And, as usual, just about every one of his examples of America's "Judeo-Christian" heritage is actually just Christian.
Of course. "Judeo-Christian" actually means one or more of:
1) We're just the same, so STFU about how we should recognize your stupid hard-to-spell holidays.
2) We're just the same, so we all hate the muslims, right?
3) You people know perfectly well that Jesus really is the messiah, you're just being stubborn about admitting it.
(why yes, I hate the term, are my issues showing?)
Historically, "Judeo-Christian" means "Okay we're still mad about the whole killing Jesus thing, but at least you're not Communists. You're *not* Communists, right?"
(I have the same issues with that term, amych.)
Except you missed one meaning.
4. Jesus was Jewish, so Christians really are Jewish too! Anything that's changed about the Jewish religion since 2000 years ago? Oh, that's not real Judaism.
Most uses of "Judeo-Christian" from the fifties that I've seen seem to be the exact same people who would have said "America is a Christian nation" ten years earlier, but realized that didn't sound so good in a post-Holocaust world, so they added the "Judeo" to that sentence without actually changing what they meant.
4. Jesus was Jewish, so Christians really are Jewish too! Anything that's changed about the Jewish religion since 2000 years ago? Oh, that's not real Judaism.
Yes! Also known as, "so, are you, like, a Pharisee?"
Okay we're still mad about the whole killing Jesus thing
I've never understood that. Wasn't the death of Jesus supposed to happen? To me, it always seemed like blaming the hammer if someone smashes a window with it. That doesn't even get to the point of blaming a whole group for the acts of a few. But then, you know, agnostic (or atheist depending on your definitions) so my perspective is different.
I've never understood that. Wasn't the death of Jesus supposed to happen? To me, it always seemed like blaming the hammer if someone smashes a window with it.
Yeah, except that according to Christians, the window getting smashed was a good and necessary thing.
I've never understood that. Wasn't the death of Jesus supposed to happen?
Ditto. And isn't it the whole basis for the religion? I mean, seriously.
I have heard exactly one Jewish person use the term "Judeo-Christian" seriously, and that's Dennis Prager, who you may remember from the "It doesn't matter if you're in the mood -- have sex with your husband whenever he wants to, or else it's your fault that he has an affair!" debacle a few months ago. He also once wrote several columns claiming that every person being sworn into office in the US should be sworn in on a Christian bible, to uphold the Judeo-Christian tradition. The particular person he was writing against was a Muslim who was being sworn in on a Koran, but he also specifically mentioned that Jewish politicians should be sworn in on the Christian bible. He also said that Jewish politicians generally are sworn in on a Christian bible, which is just factually wrong.
