Will the First Thanksgiving Please Stand Up?

What events led up to The “First” Thanksgiving and what was life like for the Pilgrims who celebrated it?  Prof. Tracy McKenzie, the chair of the Department of History at Wheaton College, takes up this topic from the vantage point of a Christian historian.  He challenges some of our “grade school” understandings of what that event was all about, but in a way that retains the reverence for the people and events during that time.  We start our conversation by looking at the topic of “revisionist history.”  Prof. McKenzie provides a very profound and nuanced discussion of what it means to be “revisionist,” while simultaneously admitting that he is not a fan of that term.  A good portion of what Tracy does in his most recent work is not only to discuss Thanksgiving, but is designed to prompt Christians to think critically about their history as a means of living their faith more honestly.