The term “Judeo-Christian values” is frequently used. I am one who uses it.
I do so for the same reason the late great British prime minister Margaret Thatcher did:
“The truths of the Judaic-Christian tradition,” she said, “are infinitely precious, not only, as I believe, because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace, in the true meaning of the word, for which we all long… There is little hope for democracy if the hearts of men and women in democratic societies cannot be touched by a call to something greater than themselves.”
Mrs. Thatcher was a believing Christian. I am a believing Jew. While we have some religious beliefs in common, we have different theologies. But we have the same core values. And in societal terms, moral values are far more important than theologies.
That is why traditionally religious Protestants, Catholics, Mormons and Jews are aligned on almost every important social issue.
Here are 10 of those values.
No. 1: There is one G od. That G od is the G od introduced to the world by the Hebrew Bible — the source of one universal morality.
No. 2: The Hebrew Bible (the only Bible Jesus knew and which he frequently cited) introduced the most revolutionary moral idea in history: that there are objective moral truths just as there are mathematical and scientific truths. Without G od as the source of moral standards, there is no moral truth; there are only moral opinions.
No. 3: Because there are moral truths, good and evil are the same for all people.
No. 4: G od — not man, not government, not popular opinion, not a democratic vote — is the source of our rights. All men “are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” declares the American Declaration of Independence.
No. 5: The human being is “created in the image of G od.” Therefore, each human life is precious. Therefore, race is of no significance, since we are all created in G od’s image and G od has no race.
No. 6: The world is based on a divine order, meaning divinely ordained distinctions. Among these divine distinctions are G od and man, man and woman, human and animal, good and evil, nature and G od, and the holy and the profane.
No. 7: Man is not basically good. Christians speak of “original sin” in referring to man’s sinful nature; Jews cite G od Himself in Genesis: “The will of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Genesis 8:21). They are not identical beliefs, but they are both worlds apart from the naive Enlightenment belief that man is basically good. And they come to the same conclusion: we need G od-based rules to keep us from our natural inclination to do evil.
No. 8: Therefore, we must not follow our hearts. Both religious Jews and Christians are keenly aware of how morally dangerous it is to be led by our emotions. Those who reject Judeo-Christian values are far more likely to follow and promote the advice, “Follow your heart.”
No. 9: G od gave us the Ten Commandments — the core of Judeo-Christian values. Therefore, to apply but one of the Ten Commandments to our morally confused secular age, you must “Honor your father and mother” even if they voted for someone you loathe — meaning, at the least, remain in contact with them and do not dare deprive them of the right to be in contact with their grandchildren.
No. 10: Human beings have free will. In the secular world, there is no free will because all human behavior is attributed to biology and environment. Only a religious worldview, because it posits the existence of a divine soul — something independent of biology and environment — allows for free will.
There is another important aspect to the term “Judeo-Christian.” The two religions need each other. Without the Torah, there is no New Testament. Virtually every Christian moral principle derives from the Hebrew Bible — not only the 10 Judeo-Christian values enumerated here, but such basic moral principles as “Love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18), “Love the Lord your G od with all your heart …” (Deuteronomy 6:5), and “Love the stranger” (Deuteronomy 10:19).
At the same time, Judaism needs Christians. It was Christianity that carried the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible to the world. This was acknowledged by the greatest Jewish thinker after Moses, Maimonides.
Thus, while people speak of “Judeo-Christian” values, people do not speak of “Judeo-Muslim” values. As the noted Jewish scholar David Novak writes, “Maimonides rules that Jews may teach the Torah to Christians but not to Muslims because Christians believe Hebrew Scripture in toto to be the revealed word of G od, whereas Muslims believe that primary text to be the Quran; for them, Hebrew Scripture is a flawed revelation. Thus, Jews and Christians share a common revelation in a way that Jews share with no other religious community.”
The ultimate embodiment of Judeo-Christian values has been the United States of America. America’s Founders were Christians (some culturally, some doctrinally) who were rooted in the Hebrew Bible. America was founded not to be a replacement of Israel, but a “Second Israel.” Until recently, it was.
It would be worthwhile to point out where Jewish and Christian values are at odds, a task beyond the ability of someone who panders to a Christian audience. Below are criticism of the article. Prager is no authority on Jewish thought, no matter how much he wants and tries to be one.
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This is first a factual claim and not a value. The Hebrew Bible, according to the Hebrew Bible is not the source of universal morality. People are and were expected to behave morally without the Bible. Otherwise, it would have been unjust for God to punish people for wrongdoing before the Torah was given – how were they supposed to know they were acting immorally without the Hebrew Bible? The fate of the generation of the Flood was sealed because of the prevalence of robbery, a crime that according to our sages requires no prophet to announce its immorality. (Genesis 6:13. See Nachmanides’ comments on Genesis 6:13 based on the Talmud.) In another example, Cain was punished for murder even though no such prohibition had been announced. Humans are expected to uphold certain moral standards without instruction. (See Hizkuni on Genesis 7:21.) Consider also Sodom and Egypt.
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Granted that there are agreed upon moral fundamentals, nonetheless, the details and applications are disputed.
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According to FBI statistics, the estimated robbery rate in 2017 was 98 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; there were 5.3 murders per 100,000 people. It is hard to believe that everyone else is just afraid of getting caught, whether by man of by God. Why are we appalled when we hear about violent crimes in the news? If we were not “basically good,” news about violent crime would have no impact on us.
“[T]he Creator has implanted in the intellect praise for truth and scorn for falsehood, choosing righteousness and avoidance of injustice, compensation of benefactors with good and thanks, and compensation of evil-doers with evil and condemnation….” (Rabbeinu Bahye, Duties of the Heart: Gate of Divine Service, 5.) “It is the nature of the human soul to go in a morally upright way….” (Orot HaTeshuvah ch. 1. The term “lower/vital” soul is used – even more so is it the nature of the higher soul to go in an upright way. See also Midot HaRayah, Love: 9; Eyn Ayah, Brachot A 1:165 and 4:15, among others.)
If the heart is, or tends to be corrupt, that does not mean the whole person is corrupt, or even half corrupt. We are commanded (and therefore able) not to stray after our hearts. (See Numbers 15:39. See also Proverbs 7:25.) This means we possess a faculty higher and stronger than the heart that gives us the ability to do what is right. But see Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch who explains the famous verse about the heart in a way completely contrary to Christian thought. (See also the Maharal in Chidushei Agadot, Arachin 30b where he states that sin is a variance in a person’s normal behavior and a person does not easily change from his normal order.)
Our freewill regarding moral issues is described in terms of us having an inclination to do good (yetzer hatov) as well as an inclination to do evil (yetzer harah). These inclinations are in balance – we are free to follow one or the other. There is a skewed viewpoint in the Jewish world that says that this idea means we are fifty-fifty angels/brutes – we are just as inclined to commit robbery as we are inclined to not commit robbery. This is not correct for most people. The point where we are at fifty-fifty, where it is a challenge to choose between right or wrong is above clearly immoral acts. For example, there may be a fifty-fifty chance I will not respond with anger when confronted by someone who is “in my face” and angry. For a person who is growing in moral development the line of fifty-fifty is always moving to a more refined place – he is becoming more refined. At the time of the Flood people’s moral development – their point of freewill – was very low; it was certain that they would commit violent crimes. Things have changed.
Why do people think we are half angels, half beasts, that people are not “basically good”? It is because of war. However, war is a collective matter; it does not describe the moral development of people as individuals. Collective groups, nations, are on a lower level of moral development than individuals. Also, people who face great temptation, like those who have great power, are also much more likely to fail than the average individual.
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Judaism does not depend on Christianity in any way. The spread of a distorted version of Judaism, i.e. Christianity, was not something the Jewish people needed. Granted that it had some positive effects, but it is debatable whether the overall effect of Christianity was positive.