Abbreviations
It’s time for the annual Christmas Wars, and the battles are flooding the nightly news reports. I’m sure I’ll have more to comment about the endless debate about recognizing Christian tradition the public marketplace.
I’ve been thinking today about the whole Christmas vs. Xmas debate. I remember a song on the album Yo, Ho! Ho! (I know, I know. Yes, I did buy this, but that was 15 years ago…give me a break!) called “You Can’t Spell Christmas Without Christ.” It was an anthem decrying the use of X to replace Christ in the marketplace. They even had a line in the song that said:
You say that X stands for Christ
What, in Greek?
Yo, we live in America
So your storyline is weak
(I know, I know. The poetry is profound)
In classes – especially this semester – I have to write “Christ” or “Christian” or “Christianity” all the time. By the time I’ve finished the word, the professor is usually on another thought, so abbreviations are in order. I do use the X in my note-taking, but for the original reason. Yes, X does stand for Christ in Greek (the first letter, Chi, looks a whole lot like an X) in my notes. And no, my storyline is not weak.
Anyway, my real question is this – If X stands for Christ in Xmas, does it stand for Christ in XBox? That strikes me as funny.
By the way, I did a search for the album and could only find the above listing and an article in CCM Magazine from 1990. So much for groundbreaking albums. **Update 12/5/2013: The CCM article no longer exists online. This is disappointing, but not surprising.**
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