The Judeo-Christian Values of America
By Ronald R. Cherry
Judeo-Christian Values have
a foundational role in America, beginning with the Declaration of Independence:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness..."
Since the pursuit of
happiness, as Sigmund Freud surmised, is tied to human love and to creative
work and play, the principles of American Judeo-Christian Values can rightly be
summarized as the honoring of God-given Life, Liberty and Creativity. This seed
of American Social Justice was then fleshed out in the U.S. Constitution
through reason and common sense, unencumbered by the dysfunctional religious
and secular traditions and laws of Old Europe.
Our Founding Fathers
separated church from state, but they wisely did not separate God from state;
they acknowledged God as the source of our rights, and, in fact, they were
careful to place Biblical morality directly into our founding documents and
laws, and into our values and culture precisely to help prevent a future of
totalitarian or tyrannical rule in America. The combination of keeping Judeo-Christian religious
morality in the state, as opposed to the church it's self; and, additionally,
setting up our laws based on reason and common sense has contributed to the
American Character, and to what is known as "American Exceptionalism."
Our Founding Fathers were
religious in a new way, the Judeo-Christian way, and they were the liberals of
their day by deducing that our political and human rights come from a power
higher than human government; but they were conservative to Biblical morality. There was and still is a connection
between God and Liberty; He is the author of it. It is ironic that American Conservatives are now the
champion of this our most liberal founding principle; and also an irony that
most American Conservatives are wholly unaware of their connection with the
liberal founding ideas of this great republic. It is also an irony that many American Liberals have turned
a blind eye to the required connection between God and Liberty. As Thomas Jefferson and John Adams
noted, as you will see below, Liberty cannot survive among men without its
Divine connection.
In Judeo-Christian America
one finds the idea of equality before God and the law, but not government
forced economic equality.
Modern European culture has stressed the value of economic equality
rather than Liberty, and their governments unjustly enforce the principle. This has led to the failed European
inventions of Socialism and Communism.
Socialists in America have been lured into this failed European idea of
social justice. Socialism is a
failure in that it unjustly suppresses human creativity by excessively taxing
away its rewards, and by foolishly giving economic reward to many who, even
though mentally and physically able, fail to honor their Divine privilege and
duty to work creatively.
Thus, Socialism is a dual
insult to God-given creativity.
Communism was much worse in that it also dishonored the sacredness of
human life and liberty. Communism
was the inevitable result of separating not just church from state, but God
from state. Communism dishonored
God's gifts of Life, Liberty and Creativity. European cultures have historical ties to authoritarian and
totalitarian systems dating back to the Roman Empire. Even European Christianity was, for a time, contaminated by
its links to authoritarian rule.
American Judeo-Christian
Culture, on the other hand, has been linked to honoring Life, Liberty and
Creativity from the outset; deriving its wisdom from the lights of reason,
common sense, and both the Hebrew Bible and New Testament Christian Bible. Thomas Jefferson and the great majority
of our Founding Fathers explicitly put God into the national life of the United
States, by putting the Creator into the Declaration of Independence. It is important that American Liberty
has something to do with God; that is something for students to know and
discuss, even if they are not particularly religious. This does not represent some form of tyranny of the
religious majority or an injustice; it was in fact the wisdom of our Founding
Fathers to stand in opposition to tyranny and injustice by acknowledging the
source of our rights -- those rights originating from God rather than from King
George III, or for that matter from the Soviet or Chinese Politburo, or a courthouse,
or a legislature.
America is a melting pot of
diverse people including Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Atheists; and
from the Judeo-Christian perspective, all are made in God's image. We have in America a multiethnic society,
and that is good. What would be
unhealthy for America would be for it to become Balkanized, something likely to
happen with the atrophy of Judeo-Christian American Culture and Values. Worse yet would be for America to adopt
the toxic values which exist in some parts of the world and which are endemic
in some foreign cultures. The
values of Fascism, Nazism, Communism or Totalitarian Islamic Sharia Law for
example must never metastasize into our American Culture, rooted in Judeo-Christian
values. These values have been
with us from the beginning and they have made us strong and successful. These Judeo- Christian Values should be
kept central to the American Spirit and Culture even as we have become more
multi-ethnic.
Some of the words of our
Founding Fathers will illustrate American Judeo-Christian Values and our
separation of church and state, but not the separation of God from state, and
provide grounding for our understanding of social justice.
Thomas Jefferson wrote:
"all men are created equal, that they are
endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among them are
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness - that to secure these rights
governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed ...."
He also wrote:
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure
when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of
God?" He also wrote: "Almighty God hath created the
mind free. ... All attempts to
influence it by temporal punishments or burthens...are a departure from the
plan of the Holy Author of our religion..."
He also wrote:
"I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal
hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man."
Our Founding Fathers wrote
the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution:
"Congress shall make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
President George Washington
said this when proclaiming our National Thanksgiving Holiday:
"It is the duty of all nations to
acknowledge the providence of Almighty God ...."
John Adams wrote this:
"We have no government armed with power
capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and
religion. Avarice, ambition,
revenge, or gallantry would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a
whale goes through a net. Our
Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the
government of any other."
Later, Abraham Lincoln wrote
these words about the Bible:
"In regard to this great book, I have but
to say, it is the best gift God has given to men. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated
through this book. But for it we
could not know right from wrong."
He also spoke these words at
the Gettysburg Address:
"...that from these honored dead we take
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of
devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain - that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and
that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish
from the earth."
The following are the
Judeo-Christian Values embraced by the American Republic and People.
I am indebted to Dennis
Prager who has listed Judeo-Christian Values and elaborated on this subject
long before I took it up; and those who know his work will recognize many of
his thoughts.
1. Our sense of right and wrong and our sense of wisdom come
from the use of reason and common sense, but also, and importantly, from the
Bible which, by faith was considered by our Founding Fathers to be God's
inspired text; and not just from the mind or heart of man. This faith lead to the mottos: "In
God We Trust" and "One Nation under God." Our Founding Fathers were believers in
the God of the Bible, even if some were not orthodox Christians, and they put that
faith into the Declaration of Independence, into our laws, into our national
monuments, and into our culture.
Faith is a part of American Culture, something Atheists, Secularists,
Humanists and those of other religions should acknowledge and accept as
historically accurate truth. To
remove the results of Biblical Faith from America is to undo what the Founding
Fathers have wrought.
2. Truth is Sacred; there can be no liberty or justice, and
little happiness without it. Jesus
connected truth and liberty when he said "the truth shall make you
free." In the Book of Exodus
of the Hebrew Bible God describes Himself: "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth..." In Deuteronomy God is described
this way: "He is the Rock,
His work is perfect; For all His ways are justice, A God of truth and without
injustice." Listen to King
David in Psalm 25: "Show me
Your ways, O Lord; Teach me your paths.
Lead me in Your truth...";
and in Psalm 51:
"Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden
part You will make me to know wisdom."
3. Human life is the first gift of God, and it is of infinite
value since man is made in the image of God. Judeo-Christian Values have lead to a culture of life in America,
not a culture of death. Americans
with Judeo-Christian Values will defend innocent God-given life.
4. Our Liberty is a gift from God and stated so in the
Declaration of Independence. It is
also stated in the New Testament Christian Bible: "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of
the Lord is, there is Liberty."
Americans with Judeo-Christian Values will defend their God-given
Liberty from tyranny and terror.
5. Human creativity is also a gift from God and is not to be
unjustly suppressed by totalitarian, tyrannical or excessively taxing
government. The work ethic is an
important part of Judeo-Christian Values since honorable work is a reflection
of God-given human creativity.
Human reason is also a part of God-given human creativity, and it has
led to scientific knowledge and technological progress. Reason and science are important
aspects of Judeo-Christian Values.
Human creativity is central to the pursuit of happiness, but does not
guarantee it; totalitarian systems such as Communism or Islamic Sharia Law
guarantee utopian happiness, but don't deliver it.
6. "Establish justice." This is commanded repeatedly in the Hebrew Bible. This is how it has been done in America: Honor Life, Liberty and
Creativity. Liberty in practical
terms means: Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly,
freedom of religion, no established or state-supported religion, right to bear
arms and act in self-defense, uninterrupted elections and the division of
powers into its three branches. Where
our culture is now headed in the wrong direction, in my opinion, is to provide
special rights for certain groups of people. Our Founding Fathers acknowledged these basic rights for all
people, and our Civil War enforced it for the American slaves when they were
denied their God-given Liberty.
7. "Hate Evil".
This is commanded three times in the Hebrew Bible; this is from the book
of Proverbs: "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil." Hear the Prophet Isaiah: "Woe unto
them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light
for darkness...." Americans
with Judeo-Christian Values, as opposed to Europeans, still believe in the
death penalty for pre-meditated murder, and America is still the nemesis of
terrorists and tyrants - see the seal of the state of Virginia.
8. "Love your neighbor" - commanded in the Hebrew and
Christian Bibles. "Love your
enemy" - commanded in the New Testament Christian Bible. Generations of Americans, starting with
our Founding Fathers, have had to square the values of "Hate Evil"
with "Love your enemy."
This has been done by hating the evil within the enemies of God-given
Life and Liberty, but not hating the evil-doer him/herself.
9. In the Judeo-Christian Value System there is a natural and
common-sense balance between compassion and courageous confrontation of
evil. This can be seen
metaphorically as a natural balance between femininity and masculinity; both
good and necessary. The secular
culture of Europe and of many in the United States today have unwisely
suppressed the masculinity of Judeo-Christian American Culture, and this has
put our society out of balance.
10. From Many, One: e pluribus unum. Ethnicity and race don't matter, but
values do matter. We Americans
should consider ourselves blessed to live under God-given Liberty in the same
melting pot; and we are privileged to pursue happiness through creative work
and play, unencumbered by excessive government. Those things that divide us, such as race or ethnicity, can
be viewed metaphorically as our various styles; and are not very
important. Those things of lesser
importance should melt into what is very important and which should unite us:
our value of Life, Liberty and Creativity - those rights defined by the
Declaration of Independence, and rightly identified as the gifts of God.
11. The natural resources of
the Earth, including the animals, along with the rest of creation should be
honored and well cared for, but also used and enjoyed; and never worshiped.
Ronald R. Cherry is a
medical doctor.
From: http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/09/the_judeochristian_values_of_a.html
at September 17, 2007 - 08:40:59 AM EDT