Assaults on the England language

[FRAP428 at aol.com]

In a message dated 7/20/05 11:10:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
wlinden at panix.com writes:

> Like "Xtians"?
> 

"X" is, as I am sure you know, the Greek for Christ (if memory serves me 
right).  Thus, "Xtian" is an abbreviation for Christian. Many years ago I used it 
in religion courses I took in college. In fact, a professor explained it to 
us.  I remember another that was an oval with a line through it and represented 
"God." No doubt there are others in the field. Nowadays, I write SCt and 
abbreviate the name of the Supreme Court without disrespect to the institution it 
stands for. 

Are you telling us that abbreviations related to religions are disrespectful, 
per se? And that although I can use a sort of shorthand for all manner of 
secular subjects, I shouldn't for religious subjects because doing so is 
disrespectful. 

But we don't hear that using abbreviations for secular things is 
disrespectful of them.  So it must be that religion is special, unique.  And if it 
special, then it cannot simultaneously claim that it should be treated like 
everything else. 

Frances R. A. Paterson, J.D., Ed.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Educational Leadership
Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA 31698
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/pipermail/religionlaw/attachments/20050721/8a9a1401/attachment.htm