McCain's 'Judeo-Christian values' reference puzzles

[tricky]

McCain's 'Judeo-Christian values' reference puzzles

By Peter S. Canellos, Globe Staff | August 19, 2008
WASHINGTON - On a frozen winter evening at a Town Hall meeting in a school in the Manchester, N.H., suburbs, John McCain expressed surprise and irritation with an intelligence report downplaying the threat of Iran's nuclear program.
At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: "And they sure don't share our Judeo-Christian values."
It seemed at the time to be an odd thing to say about a Muslim country. After all, even if there were no nuclear program, no oil, and no rabble-rousing president, Iran still wouldn't have Judeo-Christian values. And it's troubling to wonder if that alone would be a reason for suspicion.
Even President Bush has resisted framing the war on terrorism as a clash of religions; his inexpert use of the word "crusade" early in the conflict set off a wave of criticism and backtracking. He's never repeated it.
Perhaps McCain's comment was a similar mistake.
But on Saturday, at the nationally televised forum at evangelist Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in California, McCain declared: "Our Judeo-Christian principles dictate that we do what we can to help people who are oppressed throughout the world."
And a review of online records by the Globe library shows that McCain uses the term "Judeo-Christian values" quite often, and in varying contexts. For example, last week in York, Pa., he praised small-town Americans by saying, "The Judeo-Christian values that they hold are the strength of America."
He has also repeatedly urged that illegal immigrants be treated in a manner "consistent with Judeo-Christian values." In February, he declared that job training was a Judeo-Christian imperative.
"We've got to educate and train these people," he said, referring to laid-off workers. "It is a Judeo-Christian values nation and it's an obligation we have and we are not doing it."
Last year, when he was criticized for telling the website Beliefnet that America was founded on Christian principles, McCain's defense was that he meant to say "Judeo-Christian." (When pressed, he said he believes a Muslim could serve as president.)
The term Judeo-Christian has a benign history. It was popularized by liberal groups in the 1920s and 1930s to forestall anti-Semitism. It has come to describe the underpinnings of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. McCain, who rarely talks about his personal faith and has disdained the religious right, often uses the term as a synonym for "American values."
But when discussing foreign policy, his use of the term can be glaring.
McCain's view of American power harkens back to the World War II era, when the United States held the moral high ground as liberator. He is a staunch interventionist, both on humanitarian and national-security grounds.
To most of the world, especially in Muslim nations, there is an enormous difference between standing up for freedom and standing up for Judeo-Christian values, but McCain conflates the two. And sometimes, his use of the term seems more than accidental.
"This just wasn't the elimination of a threat to Iraq - this was elimination of a threat to the West, part of this titanic struggle we are in between western Judeo-Christian values and principles and Islamic extremists," McCain said in 2006, after the killing of Al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
"The number one issue people should make [in the] selection of the president of the United States is, 'Will this person carry on in the Judeo-Christian principled tradition that has made this nation the greatest experiment in the history of mankind?' " he told Beliefnet last year.
On Saturday, in arguing for a strong defense of Georgia in its struggles with Russia, McCain twice noted that Georgia is a Christian nation - perhaps to distinguish it from other crumbling pieces of the former Soviet Union that are Muslim, such as Chechnya and Azerbaijan.
Such comments may pass unnoticed by most American voters and may be reassuring to some religious Christians and Jews. They may even go over well with some secular Americans who are pleased that he is using more inclusive language than some members of the religious right.
But his repeated invocation of "Judeo-Christian values" is sure to stick in the ears of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people of other non-Christian, non-Jewish faiths. And they're sure to be asking themselves: Just what is McCain trying to tell us?
Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. National Perspective is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond. http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/F...y_end_icon.gif

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...rence_puzzles/

[PETA]

At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: "And they sure don't share our Judeo-Christian values."
It seemed at the time to be an odd thing to say about a Muslim country.

Your author's question is based on his lack of familiarity with the value system he's called into question

Judeo-Christian is often regarded as merely short hand for Monotheistic/Abrahamic values which many Muslims do in fact share. Some have argued the term should be Judeo-Christian-Muslim.

However, Iran and other fundamentalist and theocratic Islamic states do not share those values.

Perhaps McCain's comment was a similar mistake.

It is a mistake only if you think Iran shares our values. Do you think that they do? Or do you agree with McCain and believe that Iran does not share our values?

But his repeated invocation of "Judeo-Christian values" is sure to stick in the ears of Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and people of other non-Christian, non-Jewish faiths.

Could be. But all of the above benefit greatly from living in the US where our culture explicitly rests on Judeo-Christian underpinnings. Those who appreciate the freedom and liberty that those values bring will not be offended. Those who do not appreciate those values which provide freedom and liberty will be offended. And, to those who are offended by those values..... fuck you.

Great article.

[tricky]

Originally Posted by xian

Great article.

I pretty much only posted it cause I knew I'd get this sort of response

[PETA]

great at exposing the author's stupidity and misunderstanding of his topic - he was 180 off.... well, unless he thinks Judeo Christian values are a bad thing in which case mightn't he assert why the totalitarian values McCain set Judeo-Christian values against are to be preferred? He made no sense.

[MC Twinkie]

I always thought judo christian was a martial arts style. JK! I thought it was in reference to the fact that they both use the bible. Do muslims use the bible? Anyway, the values are shit like the 10 commandments and that bullshit. "Well doesn't everyone believe in the 10 commandments?" I think it means to say what the core values are and not to assume a larger more specific set of other religions.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by clay donkey

I always thought judo christian was a martial arts style. JK! I thought it was in reference to the fact that they both use the bible. Do muslims use the bible? Anyway, the values are shit like the 10 commandments and that bullshit. "Well doesn't everyone believe in the 10 commandments?" I think it means to say what the core values are and not to assume a larger more specific set of other religions.

mixed bag of accepting and denying - regarding parts as correct, misinterpretted or intentionally distorted