When I was a teenager; me and my friends used to drink cheap white cider in churchyards. I don't know what it is about churchyards but others seem to have done same when they were young. I bet this is what the misuse refers to; the younger generation learning the ways of the Frosty Jack or the Ice Dragon.

Who are these Seven Sisters, you speak of? Unhappy spinsters with sense of fun, perhaps?

Very good. Funny

Strppy? t dsn't sm ll tht bd t m.

Cry, yr bs gnst ll thngs Chrstn shws p gn. lv bngbng.nt, bt ws ffndd (n th dys ldng p t Chrstms) whn y pstd nmrs rtcls tht smd t d nthng bt dngrt th hldy.

Xms (sc) Nwsby Swndls f th 1920's

Cvrns-nstrlld md strng Snts dsgnd t gv kdds Sntmrs.

Hrrbl Snts frm Thrftshps.

tc.

s yr cnsstntly ngtv slnt n ths rlgn prpsfl r ncnscs? smrt gy lk y mst b wr f wht h's dng, n?

Santa Christ is offended?

Spiteful Sisters of Seven Handed Sek

Seven Sisters?
Er.. I live near there, and judging by the area, I'd hazard a guess that the misusers weren't "playing". "using" perhaps...

Tkn, 'm nt sr wh Snt Chrst s, s cnnt spk t whthr h s ffndd r nt. Y sm t b vry crtv typ, kp p th gd wrk.

nywy, t's m wh's ffndd, nd 'm sr lt f thr ppl fl th sm wy.

grw p wth crtn trdtns nd t bthrs m t s thm mckd r md t lk gly r t hv vry dscssn f ths trdtns spn n sch wy s t mk thm lk bd.

jst flt lk hd t sy t.

commercial festivals are fair game. Also; "x-mas"
is not sic-able. How's your Greek?

The restrictions here will only affect legitimate users of the churchyard. Those willing to misuse it can easily circumvent the access control measures.

Who was "misusing" it? The Priests?

Chrstms nd th ccmpnyng trdtns r nt mrly prt f "cmmrcl fstvl." n yr wrld, myb, bt nt n lt f thr ppls' wrlds.

nd y cnnt sffx "sc" wth "bl" vn f y hyphnt t. Dpy.

nd Tkn, thnk myb y'r nt s crtv. 'm wndrng f myb y'v jst bn p ll nght nd r cnfsd. Gt sm slp.

Well, I guess the baby Santa will rest easy in the manger with you on watch.

"The use of "X," derived from Chi, the Greek alphabet initial, as an abbreviation for Christ (most commonly in the abbreviation "Xmas") is often misinterpreted as a modern secularization of the term. Thus understood, the centuries-old English word Xmas, is actually a shortened form of CHmas, which is, itself, a shortened form for Christmas. In fact, the use of "X" to represent the full word goes back to the earliest days of Greek Christianity."

Tkn,

tymlgy sd, y skllfl nd clvr cpy-nd-pstr, wld vntr t sy tht Cry sd th trm Xms nt s ql ltrntv t th fll wrd, bt s mr sbvrsv n. D y dsgr?

h, nd whn y skd m hw my Grk ws, thght y wr cmng n t m. Ww wht rlf! s chrmng nd fscntng nd fll f prps s y sm t b n ths brds, wld hv t rbff yr dvncs. f ws t g tht rt, wld nd smn wtht s mch fr tm n thr hnds - smn wth frnds nd jb.

I firmly believe in putting the Ch back in Channukah and the X back in Xmas. I don't have an anti-Christian bias: I have an anti-believing-in-ghosts-zombies-gods-demons bias. I don't care which book or code causes you to believe in ghosts, zombies, gods, demons, etc, I'm biased against it. Zoroaster or Holy Jesus, they're all just delusional spirituality to me. I am equally skeptical of belief in Zeus, Estarte, Isis, and, of course, Xenu.

Don't get those Zoroastrians pissed off at you. Seriously. Nasty, nasty human beings.

:D

true Christian charity I see, such a muscular religion.

I think you are finding offense by looking very hard for it. It is clear that if you had not seized on those particular articles, others would have done.

Subversive is he? I find people like you who try to institute state religions are far more subversive in much more important ways.

That will be all now,go and think upon what you have done.

Alcyone, Atlas, Electra, Maia, Merope, Taygeta, and Pleione unavailable for comment.

Uh, Cory, I know where that sign is, and I have heard our common friend speak of the churchpeople there (one of the pastor's daughters used to catsit her cats). I don't think the issue was playing, really.

Before thinking that "Xmas" is a subversive way to refer to the holiday, keep in mind that the term was coined by medieval monks who routinely abbreviated "Christ" with the greek letter Chi, aka "X".

misuse.... yep, priests and altar boys. Again

lrght, hv bttr thngs t d wth my tm, s wll mk ths my lst pst.

Tkn, y sm lk rl smrt gy. Sty ff th strt drgs nd whn y grw p y'll prbbly g smwhr n lf.

Cry, dn't blv n th Jd-Chrstn Gd, bt cm frm lng trdtn f ppl wh dd. rspct my prnts' nd grndprnts' nd grt-grndprnts' blfs vn thgh dn't sbscrb t thm.

T sy tht y'r gnst ll rlgns yt ttck nly n s bs. Whr r yr dsprgng psts bt Bddhsts r Hnds? Whr r yr dsprgng rtcls n Jws r th Jwsh rlgn?

Whr r th psts bt nsty sgns n frnt f synggs. Th psts bt hrrbl-lkng Chnkk (sp?) dcrtns r fd r chsy Msszzhs (sp????)?

Why dn't y d pst f Gnsh r

You know what is so screamingly cute about Christians,Muslims and Jews in general (and all the others of course)?

They all will happily use their putative faiths to justify any behaviour at all - even when it is entirely contrary to the basic tenets of their supposed beliefs.

Sometimes I wish that religious education was compulsory. For the religious anyway.

Well, if nothing else it affords endless amusement to quote their scriptures back at them. Besides, suffering builds character. In others.

Paulballs, where are the posts in which I make fun of Jesus? Generally speaking, I mention religion very little. Your offense at this picture of a sign on a churchyard is evidence of a tortured mind -- you've invented an offense and then taken up its cause. But if you'd like to create an index of all the posts ever that mention religion on Boing Boing, count up the extent to which they mention different faiths, and compare that to an index of the proportion of faiths whose tenets are discussed in the English-language media that I consume, I'd be delighted to see the results (you might start with the post earlier this week that talked about a Confucionist/Buddhist theme-park in Singapore)>

Oooh, I'm offended because Paulballs' handle apparently refers to St. Paul's testes!

Also, I am offended by Cory's failure to post articles disparaging Zoroastrians.

Of course, what's truly delicious about this whole thread is that PaulBalls begins his comment by objecting to the term "stroppy". Dictionary.com defines stroppy as "bad-tempered or hostile; quick to take offense."

This describes PaulBall's posts perfectly.

I tend to think that Boing Boing treats religion as a topic that is NOT above satire or commentary in general. Perhaps Paul finds reasons to feel the way he does because he's guilty of selective perception. Most of use "suffer" form it. Besides, the Doc is allowed to make fun of anything he wants. Lots of writers do. And quite frankly there's a lot to make fun of with regard to religion. But, I have not noticed in my short time here that Mr. Doctorow has done so. For all we know he's a closeted neo-pagan warlock with an entire pantheon of gods and goddesses lined up on his fireplace mantel. All hail Thor!

Putting Christ back into Sol Invictus? I think this discussion is over with. It's met several criteria for Dvorak's law to be invoked.

Pagan is just another word for hick, admit to the absorbing of hick superstitions into a Christian holiday if you're Christian. Deal with Christian adoption of a Pagan holiday if you claim that side. We're all on this planet together and it's nothing to commit sharia over.

Mr. Doctorow, I'm highly offended by your lampooning of the newspaper industry and supporting of Oreo-pepperoni-cheese-crimes-against-humanity. Rabble rabble!

Mr. Doctorow, why is the sign "stroppy"?

This really goes against the grain but Takuan, I *choke cough* agree (urgh) with you.

This really goes against the grain but Takuan, I *choke cough* agree (urgh) with you.

there there, the pain passes (although the nausea may linger)

In the US at least, many Christians wouldn't know that there were any Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Bahais, etc. if they didn't see them on a human interest segment on the eleven o'clock news. It's a Christian-unless-otherwise-stated society. We don't make nearly as much fun of other religions because they're pretty invisible compared to the towering spires of churches and the Xmas decorations that are put up in October. When the mall has kids sitting in Esther's lap for Purim, we'll talk.

Paulballs brutally disemvoewlled I see...

PaulBalls, you've been a jerk. I've taken appropriate action.

I hope you're not going to be so foolish as to say I'm anti-Christian.

DragonFrog, DO NOT MESS WITH THE ZOROASTRIANS! I can, because I have blackmail type information on them. Anyone else, it's your funeral!

:D

Let's just say that I have incriminating pictures of Zoro and Sgt. Garcia and leave it at that, OK?

:D

The best sign I have seen outside a church was in Brighton UK.
A huge sign reading 'Life after death, Guaranteed"

Well I suppose you could TRY asking for your money back!!!

Leaving out vowels is annoying.

Well, all except U.

F-U! (and sometimes Y!)

Talking like PB does isn't so bad in the larger scheme. He's just sewing his oats. He'll grow up.

I do love a good disemvowelling! I pretend I'm a cryptographer trying to break an enemy code, until I realise that I didn't really want to read the post because of it's slightly comedic/nauseous content. Then I bow before the might of the mod. Fanks ;-)

oh, and Paulsballs? srsly dude? wtf?

#37 made me laugh.