{"id":463,"date":"2019-12-28T14:30:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-28T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=463"},"modified":"2019-12-28T14:30:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-28T13:30:00","slug":"boris-johnson-vows-to-defend-christians-in-first-christmas-message-since-becoming-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/?p=463","title":{"rendered":"Boris Johnson Vows to Defend Christians in First Christmas Message Since Becoming PM"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson<\/a>\u00a0has vowed to defend Christians around the world in his first\u00a0Christmas<\/a>\u00a0message since becoming U.K prime minister.<\/p>\n

In a video posted to Twitter,<\/a>\u00a0Johnson acknowledged that Christmas Day is \u201cfirst and foremost, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a day of inestimable importance to billions of Christians the world over,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cToday of all days, I want us to remember those Christians around the world who are facing persecution. For them, Christmas Day will be marked in private, in secret, perhaps even in a prison cell.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs prime minister, that\u2019s something I want to change. We stand with Christians everywhere, in solidarity, and will defend your right to practice your faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also thanked those working in public services on Christmas day, particularly members of the NHS and Armed Forces.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs many of us are enjoying a break at this time of year, let\u2019s not forget all those who have selflessly put their celebrations on hold,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn behalf of the whole country, I want to say a huge thank you to our amazing NHS [National Health Service] staff \u2026 many of whom will be working throughout the holidays to take care of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you also, to our police, to all those public servants working tirelessly this Christmas,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Johnson also extended his \u201cpersonal gratitude\u201d to members of the armed forces currently on deployment and to their \u201cfriends, family, and children back home who have an empty chair at the table when they tuck into their Christmas dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, he asked the country to reflect on the year and celebrate the \u201cgood that is to come\u201d under his leadership.<\/p>\n

The prime minister\u2019s message to Christians comes shortly after\u00a0he shared a similar one<\/a>\u00a0to mark the start of the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah and spoke of his commitment to combat anti-Semitism.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBritain would not be Britain without its Jewish community, and we will stand with you and celebrate with you\u2014at Hanukkah and all year round,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The PM noted that recent years have not been easy for British Jews, adding: \u201cToday as Britain\u2019s Jews seek to drive back the darkness of resurgent anti-Semitism, you have every decent person in this country fighting by your side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson defeated Labour Party leader\u00a0Jeremy Corbyn<\/a>\u00a0in the national election earlier this month following a wave of backlash from the Jewish community over the leader\u2019s alleged\u00a0anti-Semitism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thousands of cases of alleged hate speech against Jews were recorded within the Labour party since Coryn was elected to lead it in 2015.<\/p>\n

Corbyn has also been vocal in his criticism of Israel in the past. He had accused the country of committing a number of human rights violations against the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n

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Retrieved from\u00a0https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/boris-johnson-vows-to-defend-christians-in-first-christmas-message-since-becoming-pm_3185293.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boris Johnson\u00a0has vowed to defend Christians around the world in his first\u00a0Christmas\u00a0message since becoming U.K prime minister. In a video posted to Twitter,\u00a0Johnson acknowledged that Christmas Day is \u201cfirst and foremost, a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.\u201d \u201cIt is a day of inestimable importance to billions of Christians the world over,\u201d he added. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"0","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-463","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=463"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463\/revisions\/465"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thechristian.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}