I think that old Broadway musical had it about right:
"If you'd come today, you would have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication."
If we have to change that to 4 BCE (Before the Christian Era), it would mess up the lyrics.
Who cares whether it's Before Christ or Before Christian Era, anyway?
This is like the center/centre controversy, which only goes to show that the British and the Americans are one people separated by a common language.
Facetiously yours,
Uncle Ed
P.S. Homer's Iliad was not really written by Homer but by another blind Greek poet of the same name.