[CoLawman]

This is a rationalization after the fact. I went to Catholic schools for 16 years. The first complaints I heard of "Xing" Christ out of Christmas came from the good nuns.

I too was a victim of knuckle rapping rulers (12 inch type)

The cross was used by the Christians during Roman persecutions. The Greek symbol for Christ was the Cho Rho. not the Chi alone. http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/...ans/chirho.htm

Taken from the source you cited:

Chi-Rho Symbol
The Chi-Rho symbol is an anagram of the first two letters of Christ in Greek, the Chi (our CH) and the Rho (our R). These two letters written together stand for Christianity in the Late Roman and Early Medieval periods.

Which is not contrary to my post.

That fish (icthyous) you see on the backs of cars is an adaptation of the Greek letter alpha which is used as a symbol for Christ.

http://www.cresourcei.org/cyxmas.html

The abbreviation of "Xmas" for Christmas, long reviled by many conservative and Low Church Christians, is not nearly as blasphemous as many contend. Rather than a sacrilegious removal of "Christ" from Christmas and replacing him with an unknown, as some claim, the "Xmas" abbreviation has a long history in the church. In Greek, the language in which the New Testament was first written, "chi" (c or C), which is almost identical to the Roman alphabet "X," is the first letter of the word "Christ" (cristoV, or as it would be written in older manuscripts, CRISTOS). In fact, the symbol of the fish in the early church came from using the first letter of several titles used for Jesus (Jesus Christ Son of God Savior) that when combined spelled the Greek word for fish (icquV, ichthus).


I just wonder if you and I fall under the conservative and Low Church Christians tag?