮制衣.清教徒的生活在改善,但是他们仍是未达成功!理解这一点
非常重要, 因为现代美国历史课程往往停留于此.感恩节在某些课本里竟然被解释成
是清教徒为感谢印地安人的救命之恩的节日,而不是作为立基于新旧约的那种感恩的
虔诚表征.

这里是被遗漏的部份:清教徒们与他们伦敦赞助商签署的原始合同中,要求清教徒们每
样出产都归入一个公共货栈,集体中的每一位成员都拥有一份公共份额.所有他们清
理出来的土地和建造的房屋也是集体共同拥有.布莱福特,也是殖民地新总督,意识到
这种形式的集体主义让清教徒们代价不扉且极具毁灭性,不亚于第一个严峻寒冬对他
们的摧残.而那一寒冬已夺去如此多的生命.他于是决定采取另一个大胆的行动.布莱福特给每个家庭划出一块地,让他们自己管理操作,因而释放了市场经济的能量。

不错，早在卡尔。马克斯出世之前，这些清教徒们就已经发明和实践过只能被称作社
会主义运动的事了。结果呢？行不通！意外啊意外，是吧？布莱福特和他的伙伴们
发现再有创造力，再勤奋的人也不愿意比任何其他人多干，除非善用可激发个人意
愿的力量！

在世界上大部份国家都经历过已持续百余年的社会主义运动，并正试图着改造，完善
和再生它时，清教徒们早就决定永远的摈弃它了。布莱福特有关社会主义运动的着
作应该编入每个小学历史课里。如能果成其事，我们实可以防止将来无必要的痛苦。

“这场试验，在共同进退的前提和课程里，尝试了不同的时段，用取消个人资产，来
让集体共产共富，好象应能让大家幸福而丰饶，就好似他们要比上帝还聪明”布莱
福特写道：“试验对这个集体而言，我们发现倒引发了许多困惑和不满，而且阻滞
许多职业，而那本应是为他们谋福和慰籍他们的。而最适合去劳动和服务的年轻人，
又不满为别人的太太孩子们耗费时间精力去工作，还毫无报酬。这，被认为不公”

清教徒们发现无奖励就不能指望人们仍能工作杰出。那布莱福特下的人们下一步是如
何试验的呢？他们把原先免费福利事业解套，运用分散资本打包给各资本所有人(资
本家)的方式，让每家都分得自己的一片地，而且可以任意操作，所得出产可拿到市
集出售。结果如何呢？“这可是非常的成功，”布莱福特写道，“那可让每一双手
勤奋不已，栽种下的玉米量史无前例。”布莱福特听起可不太象个克林顿式的家伙
吧？那么供方市场的经济有没有可能在1980年代前存在呢？有。读读创世纪里41章
里约瑟和法老的故事吧。听了约瑟的建议，(创41：34)法老在七个丰年中减税至20%，
“全地出产极丰。”(创41：47)

不久，清教徒们发现他们的收成自己根本吃不了。他们于是设了交易所和印第安人交
换财物。利润让他们还清了欠伦敦的赞助商的债务。普莱矛斯定居的成功和繁荣吸
引了更多的欧洲人而开始了那场后被称作“伟大的清教徒移民”活动.

被普莱矛斯成功而吸引来新大陆的人中，有一位叫汤玛斯。霍克的人在康乃迪克州建立
了自己的领地。那里成为第一个正式宪治的区域，而且是世上可知的最自由的社会。霍
克的领区受康州基本法令限制，这法令对政府许可权有着严格的限制。这基本法是极
具革命性的且是如此成功，以至麻塞诸塞州移用了其中人身自由的部份，包括98条
单独成立的个人权益保护条例。如‘书面征税’,‘法律诉讼程式’,‘陪审团审讯制’
以及对‘粗暴，不寻常惩罚’的禁止令.

这一切听起来很耳熟吗？应该是。这些思想和概念直接引入了美国宪法里的民权法案。
然而，至今，这些早期新英格兰的朝圣者和清教徒还经常被诽谤成烧女巫的和被描
绘成蠢货。其实正相反，正是他们对多元化和自由崇拜的执着才让这些理想在美国
人的生活中赋予了实质。

The following is an excerpt from See, I Told You So by Rush Limbaugh III. New York: Pocket books (a division of Simon & Schuster), 1993; pp. 69-72

The story of the Pilgrims begins in the early part of the seventeenth century (that’s the 1600s for those of you in Rio Linda, California). The Church of England under King James I was persecuting anyone and everyone who did not recognize its absolute civil and spiritual authority. Those who challenged ecclesiastical authority and those who believed strongly in freedom of worship were hunted down, imprisoned, and sometimes ????uted for their beliefs.

A group of separatists first fled to Holland and established a community. After eleven years, about forty of them agreed to make a perilous journey to the New World, where they would certainly face hardships, but could live and worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences.

On August 1, 1620, the Mayflower set sail. It carried a total of 102 passengers, including forty Pilgrims led by William Bradford. On the journey, Bradford set up an agreement, a contract, that established just and equal laws for all members of their new community, irrespective of their religious beliefs. Where did the revolutionary ideas expressed in the Mayflower Compact come from? From the Bible. The Pilgrims were a people completely steeped in the lessons of the Old and New Testaments. They looked to the ancient Israelites for their example. And, because of the biblical precedents set forth in ????ure, they never doubted that their experiment would work.

But this was no pleasure cruise, friends. The journey to the New World was a long and arduous one. And when the Pilgrims landed in New England in November, they found, according to Bradford’s detailed journal, a cold, barren, desolate wilderness. There were no friends to greet them, he wrote. There were no houses to shelter them. There were no inns where they could refresh themselves.

And the sacrifice they had made for freedom was just beginning. During the first winter, half the Pilgrims—including Bradford’s wife—died of either starvation, sickness, or exposure. When spring finally came, Indians taught the settlers how to plant corn, fish for cod, and skin beavers for coats. Life improved for the Pilgrims, but they did not yet prosper! This is important to understand because this is where modern American history lessons often end. Thanksgiving is actually explained in some textbooks as a holiday for which the Pilgrims gave thanks to the Indians for saving their lives, rather than as a devout expression of gratitude grounded in the tradition of both the Old and New Testaments.

Here is the part that has been omitted: The original contract the Pilgrims had entered into with their merchant-sponsors in London called for everything they produced to go into a common store, and each member of the community was entitled to one common share. All of the land they cleared and the houses they built belonged to the community as well. Bradford, who had become the new governor of the colony, recognized that this form of collectivism was as costly and destructive to the Pilgrims as that first harsh winter, which had taken so many lives. He decided to take bold action. Bradford assigned a plot of land to each family to work and manage, thus turning loose the power of the marketplace.

That’s right, long before Karl Marx was even born, the Pilgrims had discovered and experimented with what could only be described as socialism. And what happened? It didn’t work! Surprise, surprise, huh? What Bradford and his community found was that the most creative and industrious people had no incentive to work any harder than anyone else, unless they could utilize the power of personal motivation!

But while most of the rest of the world has been experimenting with socialism for well over a hundred years—trying to refine it, perfect it, and re-invent it—the Pilgrims decided early on to scrap it permanently. What Bradford wrote about this social experiment should be in every schoolchild’s history lesson. If it were, we might prevent much needless suffering in the future.

“The experience that was had in this common course and condition, tried sundry years. . . that by taking away property, and bringing community into a common wealth, would make them happy and flourishing—as if they were wiser than God,” Bradford wrote. “For this community was found to breed much confusion and discontent, and retard much employment that would have been to their benefit and comfort. For young men that were most able and fit for labor and service did repine that they should spend their time and strength to work for other men’s wives and children without any recompense. . . that was thought injustice.”

The Pilgrims found that people could not be expected to do their best work without incentive. So what did Bradford’s community try next? They unharnessed the power of good old free enterprise by invoking the undergirding capitalistic principle of private property. Every family was assigned its own plot of land to work and permitted to market its own crops and products. And what was the result? “This had very good success,” wrote Bradford, “for it made all hands industrious, so as much more corn was planted than otherwise would have been.” Bradford doesn’t sound like much of a Clintonite, does he? Is it possible that supply-side economics could have existed before the 1980s? Yes. Read the story of Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41. Following Joseph’s suggestion (Gen. 41:34), Pharaoh reduced the tax on Egyptians to 20 percent during the “seven years of plenty” and the “Earth brought forth in heaps.” (Gen. 41:47).

In no time, the Pilgrims found they had more food than they could eat themselves. So they set up trading posts and exchanged goods with the Indians. The profits allowed them to pay off their debts to the merchants in London. And the success and prosperity of the Plymouth settlement attracted more Europeans and began what came to be known as the “Great Puritan Migration.”

…One of those attracted to the New World by the success of Plymouth was Thomas Hooker, who established his own community in Connecticut—the first full-fledged constitutional community and perhaps the most free society the world had ever known. Hooker’s community was governed by the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, which established strict limits on the powers of government. So revolutionary and successful was this idea that Massachusetts was inspired to adopt its Body of Liberties, which included ninety-eight separate protections of individual rights, including: “no taxation without representation,” “due process of law,” “trial by a jury of peers,” and prohibitions against “cruel and unusual punishment.”

Does all that sound familiar? It should. These are ideas and concepts that led directly to the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Nevertheless, the Pilgrims and Puritans of early New England are often vilified today as witch-burners and portrayed as simpletons. To the contrary, it was their commitment to pluralism and free worship that led to these ideals being incorporated into American life.