Christmas, Bethesda-style
Holiday Advice From the Pages of Virtue Christian Women's Magazine – Plus a Few Recipes for Your Next Christmas Party
Merry Christmas! Earlier this year, a former Bethesda Christian Center member gave me a couple of boxes full of old issues of the Christian women’s magazine founded by Larry and Devi Titus while they were in Wenatchee, Washington.
You can read the first part of my series on Bethesda’s history in the Wenatchee Valley here. Part two is coming soon, but to celebrate the holidays, I wanted to pull an old issue and give folks a taste of evangelical Christian culture circa 1989 (ten years after Bethesda imploded). Larry and Devi Titus, the founders of Bethesda, sold Virtue around the time they left Wenatchee in 1979, but the magazine they founded was bought by a company in Oregon that continued to publish it until 1995.
Two articles in this issue caught my eye. The first is titled “Six Christmas Gifts to Give Yourself,” and the first piece of advice the author gives is for women to be silent.
When you do speak, speak slowly, advises the author of the piece – a woman named Kristen Johnson Ingram. The fifth and sixth bullet points are the most interesting, though.
“5. Remember that no one can ruin your Christmas except you,” Ingram writes. “What if your daughter’s boyfriend comes for the big holiday dinner in a black T-shirt and worn jeans, your dog throws up on the carpet, Uncle Charlie talks too loudly, your boss won’t let you off until 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve, the baby gets a cold, and your husband leaves his gift for you on the subway?”