Merry XMAS Is this a Bad Word?

We often hear about how Christ is removed from Christmas increasingly more in our culture.  This is no doubt true in many ways.  A presidential candidate recently came under intense fire for being so bold as to say "Merry Christmas" in a television spot.  This is true in many spheres of our culture.  Christmas has become secularized, consumerized, and many other interesting -izes.  From time to time we here that one example of Christ being removed from Christmas comes in the form of signs that replace Christ with X rendering it "Have a Merry XMAS."  This is pointed to as a gross removal of the true meaning of the season.  But is it?  No doubt some see it this way and in our day and age it likely has that intent behind it for many.  It is less blatant.  More politically correct perhaps?  But not originally.  We write many things in shorthand.  That's a way of making it easier for us to write out words, less time consuming, page space saving, etc.  Originally, in a place like the Roman Empire where the name Christ began to become a real life hazard for His early followers, a natural shorthand, or code word was used in place of Christ.  Essentially the "X" means Christ.  If I could write in Greek, Christ is spelled XRISTOS.  Much like the fish symbol so popular today that was also used in early Christianity as an acronym for Jesus, the "X" would have had a clear meaning to other Christians that the pagans would not have understood.  "X" is just a letter to them, but to His followers it meant Christ.  If you could write XRISTOS and be fodder for the lions in the Coliseum, or you could write "X" and other Christians know what you mean, but the rest would not, which would you write?  It's not an easy answer is it?  We face nowhere near the level of persecution those in the early church faced.  Were we faced with the same level even as the modern church in China our tunes might be different.  So when you see "Merry XMAS" on a sign somewhere this season, be discerning in your judgments.  It may be a harmless shorthand for Christ, or it may be an attempt at taking Christ out of Christmas.  Let the ones try who would try to remove Him.  They can't succeed.  Pray for them instead, that's what Jesus would do (Hey, there's another popular acronym).