…and apparently was there from the beginning.

Last week at work, we sent out a promotional email to our database advertising some items in our online store. This is a list of people who chose to receive emails from us. Yesterday I opened up my email to find this little gem:

(It is worth noting that he downloaded a free copy of Jarrod Jones’s book 13 Ways to Ruin Your Life, and in the sign-up process volunteered his email address for RYC’s periodic emails. That’s how we got his email. He gave it to us.)

He’s referencing a coupon code that allows folks to have free shipping off their purchase. While this email is belligerent simply at face value, you really can’t appreciate the irony (or the author’s ignorance) until you see the ‘Godless’ email itself. Here’s a screenshot of part of the email:

…that’s right. You can save money on, among other things, a Bible study called JUSTLIKECHRIST. From ReachYourCity, a company with the mission of helping churches plan and execute community events so that people who don’t go to church might get to hear that Jesus died for their sins.

The ignorance is astonishing.

The real kicker, however, is based in the origin of the phrase ‘Xmas.’ I’m no Bible scholar, but I do know that Xmas was created by Christians! X is ‘Chi’, the first letter of ‘Christ’ in Greek. I found a couple of good links about it, though I’m unfamiliar with both authors. Here they are: Link 1 Link 2

Here’s a quote from one of them that pretty much sums it up.

“You see, the X in Xmas did not originate as our English alphabet’s X but as the symbol X in the Greek alphabet, called Chi, with a hard ch. The Greek Chi or X is the first letter in the Greek word Christos. Eric G. Gration claims that as early as the first century the X was used as Christ’s initial. Certainly through church history we can trace this usage. In many manuscripts of the New Testament, X abbreviates Christos (Xristos). In ancient Christian art X and XR (Chi Ro–the first two letters in Greek of Christos abbreviate his name. We find that this practice entered the Old English language as early as AD 100. Moreover, Wycliff and other devout believers used X as an abbreviation for Christ. Were they trying to take Christ away and substitute an unknown quantity? The idea is preposterous.”

So as the “Christmas season” gets ready to start, maybe we Christians can be a little less irritated about marketing departments and a little more irritated that people around the world are starving, sick, and dying.