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Jewish Values and the Judeo-Christian Tradition Do Not Belong to the Fundamentalist Right [View all]
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/menachem-rosensaft/jewish-values-and-the-jud_b_2757928.htmlMenachem Rosensaft
Professor of law and son of Holocaust survivors
Posted: 02/25/2013 8:53 am
Over the course of the past five years, the once benign terms "Judeo-Christian values" and "Judeo-Christian tradition" have been turned into veritable cudgels against President Obama. A concept that was originally intended to represent a spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance has instead become a battle-cry of reactionary narrow-mindedness.
I found a recent op-ed article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette to be especially disconcerting. In "Straying from our Judeo-Christian Roots," Robert M. Schwartz, an adjunct assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, sharply criticizes President Obama for his alleged "unwillingness to directly credit the 'Judeo' part of our Judeo-Christian tradition for the contributions it has made toward our way of life."
The most objectionable aspect of Schwartz's article is not the specious nature of his attacks on the president -- more on that below -- but his perpetuation of the canard that Jewish values and the Jewish and Judeo-Christian traditions are somehow the undisputed property of fundamentalist right-wing theologians and politicians.
Sixty years ago, on December 22, 1952, then President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower told the directors of the Freedoms Foundation that, "our government has no sense unless it is founded in a deeply felt religious faith and I don't care what it is. With us of course it is the Judeo-Christian concept, but it must be a religion that all men are created equal."
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Jewish Values and the Judeo-Christian Tradition Do Not Belong to the Fundamentalist Right [View all]
cbayer
Feb 2013
OP
I'm afraid that when I hear the phrase 'Judeo-Christian values' these days..
LeftishBrit
Feb 2013
#3
I think casting ethics in religious terms is in itself conservative and rightwing.
Warren Stupidity
Feb 2013
#5
That's nice but does that necessarily mean that there should be no ethic associated with
cbayer
Feb 2013
#10
No, there are ethics associated with religion, the phrase "judeo-christian values"
Warren Stupidity
Feb 2013
#11
I don't see it as anti-secular and support those religious groups that wish to reclaim it.
cbayer
Feb 2013
#14
Oddly enough by law and constitution our government is both secular and democratic.
Warren Stupidity
Mar 2013
#57
Yes, exactly, and he disagrees with Rosensaft, puts it exactly the way I would want to.
eomer
Feb 2013
#35
That's basically what the article says. So, does phrase need to be reclaimed or does
cbayer
Feb 2013
#8
I don't think he is necessarily arguing for any conflation of Jewish and christian belief systems.
cbayer
Feb 2013
#29
I agree that it has been misused for sometimes, that's why I think maybe a different term is needed.
cbayer
Feb 2013
#18
Yes, he feels it is a slap in his face and should be fixed to only slap the non-religious.
eomer
Feb 2013
#20
He promotes the idea of a broad religious foundation, contrasted with the Godless "Communist world".
eomer
Feb 2013
#34
It's not a phrase I would use or identify with, but I think the author makes a decent case.
cbayer
Feb 2013
#27