First, "Christmas" became "Xmas." Now I see the word "Christian" becoming "Xian." "Xian" is, I think, an oriental name. I think it's pronounced, "John."
Anyway, this is just getting dumb. I won't name names, but let's cut it out. He was nailed to a cross for you. The least you could do is spell His name out when doing really important things like typing in a blog or on a messageboard.
Posted by colrus at September 2, 2003 12:33 PM | TrackBackXian is actually a town in China. Seriously.
Posted by: ron at September 2, 2003 12:44 PM...Or a town in China, whatever...
Posted by: bill colrus at September 2, 2003 12:46 PMactually,
X (as in the greek letter Chi) was used by the early church with P (Rho) to represent Christ in writing.
So, while it may be the lazy way out, it's not necessarily disrespectful. Or new.
I am aware of this, but Xian is not being used as a reference to the Greek in 99.8% of cases. It's being used as a convenient abbreviation. And using it as a convenient abbreviation is being lazy and disrespectful. If the user has knowledge of the Greek, fine, but we don't live in Greece, we live in America where Christ is spelled "Christ," and that's the word that needs to used to lead people to salvation. If we use "X" people will say, "what, Malcolm X?"
We have freedoms and entire words that we can use. Let's use them. It's all about intent.
Posted by: Bill Colrus at September 2, 2003 01:20 PMI say X-giving instead of Thanksgiving. Is that bad?
Posted by: podge at September 2, 2003 02:55 PMif this doesn't stop we're going to start seeing x rated bible cartoons.
Posted by: leon at September 2, 2003 04:23 PMWhat if.... Well, nevermind. I was going to make a comment about the X-men that would have probably been inappropriate...
Posted by: ron at September 2, 2003 09:08 PMI have always liked the term Xmas, because Christmas for me has always been completely devoid of religious meaning (and I am very religious). Do you read anything in the Bible that indicates we should celebrate Jesus's birth or Dec. 25 as the specific date of Christ's birth? Our salvation is in his death and resurrection Romans 6, which I try to celebrate in some way every day.
Posted by: cmwillis at September 8, 2003 10:43 PMTechnically, I agree. There is no biblical reference. I'd just rather spell out His name whenever the opportunity arises.
Posted by: Bill Colrus at September 9, 2003 11:07 AM