Not because of the religious thing, but because I'm a language snob. It drives me nuts when people use 'hackerspeak': EN1, Xtians, 'U', 3l33t, etc. It makes me see the author as a hacker-wannabe fuck.
The X doesn't come from hackerspeak--it's the Greek letter which is the first letter of Jesus's name in that language (Greek being the language in which healthy portions of the New Testament were written). It may arguably be too diminutive to be respectful--I know some Christians object to it on those grounds--but it's a abbreviation which long predates hackerspeak and computers.
A couple months back, on the deth bb, I got into it with some disrespectful prick who insisted on doing that. I'm not Christian, but it's still disrespectful in my eyes.
I agree completely. I can't stand it when people refer to Christmas as being "Xmas" and Christians being "Xians". It might be derived from the Greek alphabet, but one, the majority of people don't know that. Two, the majority of people who use "X" in place of "Christ" do it for entirely different reasons. I.E they're either lazy, or trying to be 'cool' by using hacker lingo or whatever.
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bubosquared) wrote2001-05-21 04:53 pm
no subject
Yes
Er, I never said I was reasonable, okay. :D
Re: Yes
Greek letter which is the first letter of Jesus's name in that language (Greek being the language in
which healthy portions of the New Testament were
written). It may arguably be too diminutive to
be respectful--I know some Christians object to it
on those grounds--but it's a abbreviation which long predates hackerspeak and computers.
Re: Yes
no subject
A couple months back, on the deth bb, I got into it with some disrespectful prick who insisted on doing that. I'm not Christian, but it's still disrespectful in my eyes.
bah