You may think this a ridiculous thing for Christians to examine but there is a real lesson in looking into this. When I was a child growing up in East Texas, I was sometimes warned by adults, that for instance, if I got too close to an old dangerous water well or strayed too far from the house when I was very small, that "the booger man" would get me. This had the desired effect until I got old enough to wonder, "Just who is this booger man character, anyway?" When I asked who this mysterious person was, I was sometimes told that it was the Devil or a hobo or even just a bad man, but this was always said with a wry wink, to understand that this was all a big joke and that really it was only said to scare young children away from unsafe places or doing things that were dangerous without the need for lengthy explanations. Parents don't do things too much that way anymore (do they?), so it sounds kind of quaint. It was really not until I got to be an adult that I realized that in many places other than the South, to call a person, a grown man, anyway, an "old booger," for instance, was not considered a good natured poke, but a great insult. The reason for this is that in many places a "booger man" or "bugger man" referred to a sodomite or pederast! Certainly this was not the original intent of those who had warned me as a toddler of such a dastardly character.

The etymology of the word is worth studying, however. It seems that the word "bugger" in England, does indeed, mean a sodomite. And is still an insulting word. But the origin of the word comes from France, "bougre." "Bougre" is a French mutilation of the word "Bulgare." "Bulgare" means a person from Bulgaria. Bulgaria is a long way from France, so the question begs to be asked, "Why should a person from Bulgaria be such an evil person to someone all the way over in France?"

We know that the country now known as Bulgaria was once part of Roman Macedonia. Of course, the city of Philippi in the New Testament was a Roman colonial city of Macedonia and was the location of the first European church of Christ (Acts 16:9-12). Lydia and the Philippian jailor and their households made up the very first of these Christians. Even though, nations and borders have changed some in recent centuries, it may be possible that Christians long remained there among the native Bulgarians.

Beginning in the early part of the 1100s a great persecution began against churches of Christ in Europe and particularly in France. We are fairly certain these must have been churches of Christ because of their "peculiar" beliefs in a Europe that the Catholic Church was mightily striving to subjugate. Rome would not permit autonomy of churches and these churches resisted being brought into the great "Mother Church." They also did not have priests nor practice infant baptism but insisted that only believers be baptized for remission of sins. As the Catholic Church gained a greater hold in these regions, the rulers, to please the Pope, began a horrible persecution of these people, burning many at the stake and rooting out all congregations they could by torture and death. During this severe persecution, gospel preachers, chiefly from this region, the home of Bulgarians, came and tried to persuade Christians to remain strong. The French Catholic authorities warned the populace of these invading "Bulgares" which became synonymous with "heretics." Further insulting these good men and to make the war of name calling even more powerful, this word evolved into "bougre," or sodomite. The word probably came into English during the Hundred Years War between France and England when other French slang words entered into "the King's English."