Judeo-Christian ethics

===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>