Almost Unschooling Grama

“Christians shouldn’t participate in traditional “Christian” holidays because they have pagan roots.” If you’ve been involved in evangelical Christianity for any length of time, it’s likely you’ve come across this teaching, and many of you have chosen to celebrate the Jewish feasts and holidays instead as a result. While I am all for Christians celebrating Jewish holidays, I still have no qualms about celebrating Christmas in spite of its pagan roots. Here’s why: Many years ago, I read the book  “Peace Child “. It’s about a missionary couple who felt a call to reach the cannibalistic tribes of New Guinea with the gospel. The culture of these people was the polar opposite of Christianity. Lying was held up as a virtue and violence was revered. In the book, Don Richardson explains that all religions and value systems have their roots in the true religion practiced by Noah. Satan has never created anything. He only perverts the truth. Therefore, the strategy of these missionaries w

Confession: Grampa Tom is a Scrooge.  OK, I can't blame him. He grew up in a large farm family. My father-in-love was a fantastic worker but had no business sense. They lived hand to mouth and every penny earned from the farm usually went out the door as soon as it came in at harvest. By December, money was always tight and the pressure to provide gifts for 9 kids always caused a lot of fights between his parents. Not only that, but many of those kids had December birthdays. Christmas for my husband was always a time of great stress.  On the contrary, Christmas in my family was always a joyous occasion that my upper-middle-class parents were comfortably able to afford. My expectations and my husband's dread of the season created some stress between us in the beginning, but when we went through the farm depression of the early 80s, things got serious. My overwhelming desire to give came into full clash with his insistence that we absolutely could not afford Christmas.