Why not Xian

[Dancing David]

I type Xian instead of christian sometimes because I am lazy and very prone to misspellings.

It seesm that some people find it offesive, although I do not intend to be offensive I am interested to read why.

It is taking the christ out of christian to abbreviate?

[Lord Emsworth]

I just heard yesterday that the abbreviation Xmas for Christmas originates in the ancient Greek alphabet. There is a letter that looks very much like an X. And I think that it is the first letter of the word Christ.

Should that be true it is of course not taking the Christ out of Christian or Christmas. And any complaints are just stupid PCism

[Yahzi]

The people who invented the abbreviaton "Xian" were Christians.

But that was hundreds of years ago, and you know how these people are with history.

[SteveW]

It's embarrasing to admit, but alot of people I went to elementary school with were fundies (and this was back when you prayed in school) and I remember being taught that Madeline O'Hare spelled Xmas that way to take the Christ out of Christmas. Later I found out about the Greeks and thought how stupid the Xians were (and still are, of course). Sometimes I spell it that way to offend them.

[thinkren]

I saw the subject of this thread and thought it was about the ancient Chinese city in western China.:D

[komencanto]

I love this scene from Futurama:

Leela: Exmas (pronounced ex mas) is coming up soon.

Fry: Whats exmas??

Leela: Oh, I remember. You used to call it Christmas when it was a religious holiday.