{"id":1118210,"date":"2021-12-14T13:59:26","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T18:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1118210"},"modified":"2021-12-14T13:59:30","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T18:59:30","slug":"how-europeans-won-this-years-war-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-europeans-won-this-years-war-on-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"How Europeans Won This Year\u2019s War On Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">16<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-europeans-won-this-years-war-on-christmas%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1118210&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The cultural Left\u2019s ever-intensifying campaign to cancel every last vestige of Western civilization has been dealt a decisive blow by the forces of sanity \u2014 not just in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/parents-revolt-even-democrat-and-moderate-suburban-parents-are-fighting-back-against-critical-race-theory\">suburban school boards<\/a> or the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/how-the-virginia-governors-race-was-won\">Virginia governor\u2019s mansion<\/a>, but in the secular heart of the European Union.<\/p>\n<p>The European Commission rolled out a 32-page document in October titled \u201cGuidelines on Inclusive Communication,\u201d which featured the kind of \u201cinclusion\u201d that aims to exclude and entirely erase the Christmas holiday and Christianity in general. &nbsp;\u201cNot everyone celebrates the Christian holidays, and not all Christians celebrate them on the same dates,\u201d said the document, which encouraged people to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/european-commission-cancel-christmas-inclusive-language-lgbtq\/\">replace the word \u201cChristmas\u201d with \u201choliday\u201d<\/a> and \u201cChristmastime\u201d with \u201choliday time.\u201d It also counseled speakers to avoid such divisive phrases as \u201cladies and gentlemen,\u201d which furthers the gender binary. The E.U. leadership said these speech restrictions will help create a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/helenadalli\/status\/1452983864591257604\">union of equality<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines were <a href=\"https:\/\/aleteia.org\/2021\/12\/06\/pope-avoiding-the-word-christmas-to-be-inclusive-echoes-dictatorships\/\">published<\/a> by an Italian journal, il Giornale, on the first Monday of Advent, touching off massive popular backlash across the supranational governing body\u2019s 27 member states.<\/p>\n<p>They also offended the E.U.\u2019s most conspicuous Christian spokesman, Pope Francis, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/en\/pope\/news\/2021-12\/pope-the-eu-document-on-christmas-is-anachronistic.html\">likened<\/a> the attempt to erase Christianity and Christian holidays to Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes of the recent past. \u201cIn history many, many dictatorships have tried to do so. Think of Napoleon: from there \u2026 Think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The E.U. document, he said, is \u201can anachronism\u201d that reads like \u201cwatered-down secularism, distilled water.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBe careful not to be vehicles of ideological colonization,\u201d he told E.U. leaders, because politically correct language <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/what-is-critical-race-theory-breaking-down-the-ideology-thats-hitting-schools-across-the-country\">imported from U.S. academics<\/a> \u201ccould end up dividing the countries and [causing] the European Union to fail.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The secular Eurocrats repealed the document within one day of the Italian press story. Helena Dalli, the EU Commissioner for Equality (as Orwellian a title as any), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/249797\/pope-francis-eu-commission-guide-discouraging-word-christmas-was-an-anachronism\">said<\/a> the language-regulating <em>diktat <\/em>is \u201cnot a mature document and does not meet all Commission quality standards. The guidelines clearly need more work. I therefore withdraw the guidelines and will work further on this document.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>These guidelines represent only the most recent attempt to strip out Christian morality out of European society from the top down. The results sometimes result in ludicrous statements. For example in 2019, a British court ruled that a <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2019\/10\/belief-in-genesis-127-is-incompatible-with-human-dignity-court\/\">belief in the Book of Genesis is \u201cincompatible with human dignity.\u201d<\/a> The statement came in a ruling against a Christian doctor who refused to use a transgender individual\u2019s preferred pronouns based on his belief in&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Genesis+1%3A27&amp;version=KJV\">Genesis 1:27<\/a>, which&nbsp;states, \u201cGod created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.\u201d The judges ruled that \u201cbelief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism, and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Carter Center, founded by one-term president and long-term Baptist teacher&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2005\/11\/a-failed-former-president\/\">Jimmy Carter<\/a>,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cartercenter.org\/resources\/pdfs\/peace\/human_rights\/universal-declaration-human-rights-scriptually-annotated.pdf\">quotes<\/a>&nbsp;the verse in question in its \u201cScripturally Annotated Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\u201d The document states, \u201cThe moral status of human beings is exalted, in large part due to the declaration first made in Genesis 1 that human beings are made in the divine image.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Pope Francis \u2014 who has never been bashful about bashing his opponents \u2014 may sound overly negative in his response to these guidelines, he has spent his pontificate encouraging ever-secularizing Europe to rediscover its Christian roots, which lie at the heart of the E.U. and form the basis of human rights in general. \u201cThe European Union must take in hand the ideals of the [E.U.\u2019s] founding fathers,\u201d he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vaticannews.va\/en\/pope\/news\/2021-12\/pope-the-eu-document-on-christmas-is-anachronistic.html\">said<\/a> in response to the guidelines.<\/p>\n<p>He sounded a similar theme during the celebration of the Treaty of Rome\u2019s 60th&nbsp;anniversary in March 2017. At that time, he said that Europe had historically embraced \u201ca way of understanding man based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity, as something more than simply a sum of rights to defend or claims to advance.\u201d As this writer has <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2017\/03\/pope-francis-on-employment-subsidiarity-and-the-soul-of-the-eu\/\">noted<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>Emphasizing faith was particularly appropriate, given that the Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957. March 25 was formerly New Year\u2019s Day in much of Europe (including in the United States,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bostonglobe.com\/ideas\/2014\/03\/22\/march-happy-colonial-new-year\/L0MrkQc47SiUu1OHVJt1lI\/story.html\">until 1752<\/a>), because, as the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oca.org\/saints\/lives\/2012\/03\/25\/100884-the-annunciation-of-our-most-holy-lady-the-theotokos-and-ever-vi\">Feast of the Annunciation<\/a>, it marked the first moment of Christ\u2019s Incarnation and the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/oca.org\/orthodoxy\/the-orthodox-faith\/doctrine-scripture\/the-symbol-of-faith\/incarnation\">salvation<\/a>&nbsp;of the world. The EU flag of 12 stars on a blue field \u2013 adopted on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Feast_of_the_Immaculate_Conception\">December 8<\/a>, 1955 \u2013 is said to have been&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/aleteia.org\/2014\/08\/27\/is-the-eus-flag-really-a-marian-emblem-with-the-central-figure-removed\/\">inspired<\/a>&nbsp;by Marian imagery. Yet four decades later, the EU agonized over whether to acknowledge Christianity as a part of its history.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>His words came months after the leaders of the world\u2019s two largest churches \u2014 Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church \u2014 issued a joint statement warning of <a href=\"https:\/\/therightswriter.com\/2017\/02\/ignoring-faith-and-human-dignity-leaves-europe-adrift-joint-catholic-orthodox-statement\/\">\u201cunprecedented\u201d global persecution of Christians<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><em>The constitutions of our States guarantee the fundamental rights of the human person. Nevertheless, in our societies, forces are always at work to marginalise or even erase<\/p>\n<p><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The cultural Left\u2019s ever-intensifying campaign to cancel every last vestige of Western civilization has been dealt a decisive blow by the forces of sanity \u2014 not just in suburban school boards or the Virginia governor\u2019s mansion, but in the secular heart of the European Union.The European Commission rolled out a 32-page document in October titled \u201cGuidelines on Inclusive Communication,\u201d which featured the kind of \u201cinclusion\u201d that aims to exclude and entirely erase the Christmas holiday and Christianity in general. \u00a0\u201cNot everyone celebrates the Christian holidays, and not all Christians celebrate them on the same dates,\u201d said the document, which encouraged people to replace the word \u201cChristmas\u201d with \u201choliday\u201d and \u201cChristmastime\u201d with \u201choliday time.\u201d It also counseled speakers to avoid such divisive phrases as \u201cladies and gentlemen,\u201d which furthers the gender binary. The E.U. leadership said these speech restrictions will help create a \u201cunion of equality.\u201dThe guidelines were published by an Italian journal, il Giornale, on the first Monday of Advent, touching off massive popular backlash across the supranational governing body\u2019s 27 member states.They also offended the E.U.\u2019s most conspicuous Christian spokesman, Pope Francis, who likened the attempt to erase Christianity and Christian holidays to Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes of the recent past. \u201cIn history many, many dictatorships have tried to do so. Think of Napoleon: from there \u2026 Think of the Nazi dictatorship, the communist one.\u201dThe E.U. document, he said, is \u201can anachronism\u201d that reads like \u201cwatered-down secularism, distilled water.\u201d\u201cBe careful not to be vehicles of ideological colonization,\u201d he told E.U. leaders, because politically correct language imported from U.S. academics \u201ccould end up dividing the countries and [causing] the European Union to fail.\u201dThe secular Eurocrats repealed the document within one day of the Italian press story. Helena Dalli, the EU Commissioner for Equality (as Orwellian a title as any), said the language-regulating diktat is \u201cnot a mature document and does not meet all Commission quality standards. The guidelines clearly need more work. I therefore withdraw the guidelines and will work further on this document.\u201dThese guidelines represent only the most recent attempt to strip out Christian morality out of European society from the top down. The results sometimes result in ludicrous statements. For example in 2019, a British court ruled that a belief in the Book of Genesis is \u201cincompatible with human dignity.\u201d The statement came in a ruling against a Christian doctor who refused to use a transgender individual\u2019s preferred pronouns based on his belief in\u00a0Genesis 1:27, which\u00a0states, \u201cGod created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.\u201d The judges ruled that \u201cbelief in Genesis 1:27, lack of belief in transgenderism, and conscientious objection to transgenderism in our judgment are incompatible with human dignity and conflict with the fundamental rights of others.\u201dThe Carter Center, founded by one-term president and long-term Baptist teacher\u00a0Jimmy Carter,\u00a0quotes\u00a0the verse in question in its \u201cScripturally Annotated Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\u201d The document states, \u201cThe moral status of human beings is exalted, in large part due to the declaration first made in Genesis 1 that human beings are made in the divine image.\u201dWhile Pope Francis \u2014 who has never been bashful about bashing his opponents \u2014 may sound overly negative in his response to these guidelines, he has spent his pontificate encouraging ever-secularizing Europe to rediscover its Christian roots, which lie at the heart of the E.U. and form the basis of human rights in general. \u201cThe European Union must take in hand the ideals of the [E.U.\u2019s] founding fathers,\u201d he said in response to the guidelines.He sounded a similar theme during the celebration of the Treaty of Rome\u2019s 60th\u00a0anniversary in March 2017. At that time, he said that Europe had historically embraced \u201ca way of understanding man based on his transcendent and inalienable dignity, as something more than simply a sum of rights to defend or claims to advance.\u201d As this writer has noted:Emphasizing faith was particularly appropriate, given that the Treaty of Rome was signed on March 25, 1957. March 25 was formerly New Year\u2019s Day in much of Europe (including in the United States,\u00a0until 1752), because, as the\u00a0Feast of the Annunciation, it marked the first moment of Christ\u2019s Incarnation and the\u00a0salvation\u00a0of the world. The EU flag of 12 stars on a blue field \u2013 adopted on\u00a0December 8, 1955 \u2013 is said to have been\u00a0inspired\u00a0by Marian imagery. Yet four decades later, the EU agonized over whether to acknowledge Christianity as a part of its history.His words came months after the leaders of the world\u2019s two largest churches \u2014 Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Church \u2014 issued a joint statement warning of \u201cunprecedented\u201d global persecution of Christians:The constitutions of our States guarantee the fundamental rights of the human person. Nevertheless, in our societies, forces are always at work to marginalise or even erase religions and their message from the public space. \u2026 [T]he personalist Christian vision of humanity is a minority view in relation to a dominant discourse that promotes hedonistic individualism, which ignores the notions of objective truth and common good.Modern secularism, which ignores \u201cthe importance of the religious element in human culture can lead to unacceptable instances of discrimination or persecution in our societies, even as they strive to be open,\u201d they wrote. They warned that European societies engage in \u201cmore subtle forms of discrimination against believers,\u201d which take place \u201cwhen [the faithful] are\u00a0excluded\u00a0from certain roles\u00a0or professions, when their right to conscientious objection is disregarded, or when persons who request\u00a0counselling when faced with the choice of performing an abortion have that request denied.\u201d\u201cSecular Europe is deeply rooted in our Christian traditions, which have provided it with its universalist vision, its notion of the dignity of the human person and its moral principles,\u201d they concluded. \u201cIf you are cut off from your roots, you will come adrift.\u201dThe production of this European Commission document indicates that the E.U. failed to heed their prophetic warning five years ago. But the public reaction proves that enough people in Europe still heed the calls of an inner voice that continually calls them back to the Truth.The views expressed in this piece are the author\u2019s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":1897445,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1118210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1118210"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1118210\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1118210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1118210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1118210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}