It begins...<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It begins...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Anchoress\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-11-10T18:08:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-03-17T21:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/\",\"name\":\"It begins...\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2005-11-10T18:08:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-03-17T21:07:01+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b\"},\"description\":\"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"It begins…\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/\",\"name\":\"The Anchoress\",\"description\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b\",\"name\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elizabeth Scalia\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/author\/elizabethscalia\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"It begins...","description":"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"It begins...","og_description":"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/","og_site_name":"The Anchoress","article_published_time":"2005-11-10T18:08:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-03-17T21:07:01+00:00","author":"Elizabeth Scalia","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elizabeth Scalia","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/","name":"It begins...","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website"},"datePublished":"2005-11-10T18:08:54+00:00","dateModified":"2017-03-17T21:07:01+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b"},"description":"The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights> A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"It begins…"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/","name":"The Anchoress","description":"Elizabeth Scalia","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/89fc1174c0d765bb372cf892e199b06b","name":"Elizabeth Scalia","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f18a7adac49c37442f07444789de0e73?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elizabeth Scalia"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/author\/elizabethscalia\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1900"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1900\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":1900,"date":"2005-11-10T13:08:54","date_gmt":"2005-11-10T18:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theanchoressonline.com\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/"},"modified":"2017-03-17T21:07:01","modified_gmt":"2017-03-17T21:07:01","slug":"it-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/theanchoress\/2005\/11\/10\/it-begins\/","title":{"rendered":"It begins…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The internation assault on Christmas begins this year, not surprisingly, with the lights<\/a>><\/p>\n

A COUNCIL is planning to scrap grants for festive lights because Christmas does not fit in with its \u201ccore values of equality and diversity\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n

A report drawn up by the council in Suffolk concedes that the move could lead to officials being accused of \u201cnot supporting the spirit of Christmas\u201d.<\/p>\n

The move is the latest in a string of decisions by organisations to downplay the celebration of the birth of Christ \u2014 ostensibly to prevent offence being caused to non-Christian religions. Last week it emerged that Lambeth council in south London had insisted on renaming its Christmas lighting displays as \u201cwinter\u201d or \u201ccelebrity\u201d lights.<\/p>\n

The latest is Conservative-controlled Waveney council in Lowestoft which provides grants totalling \u00a310,000 for festive lights. Its report states that because Christmas focuses only on the Christian faith, continuing the funding would \u201cnot fit well with the council\u2019s core values of equality and diversity\u201d.<\/p>\n

MusingMinds is (are?) on top of things<\/a> \u2013 they found a second article, too: Row as Christmas Lights Renamed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A decision to call Christmas lights \u201cWinter Lights\u201d in south London has been condemned as showing a \u201ctotal lack of respect\u201d for Christians.<\/p>\n

Advertisements for the switch-on of the lights in multi-cultural Lambeth have renamed them, apparently for fear of offending other faiths.<\/p>\n

Tory councillor Bernard Gentry told the BBC: \u201cChristmas appears to have been cancelled in our borough\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gosh. Our Republicans couldn\u2019t have bobbed and weaved any better.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"