Nothing sinister here . . . is there?

'Tis the season when manger scenes will be stolen or vandalized, retail employees will be strictly instructed how to greet the holiday shoppers, and bumper stickers enjoin the faithful to “Keep Christ in Christmas.” Stephen Colbert’s 2008 Christmas special might even be trotted out to again remind  that Xmas is a term only used by militant atheists as part of their culture war against Christianity.

With respect to the latter concern I will just say that there is nothing inherently wrong with "Xmas" . . . unless, in the mind of the user it is indeed  intended to keep Christ out of Christmas or make the term more acceptable to atheists or to the Jewish people.

In fact the use of the letter "X" to abbreviate the name of Christ has been used for hundreds of years – first example in 1551 – in religious writing, where the “X” represents a Greek “chi”, the first letter of “Christ.” In this use it is parallel to other forms like “Xtian”, “Christian.” But people unaware of the Greek origin of this "X" often mistakenly interpret Xmas as an informal shortening and many frown upon the term because it seems to them a commercial convenience that omits Christ from Christmas.

Will I use the term? Probably not much. And that grates on me as it always does when other silliness or evil co opt perfectly good words in the service of some new insanity.