to hate it when people write "Xmas"?

[LeftMyRidingCropInTheMortuary]

It is, after all, a festival about Christ.

Putting an "x" instead of His name is lazy and disrespectful.
If you don't want a Christian Christmas, refer to the "holidays" instead.

Then not the.

As a thorough-going atheist I don't use Xmas, though I'm aware of its respectable heritage.

The pope isn't Christian??

Seriously?

Mrs T and Giddy "respect" seems to apply only to religious belief personally vetted by Left.

I'm a member of the Church of Scotland, Left. We are really, really big on reading our Bibles personally not just listening to the minister/vicar/priest etc It's why the CofS set up schools in every Parish.

On that basis I'll refer you back to Scripture and a lovely wee passage about looking at the log in your own eye before the spec in someone else's...

I was engaging in an intellectual debate. You made it personal sweetie.

Pip - dabbling in the occult is about as far away from Christianity as you can get.

What? Define occult please?
Then explain how asking a magic man in the sky for favours is different.

How dare you say that someone isn't as good a Christian as you. She sounds twice the Christian you are as she respects her fellow man and their beliefs.

Anything that's not in the Bible isn't Christian. That goes for Hallowe'en, the Pope and all sorts!

What about Christingle? That's not in the bible?
Also, what about those tricky bits of the bible like not wearing clothes made of mixed material and not going out of the house during your period? Do you ignore those bits?

can't I just ask for a little respect for our religion once in a while?

You just called the majour holiday of a religion far older than your own 'devil worship'.
You want respect for christianity but fuck everyone else, the bloody heathens, right OP?

Very Christian of you.

I dislike Xmas from a pedantic point of view - don't care about offending religious sensibilities.

My colleague actually said today in a meeting 'we need to book our xmas meal'. Writing it is crappy enough, without actually saying it. He is a nobber though...

Aw, I loved this thread last year.

I am not a theologian but I am a medievalist, a Christian, and someone who spends much of her time reading very, very, very devoutly Christian texts with the x abbreviation (and with ihu for Jesus, and dno for Lord, and so on). So I am in the pretentiously historicising crowd, not the lazy and disrespectful crowd.

hello... testing... testing... can you hear me mother?

BOO!

Just wondering if my theological rebuffal had actually been visible. I was all up for a tit for tat. Haven't had one of them in ages. DH just crumbles, he's no fun. I need to do something with all the lay deacon, Sunday school teachery, bells and smells CofE twaddle I was force fed as a kid

I like a nice theological argument, blanche.

I have a hazy feeling the trinity isn't explicitly in the Bible, though I could be wrong?

For a while as a rebellious teen I used to go to a very fundamentalist church and I remember a song we sang about the terrible perverting of the real meaning of Christmas which included the line, 'Xmas is the cross we use, to nail Him even higher.'
Beat that

"This 'the OT is irrelevant' thing is pretty new. If it isn't relevant, why keep wasting the paper as printing it as part of God's word?"

It goes back to Matthew 5.17 'Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil'. So still worth printing, as it is the foundation, but it all led up to Jesus' superseding teaching.

I am not that highly strung so things like this really don't worry me.

That sounds like a riot of cheerfulness, countess.

I rather like the fact that the people who originally came up with the xmas abbreviation would have totally loved the idea of nailing Christ higher on the cross and would have thought it was a completely orthodox image. There's a bloke I'm reading at the moment who wants to flay off Christ's skin so he can make himself a little skin-cloak tent to curl up in. Re-crucifying Christ with a nice abbreviation would be right up his street.

Eksmus sounds dreadful. Christmas is fun. So YABU.

I'm sure I had a proper scowl on while I was reading all the stuff about Christians wanting a bit of respect for their beliefs. Plenty of Christians have no respect for my beliefs (mainly the one about lesbianism being both fantastic and the only way I can live my life feeling contented and loved).

Anyway, the Christmas I celebrate basically is Yule with bonus Santa. There's nary a baby Jesus to be seen anywhere, so I might as well give the name the same treatment. Doesn't affect anyone who wants to celebrate it as a Christian festival one way or the other, does it?

xmas xmas xmas (no capital either, mwahahahahaha)...

Does the bible mention sofas? I think my living room might be anti Christian.
There's nothing wrong with Xmas, it's just an abbreviation. Chill out.

Anyway, the Christmas I celebrate basically is Yule with bonus Santa

me too. I don't think any of my Xmas celebrations actually involve Christianity.

"Anyway, the Christmas I celebrate basically is Yule with bonus Santa"

Santa is St Nicholas.

I think the guy you want is Father Christmas.

Anything that's not in the Bible isn't Christian. That goes for Hallowe'en, the Pope and all sorts!

That's a shame, I love a good allsort. Specially the bobbly jelly ones.

"That's a shame, I love a good allsort. Specially the bobbly jelly ones."

The Council of Nicea must have scoffed them all. None left over for the lowly scribes.

long term RSI so I like abbrevs. Xmas it is for me.

Oh, bloody hell, am I getting told off for my santa terminology now?

Next thread: "People who say Santa when they mean St Nicholas are lazy and disrespectful. Those of you who want a non-religious present-giver in a red suit should refer to Father Christmas"