Put the Chi back in Χmas

I stumbled upon a christian blog from a Baptist Theologian that I think deserves a little notice. After a quick glance, the first page of articles were, in my opinion, very enlightened for a Baptist.

Here's the article where Dr. Prescott quotes another theologian on the "War on Christmas." Links and formatting preserved.

Russell King has posted an outstanding diary entry at Steet Prophets entitled "It's time to put Christ back into Christmas."

The entry needs to be read in its entirety. To give you a hint of the perspective from which King writes, here's a footnote from his blog:

*When we insist that others join in our customs, use the words we like to use and participate in our celebration, we are violating the life and lessons of Jesus and ripping Christ from the heart of Christmas. When we force non-Christians to utter the name of Christ when they do not believe in Him, we are making mockery of the Christ in Christmas. When we take offense when others celebrate the season in ways that are meaningful to them, and are different from our ways -- especially when we pretend that respecting others' celebrations constitutes a "war on Christmas" -- we are ignoring the spirit of Christ. When we insist that our government join in our religious celebration, we are acting exactly like those who opposed Christ. When we insist that the tax dollars of non-Christians be used to celebrate our Christian holiday, we are ignoring Christ's teaching (Matthew 22:21) and tearing Him out of Christmas. When we put more emphasis on the word "Christ" than on the message of Christ, we are making a mockery of Christmas and the one whose birth we celebrate (we don't do salvation by syllables). When we make a fuss over "Xmas," we show that we don't know much about our own religion's history: In Greek, the letter Χ (chi), is the first letter of Christ, and it, or the similar Roman letter X, has been used as an abbreviation for Christ since the mid-16th century. Xmas has been used for Christmas, by Christians, for centuries.

From Mainstream Baptist

I have commented on this article and I'd like to comment on more of his articles. I'd like to put his blog in my blogroll. However, he does have comment moderation on, and if he doesn't approve my comment, I will not add him to my blogroll. My comment, I think, was very polite and complimenting. So, the only reason he would have to delete my comment is that I am an atheist. We'll see.