Those of us in the United States will celebrate Thanksgiving in just a few days. Unlike Christmas or Easter, Thanksgiving isn’t a commemoration of a specific Biblical event—but it’s a holiday with an obvious link to the Christian call to give thanks in all things.

We’ve got a number of Thanksgiving resources to share this week, but it makes sense to start with the very basics of the Thanksgiving holiday: when was it started? Why do we celebrate it today?

• The Christian History Institute explains the history of Thanksgiving. If you thought the idea of a Thanksgiving holiday started with the Pilgrims in New England, you might be surprised to learn that the famous Pilgrims-and-Indians feast was not technically the first Thanksgiving holiday!
• That covers the historical fact of Thanksgiving—but why do we still celebrate this holiday today, hundreds of years after the events of the first Thanksgiving? Max Frazier’s essay Why Celebrate Thanksgiving? A Study in Psalm 100 explores the importance of gratitude, and the value of the Thanksgiving holiday.

So even as you plan out your Thanksgiving get-togethers and short vacation from work, take a few moments to read up on the “when” and “why” of Thanksgiving.

[image by Ben Franske under a Creative Commons license]

Back in January, InterVarsity reported on a panel discussion held at the University of Washington where the participants responded to the question, If Christians would listen, what would you say?:

Three atheists, one agnostic and one Christian volunteered for a panel discussion to consider the question, “If Christians would listen, what would you say?” Well, they did have a lot to say—and the InterVarsity students who sponsored the event humbly listened. The honest dialogue turned into a riveting evening that engaged the hearts and minds of believers and non-believers—to the benefit of all.

Often Christians are perceived as being close-minded and judgmental, especially on certain topics.

The panel said some sobering things like, “Where are the real Christians who live out what Jesus taught?” You can read the full story at StudentSoul.org. Student Soul is a division of InterVarsity’s web ministry devoted to bringing readers and writers together for conversation about faith, real relationships and and life on college campuses.

Is anger a sin? The standard Christian answer is that there are two types of anger: “good” anger, which is used for positive purposes, and “bad” anger, which is sinful. But in his latest Nehemiah Notes article, Blaine Smith argues that this isn’t necessarily a Biblical way to understand anger:

Scripture, though, never makes this distinction, which ignores the nature of human motivation. Pride and hurt feelings can run as deeply in righteous indignation as in any other type of anger. Anger is the same emotion, whether evoked by a righteous concern or a dishonorable one. I frankly wish we would throw the term righteous indignation out of our Christian vocabulary; far too much self-righteousness is encouraged by it.

So what does the Bible say about anger—is it a sin or not? Read the full article to learn Smith’s perspective.