Are You a Judeo-Christian?

A couple of months ago, I was invited to a rally where a conservative candidate for office gave a campaign speech. The man has a good reputation as a Christian believer and an honest businessman.

During his speech, he made a statement that I have commonly heard among conservative politicians. He said that he stood for the "Judeo-Christian" values on which this country was founded.

I guess people have heard the phrase often enough that they do not question its meaning. What are Judeo-Christian values?

I guess some might say that they are values that come out of both the New Testament (Christian) and the Old Testament (Judaic). But that would be redundant, for the Christian Bible contains both Old and New Testaments.

So, why not just say "Christian values"?

Perhaps because the public-at-large would view such a claim as too narrow? Would it be political suicide to identify one's agenda with the kingship of Christ?

Perhaps because the politician does not want to offend the small but influential Jewish portion of the electorate? Would it be political suicide to exclude adherents to Judaism from one's moral agenda?

As an effort at inclusiveness, references to America's "Judeo-Christian roots" implies a strong Jewish influence in the foundation of the nation's political systems. Just how many colonies were explicitly (or even implicitly) Jewish at the time of the War for Independence?

Moreover, modern Judaism follows the same Rabbinic tradition of which the Pharisees comprised an integral part. What did Jesus have to say about their "Judeo" values? (see Matthew 23)

It seems incongruous to me that a Sunday School class, on the one hand, has spent a year studying the Apostle Paul's condemnation of Judaized Christianity in the book of Galatians, while on the other hand, the majority of the class supports a candidate who openly advocates a Judeo-Christian agenda.

It seems such a small compromise for a Christian candidate to use an inclusive term like "Judeo-Christian" values. But if that candidate cannot bear the reproach of Christ in his candidacy, he has opened to door to bigger compromises once he takes office.

If a man cannot be elected without making such compromises, then so be it. Let him take his stand, and let the electorate condemn themselves before God.

But a candidate who blurs his Christianity from the start does not recommend himself to me. I see such candidates as simply one facet of God's judgment upon this nation.