Theology Thursday: The X in Xmas

It’s Theology Thursday! And today we’re going to spend a little time looking at the X in Xmas. Or the Christ in Christmas. Or both.

Fortunately, a lot of smart people have been writing about this topic in recent weeks, which means I can link you to their thoughts rather than trying to come up with something new or exciting on my own. So, here we go!

To start, many bloggers have noted that the X in Xmas has some pretty spiritual roots when we look back to biblical Greek:

— Ben Reed goes so far as to say Keep the X in Christmas!
— R. C. Sproul just wants people to relax about the whole thing, for the same reason.

Other people note that verbally abusing people for “taking the Christ out of Christmas” is also a way of taking Christ out of Christmas. Jon Acuff has a post in this camp.

And Jared C. Wilson advises us not to let “Jesus” distract us from Jesus. (I think the quotations marks are important in that one.)

Update: Skye Jethani adds some thoughts Christians and The War on Christmas.

What do you think? Should this be an issue? Is there a respect aspect that is being overlooked?