and no FedEX, either....

"The letter X may soon be banned in Saudi Arabia because it resembles a banned religious symbol in the oil kingdom: the cross. The Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice -the group of senior Islamic clergy that reigns supreme over all legal, civil, and government matters in Saudi Arabia- issued a religious edict about the letter in response to a Saudi businessman's application for a trademark protection for a new service named Explorer. The council experts were struck by the fact that the X resembled a cross and denied the application."

-from The Church Around the World bulletin insert.

Despite their promising title, the religious clergy of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice are not doing their job. Squelching the message of the cross by banning the letter X? Why not include a ban on all lower-case t's, since they are spitting images of the tree on which Jesus died? My first reaction was the ridiculousness of the whole thing. Can we imagine the advisory board of the Evangelical Council of Churches banning the letter C because it resemble the Islamic crescent? We couldn't get by with a ban of the Islamic star, either. Remember: our flag has fifty of them.
My second reaction? My memory bank pulled up this verse, which says it all:

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God." (1 Corinthians 1:18)

I am glad that the long arm of God is tapping on the Islamic clerics shoulders with His imperishable message. If they succeed in striking the letter X from every Saudi newspaper, our merciful God will manage to find new ways to get them to confront the cross.