Judeo-Christian ethics

==History==

===1930s and 1940s===
Promoting the concept of the United States as a Judeo-Christian nation first became a political program in the 1940s, in response to the growth of anti-Semitism in America. The rise of Nazi anti-semitism in the 1930s led concerned Protestants, Catholics, and Jews to take steps to increase understanding and tolerance.<ref>Sarna, Jonathan. ''American Judaism, A History'' (Yale University Press, 2004. p. 266)</ref>

In this effort, precursors of the National Conference of Christians and Jews created teams consisting of a priest, a rabbi, and a minister, to run programs across the country, and fashion a more pluralistic America, no longer defined as a Christian land, but "one nurtured by three ennobling traditions: Protestantism, Catholicism and Judaism. ... The phrase 'Judeo-Christian' entered the contemporary lexicon as the standard liberal term for the idea that [[Western values (West)|Western values]] rest on a religious consensus that included Jews."<ref name="autogenerated2">Sarna, p. 267</ref>

In the 1930s, "In the face of worldwide antisemitic efforts to stigmatize and destroy Judaism, influential Christians and Jews in America labored to uphold it, pushing Judaism from the margins of American religious life towards its very center."<ref>Sarna, p.267</ref> During World War II, Jewish chaplains worked with Catholic priests and Protestant ministers to promote goodwill, addressing servicemen who, "in many cases had never seen, much less heard a Rabbi speak before." At funerals for the unknown soldier, rabbis stood alongside the other chaplains and recited prayers in Hebrew. In a much publicized wartime tragedy, the sinking of the {{SS|Dorchester||2}}, the ship's multi-faith chaplains gave up their lifebelts to evacuating seamen and stood together "arm in arm in prayer" as the ship went down. A 1948 postage stamp commemorated their heroism with the words: "interfaith in action."<ref name="autogenerated2"/>

===1950s, 1960s, and 1970s===
In December 1952, then-President-elect [[Dwight Eisenhower]], speaking extemporaneously a month before his inauguration, said, in what may be the first direct public reference by a U.S. president to the Judeo-Christian concept:
<blockquote>[The Founding Fathers said] 'we hold that all men are endowed by their Creator ... ' In other words, our form of 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 with all men created equal.<ref>Patrick Henry, "'And I Don't Care What It Is': The Tradition-History of a Civil Religion Proof-Text," ''Journal of the American Academy of Religion,'' (1981), 49#1 pp 35-47 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1462992 in JSTOR] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220615135000/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1462992 |date=2022-06-15 }}</ref></blockquote>

By the 1950s, many early modern conservatives emphasized the Judeo-Christian roots of their values.<ref>Clinton Rossiter, ''Conservatism in America'' (1968) p. 268</ref> In 1958, economist Elgin Groseclose claimed that it was ideas "drawn from Judeo-Christian Scriptures that have made possible the economic strength and industrial power of this country."<ref>A. G. Heinsohn G. Jr., ed. ''Anthology of Conservative Writing in the United States, 1932-1960'' (Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1962) p. 256.</ref>

Senator [[Barry Goldwater]] noted that conservatives "believed the communist projection of man as a producing, consuming animal to be used and discarded was antithetical to all the Judeo-Christian  understandings which are the foundations upon which the Republic stands."<ref>Barry Morris Goldwater. ''With No Apologies'' (1979)</ref>

Belief in the superiority of Western Judeo-Christian traditions led conservatives to downplay the aspirations of the [[Third World]] to free themselves from colonial rule.<ref>{{cite book|author=Lisa McGirr|title=Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPJnBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA173|year=2015|publisher=Princeton UP|page=173}}</ref><ref>By the 1990s "Judeo-Christian" terminology was now mostly found among conservatives. Douglas Hartmann, et al., "One (Multicultural) Nation Under God? Changing Uses and Meanings of the Term "Judeo-Christian" in the American Media," ''Journal of Media & Religion,'' 2005, Vol. 4 Issue 4, pp. 207-234</ref>

The emergence of the "[[Christian right]]" as a political force and part of the conservative coalition dates from the 1970s. According to Cambridge University historian Andrew Preston, the emergence of "conservative ecumenism." bringing together Catholics, Mormons, and conservative Protestants into the religious right coalition, was facilitated "by the rise of a Judeo-Christian ethic." These groups "began to mobilize together on cultural-political issues such as abortion and the proposed Equal Rights Amendment for women."<ref>{{cite book|author=Andrew Preston|title=Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy|url=https://archive.org/details/swordofspiritshi0000pres|url-access=registration|year=2012|publisher=Knopf|pages=[https://archive.org/details/swordofspiritshi0000pres/page/546 546]–47}}</ref> As Wilcox and Robinson conclude:
<blockquote>The Christian Right is an attempt to restore Judeo-Christian values to a country that is in deep moral decline. ... [They] believe that society suffers from the lack of a firm basis of Judeo-Christian values and they seek to write laws that embody those values.<ref>Clyde Wilcox and Carin Robinson, ''Onward Christian Soldiers?: The Religious Right in American Politics'' (2010) p. 13</ref></blockquote>

===1980s and 1990s===

By the 1980s and 1990s, favorable references to "Judeo-Christian values" were common, and the term was used by [[Christian right|conservative Christians]].<ref>Douglas Hartmann,  Xuefeng Zhang, and William Wischstadt. "One (Multicultural) Nation Under God? Changing Uses and Meanings of the Term" Judeo-Christian" in the American Media." Journal of Media and Religion 4.4 (2005): 207-234.</ref>

President [[Ronald Reagan]] frequently emphasized Judeo-Christian values as necessary ingredients in the fight against Communism. He argued that the Bible contains "all the answers to the problems that face us."<ref>John Kenneth White, ''Still Seeing Red: How the Cold War Shapes the New American Politics'' (1998) p 138</ref>   Reagan disapproved of the growth of secularism and emphasized the need to take the idea of sin seriously.<ref>{{cite book|author=Steven F. Hayward|title=The Age of Reagan: The Conservative Counterrevolution, 1980-1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AORr5--U-MgC&pg=PA290|year=2010|page=290}}</ref> [[Tom Freiling]], a Christian publisher and head of a conservative PAC, stated in his 2003 book, ''Reagan's God and Country'', that "Reagan's core religious beliefs were always steeped in traditional Judeo-Christian heritage."<ref>{{cite book|author=Tom Freiling|title=Reagan's God and Country: A President's Moral Compass|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3zOroK1Fag0C&pg=PA19|year=2003|page=19}}</ref>  Religion—and the Judeo-Christian concept—was a major theme in Reagan's rhetoric by 1980.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian T. Kaylor|title=Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdLSmGQLqhgC&pg=PA46|year=2010|pages=46–48}}</ref>

President [[Bill Clinton]] during his 1992 presidential campaign, likewise emphasized the role of religion in society, and in his personal life, having made references to the Judeo-Christian tradition.<ref>{{cite book|author=Brian T. Kaylor|title=Presidential Campaign Rhetoric in an Age of Confessional Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GdLSmGQLqhgC&pg=PA77|year=2010|pages=77–78}}</ref>

The term became especially significant in American politics, and, promoting "Judeo-Christian values" in the [[culture wars]], usage surged in the 1990s.<ref name="Hartmann">Douglas Hartmann, Xuefeng Zhang, William Wischstadt (2005). One (Multicultural) Nation Under God? Changing Uses and Meanings of the Term "Judeo-Christian" in the American Media. ''Journal of Media and Religion'' '''4(4)''', 207-234</ref>

===Since 9/11===
According to Hartmann ''et al.'', usage shifted between 2001 and 2005, with the mainstream media using the term less, in order to characterize America as multicultural.  The study finds the term is now most likely to be used by liberals in connection with discussions of [[Islam in the United States|Muslim and Islamic inclusion in America]], and renewed debate about the [[separation of church and state]].<ref name="Hartmann" />

The 2012 book ''[[Kosher Jesus]]'' by [[Orthodox Judaism|Orthodox]] [[rabbi]] [[Shmuley Boteach]] concludes with the statement that "the hyphen between Jewish and Christian values is Jesus himself."<ref name=more>{{Cite web|url=https://www.christianpost.com/news/koshering-jesus-more-an-evangelical-review-of-shmuley-boteachs-kosher-jesus.html|title=Koshering Jesus More: An Evangelical Review of Shmuley Boteach's 'Kosher Jesus'|author=Paul de Vries|date=March 23, 2012|website=[[Christian Post]]|access-date=February 26, 2021|archive-date=May 10, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220510035726/https://www.christianpost.com/news/koshering-jesus-more-an-evangelical-review-of-shmuley-boteachs-kosher-jesus.html|url-status=live}}</ref>