Who started the stupid rumor that the abbreviations "Xmas" & "Xian" is a way to "stamp Christ out of language"

Question

Was it Fox News?

Why aren't more Christians aware of this:

"In ancient Christian art χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.[3] In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists arrived in North America and 60 years before the King James Version of the Bible was completed. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". The proper names containing the name "Christ" other than aforementioned are rarely abbreviated in this way. Pop artist Christina Aguilera is known to spell her first name as 'Xtina'."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas
http://www.crivoice.org/symbols/xmasorigin.html

lins - both Xtian and Xian are common. If X = Christ the second t could be seen as redundant.

@ drivn2excelchery: Now you know. Please tell your friends. Even if the average person doesn't know, your minister, having hopefully been educated in the history of Xianity, should know.

@ PaulCyp. Nope. I've seen plenty of Xians use it. Plus, it was Xians who initiated the practice.

@ drivn2excelchery: I guess my main point is not that you have to like it, it's just irritating to hear people who should know better, people of authority, repeat the fallacy and then have others just repeat what they heard. It doesn't matter if you dislike it, as long as you dislike it for the proper reasons, not for a false, oft-repeated rumor.

Answer 1

ProudManhoor......what you say may or may not be true but the fact is the average person today doesn't know it. When X is used instead of Christ in Xmas and so on, it IS a deliberate attempt to wipe out the name of Christ by using the English understanding of the letter "X." If the people who do this can get it widely accepted then it would effectively wipe out the name of Christ on the different abbreviations because once again, the average person DOES NOT know about what you've written here.

ProudManhoor....you are right. Now I know and my Pastor probably knows it too (he just never spoke on it). However, have you ever known any initiative taken by one or a few people to get a enlightened understanding of Christ out (other than the Gospels) to this pride & hate filled and selfish society without being cursed out and hatefully rejected? I thank you for posting and will research it a little more before I go telling other Christians. However, I don't think they like I will be too quick to accept this abbreviation even though it doesn't take away from the true meaning. I guess you would have to love the name of Christ in order for you not to want to see it disappear from any word.

ProudManhoor......I understand and agree. Again thank you for posting.

Answer 2

Two words: persecution complex.

Claiming that "xianity" is an attack on Christianity is a lot easier for some than acknowledging it's an ancient tradition. The latter would actually require research.

Answer 3

Many Christians are aware of it though not as you quote. The use of X for Christ is not historically correct as the usage is Xp - capital X, lower case p. Readers will note that the wikipedia reference is rewritten to include "X" though it's source does not include it. The modern use of "X" is at best a careless abbreviation or at worst a denigration of Christian faith by those who use history as an excuse to willfully abbreviate what others hold sacred.

Answer 4

Think about it... They're not known for their rationality. Let's take a look at some of the other ridiculous rumors that Xtians spread:

"Backmasked messages in rock n' roll music subliminally corrupts people into the devil's service"

"Harry Potter/D&D/ corrupts people into the devil's service"

It's not a big stretch of the imagination.

Answer 5

People who want to spread the rumor of a "culture war" against Xians. Never mind what the actual history of the word is.

Answer 6

I can tell you this much. I have recently proven, using Yahoo answers, that some Christians blindly would eat their own poo, if they where commanded to do so. This indicates that much of Christianity rests on a blind belief, which turns people into slaves. "If God says - then I do so..."

So you see - it doesn't really matter how things are spelled or not. You can create it just as you like, and the religious people follow blindly.

Answer 7

We have a tendency to abbreviate things. But sometimes we should take the time to be reverent. The problem is that we Americans idolize the irreverent.

Big Mistake.

Answer 8

Who cares. Some use it as a perceived insult. Just as I could type ^theist....which is a little A that's missing something, pointing skyward.
But I guess I should be insulted if I compare the use of it with Christina Aguiler. LOL!

Answer 9

Curious isn't it, that non-Christians are the only ones who use this "Christian" shorthand?? The similarity of the modern X to Greek letters may be used as a transparent "explanation" for X-ing out the name of Christ in the name of His followers and the celebration of His birth. But no-one is foolish enough to be taken in by such an "explanation".

Answer 10

Hon, Christians don't seem to like to research things outside the Bible. Honestly the church doesn't like for them to either. So most don't know this because they choose not to inform themselves. I didn't know this when I was being raised Catholic. Only after I took it upon myself to research religion and such did I discover this too! I was even told in Catholic School not to write Christmas as Xmas because it was an insult to god or some crap. They didn't know either!