By Male Marvin
KAMPALA – Pastor Aloysious Bujjingo of House of Prayer Ministries International has condemned the use of Xmas as a common abbreviation of the word Christmas.
While addressing Christians during the December 25 prayer service, Pastor Bujjingo said “the dot com generation has come with a lot that is anti-christ.”
“Christ means the anointing. That anointing alone in his name destroys all yokes. Satan and his agents have devised means to eliminate the word Christ
“The devil is making sure that you forget who you are. These days as you are typing messages, you write in an anti-christ manner that is void of the power in the name of Christ,” he said.
Bujjingo said that ‘X’ mathematically means an unknown number.
“There is this ‘mas’ that Jesus has gathered for thousands of years. It is undeniable, but they want to eliminate Christ. So, the ‘mas’ is for Mr ‘X’, find out who he is,” he said.
He urged attendees to get rid of things in their houses that have the label ‘Xmas’ on them.
The debate
On the surface, some theologians say it certainly looks like “Xmas” shoves Christ out of Christmas. The word itself almost appears to cross out the mere mention of the holiday’s focus.
However, many others report that the X in Xmas is the greek letter Chi, which was a common abbreviation of Kristos, Christ’s name.
Using the roman alphabet, scribes used Xpistos. In greek, this would be Χριστος.)
In the fourth century, during Constantine the Great, media reports show that the Roman Emperor, elevated Christianity into a state religion, and started using “X” as a symbol for Jesus Christ. Parchment paper (an ancient writing material) was expensive at the time, so any techniques for saving space were welcome. The abbreviation stuck and eventually was shortened to Xmas.
In this age, scribes to Relevant Magazine, a bimonthly Christian lifestyle magazine exploring the intersection of faith and pop culture are however quick to note there is no denying that there is a trend to, in a sense, take Christ out of Christmas.
Franklin Graham, son of popular televangelist Billy Graham, put it like this:
“For us as Christians, [Christmas] is one of the most holy of the holidays, the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. And for people to take Christ out of Christmas. They’re happy to say merry Xmas… And really, I think, [it is] a war against the name of Jesus Christ,”
