European Union lowercases 'Christ'

WorldNetDaily ^ | November 1, 2005 | Staff

[FreedomCalls]

A new grammar rule devised by the European Union in Brussels stipulates the word "Christ" shall be spelled with a lowercase "c."

The rule was part of an orthography reform published in October, reported Canada Free Press.

The paper cites a German newssite, Kath.net, in reporting that the new guidelines also indicate the Dutch word for "Jews" (Joden) is to be spelled with a capital "J" when referring to nationality and with a lower-case "j" when referring to the religion.

The EU changes become mandatory next August. There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."

Canada Free Press noted the title of Javier Solana, secretary general of the EU, was still to be spelled with capital letters.

Many Europeans have long discarded belief in God and in fact believe more deeply in ghosts than in a deity.

A new poll finds two-thirds of Britons said they believe in the existence of ghosts and spirits, but only 55 percent said they believe in the existence of God.

Meanwhile, 26 percent believe in UFOs, 19 percent in reincarnation and 4 percent in the Loch Ness Monster, Ananova reported.

[AmeriBrit]

That's hogwash! As far as I'm concerned they can take a high dive into an empty pool.

[NRA2BFree]

What about Muhammad?

LOL! Yeah, I bet they wouldn't have the nerve to uncapitalize his name in fear that the muslims would decapitate them.

[ncountylee]

What about Muhammad?

The idiots will want (Blessings be upon him) added at all times.

[A'elian' nation]

"This is going to look weird. Even atheists tend not to write "Jesus christ"

Ditto, but on a recent trip to Europe I noticed some designer pants with the brand name "Jesus Jeans"
Funny, wonder why it's ok to capitalize His name on shock garb ?

[son of caesar]

oh no, this name you cannot tamper with. gosh id love to see them try though, it would probably mean alot of heads would be disconnted from euro bodies, no real harm there. after all, the head is a useless organ to euros.

[GOP_Proud]

Ummm...and Mohammed shall be just "mo". No, I don't think so.

[MHalblaub]

"I'm speechless."

I'm also speechless some people believe that nonsense. Brussels is also the capital of the Netherlands. The regulation is only Dutch a one. I don't know much about dutch orthography but as I read the German article Christ should written in lowercase when used as an adjective. Not all you read about Brussels got something in common with the EU.

Try your translators:
http://www.kath.net/detail.php?id=11782

[livius]

The names of religions, nationalities, their related adjectives and adverbs, etc. are written in lower case in many languages. In Spanish, for example, Christianity, Judaism, Canadian, Muslims would be written as "cristianismo," "judaismo," "canadiense," "musulmanes."

Not capitalizing the word Christ, however, would seem to be a little strange, like not capitalizing part of someone's name. But if the rule just relates to adjectives, adverbs and certain nouns, it's not important and is normal for many languages.

[The Red Zone]

Also why are they picking on English? Britain should fight back. Let them try to do that to French and the CESM howling will register on the Richter scale.

[Revelation 911]

european union

[Dan Lacey]

[horse_doc]

There are no penalties set out for those who insist on continuing to spell Christ with a capital "C."

I think that it is pretty clear that there are going to be be some penalties for those who insist on a lower case "c".

[American in Israel]

News Flash, Christ lowercases europe. Muslim Horde to execute sentence.

[Northern Alliance]

What about Muhammad?

I think we can be fairly sure that is lower case also, but that is not the point. What this is about is marginalizing religion itself. Look at the case of Jews: Jewish as a nationality but jewish as a religion. Actually I'm surprised they did not lower case nations and nationalities as well - maybe that'll be 10 years down the road.

[BikerNYC]

Even atheists tend not to write "Jesus christ"

I agree. Following Simpsonian spelling rules, I always write "Jesus H. Christ."

[eabinga]

In english you can write ¨god¨ or ¨God¨, but they mean two different things.

e.g.

Christians should do what their god says.

and

Christians should do what God says.

[Tullius]

This doesn't pass the bullshit detector. For one, Brussels does not regulate grammer, or orthography. Ever. Or to make things more general, Brussels stays out of cultural issues alltogether. Imagine the outcry if Brussels told the Académie Francaise how to spell French.

Second, the capitalization of God is mostly an English language issue. Many other languages have no special rules for God, and never had. German, for instance, captalizes all nouns and names anayway, so God, and Christ and Jesus get the same treatment as Cars and Trees and Chun the Unavoidable. OTOH, German does not captalize pronouns, regardless if they refer to God or not.

Third, kath.net, which is quoted as original sorce, has since corrected and retracted the original story. Look here!

And, forth, as is obvious from that article, this always was about a Dutch Language orthography reform where the press misunderstood some of the finer points.

[Tullius]

ahem...

Brussels is the Capital of Belgium. For the Netherlands, try Amsterdam and Den Haag (capital and seat of government, respectively)

[Rose of Sharn]

When the government dictates what words can be capitalized and which ones can't, you know you've surrendered too much freedom.

[cloud8]

> What about Muhammad?

Ahem... that's mohammed, koran and clinton (the impeached POS).