I recall being taught in Sunday school that early Christians sometimes used an X to signify Christ, in order to avoid persecution. That, I was told, is why X-mas is perfectly acceptable. Xtians would seem to be acceptable as well.
Indeed, the term Christian originated as a put-down applied to the followers of Christ (like the term "Christer" used by Madelyn Murry O'Hair and sometimes used by others to denigrate Christians today in some quarters). Christians eventually took on the label. Who knows, perhaps Christer will come into vogue among Christians. Language is funny that way. 50 years from now Democrats may prefer "Democrat party." Eric Treene (in my personal capacity). -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Will Linden Sent: Wednesday, July 20, 2005 4:32 PM To: Law & Religion issues for Law Academics Subject: Assaults on the England language At 09:19 AM 7/20/05 -0500, you wrote: >I never associated Democrat Party with McCarthy, although I'm not all that >surprised to learn that he originated it. I always associated it with >middle school. It is intended to be somehow insulting without really >having any discernable meaning and without being very clever Like "Xtians"? -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.9.2/53 - Release Date: 7/20/05 _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others. _______________________________________________ To post, send message to Religionlaw@lists.ucla.edu To subscribe, unsubscribe, change options, or get password, see http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/religionlaw Please note that messages sent to this large list cannot be viewed as private. Anyone can subscribe to the list and read messages that are posted; people can read the Web archives; and list members can (rightly or wrongly) forward the messages to others.