It is true, some anti-semitics did use anti-semitic interpretaions of the bible to give credence to their causes which were clearly not biblical.
What is your point?
The point is, saying Judeo-Christian principles is misleading, seeing as the Jews were treated as inferiors throughout most of the countries history.
I just find the term a little disingenuous. The term Judeo-Christian only arose after the second world war when the Christian Germans slaughtered millions of Jews, and the other Christians of the world felt bad about it. I just find it's a way for other Christians of the world to try to forget about the fact their religion for over a thousand years taught that what the Nazis did, was the correct thing to do. (And before you get bent out of shape over that remark, that was the very point of the inquisition)
I don't want to make a big stink about it, but I know some Jews who find the term offensive, and if I was a Jew myself, I'd likely feel the same way.
What virtues were they founded on?
The country was largely founded on the ideas that came out of the Age of Enlightenment, of whom many of the founding fathers are considered major parts of.
Christians were bigots towards Jews? How did you arrive at that conclusion? Are you saying that because some anti-semitic, anti-Christian (Christ was a Jew by the way, as well as the majority of first century Christians) people who used the influences of the Christian church to propagate their anti-Christian dogma, that Christians were bigots? If that is not the most wrong-headed view I have ever heard of then I do not know what is. You must have read that from some infidel website. Christianity was founded upon the Judaism and owes its very existence to Judaism and its rich heritage. Christ was a decendant of Kind David, and it was Christ who said that salvation was of the Jews.
I suggest you do your homework a little more thouroughly before posting stuff like this.
Wow...
I suggest you read up on Martin Luther. Start with his paper titled "On the Jews and their lies".
Here's some excerpts from the work, written by the esteemed founder of Protestantism:
- "Jews are a base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth."
- "Jews are full of the Devil's Feces, which they wallow in like swine"
- The synagogue is an "Incorrigible harlot and evil [bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse][bless and do not curse]"
The advice he gave as far as dealing with Jews is as follows:
- for Jewish synagogues and schools to be burned to the ground, and the remnants buried out of sight;
- for houses owned by Jews to be likewise razed, and the owners made to live in agricultural outbuildings;
- for their religious writings to be taken away;
- for Rabbis to be forbidden to preach, and to be executed if they do;
- for safe conduct on the roads to be abolished for Jews;
- for usury to be prohibited, and for all silver and gold to be removed and "put aside for safekeeping"; and
- for the Jewish population to be put to work as agricultural slave labor.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_jews_and_their_lies#cite_note-Luther1-4
The Nazis used Luther's work to further their own agenda, and displayed it prominently at the Nuremberg rallies. In fact, it played a fairly large role in European antisemitism between the reformation and the holocaust.
Every protestant sect can draw it's ties from this man's teachings, and many of them were just as antisemitic right up until the mid 20th century.
As for the Catholic Church, it only dropped it's accusation of "Deicide" against all Jews, and apologized for it's antisemitism during the time of Pope John Paul II.
I mean seriously... I'm not accusing the Christians of being overwhelmingly antisemitic in the present day. I give the various churches credit for moving away from their past evil deeds.
However even the most devout Christian has to admit the Christian faith has a long, widespread and bloody antisemitic history. Trying to whitewash it or pretend it never happened is just simply disrespectful to the countless victims during that era of Christianity.
And God said, let Us make man in Our own image and likeness. Surely you have read that before right? It does not say some men, it does not say let us make some men in our image, but man. Mankind. You know, the human race?
Then how do you justify there being "chosen men" vs men that apparently are not chosen. If they're all made equally, then how do you determine who to choose?
Much less women, who definitely were not considered equal in Christian Theology.
Really? You must be reading a different bible than I and every other Christian read. And even IF all of what you said was true, that still does not follow that all men are not created equal.
Incidentally, and I thought you might like to know since you are so ignorant as to what the U.S. founding fathers used as its foundational principles and virtues, the following comes from the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence which was a statement adopted by the
Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, which announced that the
thirteen American colonies, then at war with
Great Britain, regarded themselves as independent states, and no longer a part of the
British Empire. *Wikipedia*:
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.
You must also know that phrase was penned by Thomas Jefferson, a self described Deist who did not believe Jesus was any more than a mortal being, however believed he was a great philosopher.
In short, "the creator" talked about is not your God.
Likewise, even if it was, it's irrelevant. The Declaration of Independence is not considered a part of the American Legal System, and predates the Constitution, which is the basis of the countries law.
Within the constitution, there is a specific separation of church from state, and any attempted efforts to get God included in the constitution was voted down by the founding fathers.
So before you start labeling people as ignorant, perhaps you should pick up a history book and do some reading for yourself.
This has been called "one of the best-known sentences in the English language",
[5] containing "the most potent and consequential words in American history."
[6] The passage came to represent a moral standard to which the United States should strive. This view was notably promoted by
Abraham Lincoln, who considered the Declaration to be the foundation of his political philosophy, and argued that the Declaration is a statement of principles through which the
United States Constitution should be interpreted.
[7] It has inspired work for the rights of marginalized people throughout the world. *Wikipedia*
This is the same Abraham Lincoln who was also at the very best a deist, and who some have thought he was an outright non-believer?
The same Abraham Lincoln who never joined a church in his life, and famously stated: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession"?
Perhaps when he was referring to the Declaration of Independence, he might have been referring to the bulk of the document, rather than one fairly insignificant sentence in it. If he was a deist, he probably agreed with the creator line, however it would not have applied to the Christian God. If he was a non-believer, he probably wouldn't have cared all that much about that sentence, and focused on the rest of the text.
Even if he did say that and that was his view, he sure did not mind signing his name to a document composed by men who saw the Judeo-Christian principles as the only one's worthy of founding a nation on.
This shows your abject ignorance of the subject matter... "Signed his name to a document etc..."
He AUTHORED the document, which the other founding fathers, which were made up of Deists and Christians then signed. He didn't sign a document composed by Christians, the Christians (and deists) signed the document he wrote.
This document was composed by a man who called Christianity the most perverted system ever shone on mankind. I highly doubt he would then go on to advocate basing a new country on it's backwards teachings.
The Treaty of Tripoli, which was unanimously ratified by the 1st congress (which contained most of the founding fathers) also explicitly states that the United States was not founded on the Christian Religion.
What more evidence do you need? The country was based on the principles of the Age of Enlightenment, and noble principles they are.
Why don't you throw some quotes of George Washington in there since you want to quote people so much. Quote the First president of the United States if you are going to quote anyone. What does he say?
Sure thing, here goes:
1. "I am persuaded, you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation, respecting religion, from the Magna-Carta of our country." - George Washington
(This was said to a gathering of clergy who complained that the constitution lacked any mention of God or Jesus (By Magna Carta he was referring to the then proposed constitution)
2.
"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition ... In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States." - George Washington
(Taken from a letter to the New Church of Baltimore)
3. "Sir, Washington was a Deist" - The Reverend Doctor James Abercrombie
(A reply to the Reverend Bird Wilson's enquiry about Washington's religious beliefs.... Abercrombie was the rector of the episcopal church Washington attended with his wife.)
4.
"When Congress sat in Philadelphia, President Washington attended the Episcopal Church. The rector, Dr. Abercrombie, told me that on the days when the sacrament of the Lord's Supper was to be administered, Washington's custom was to arise just before the ceremony commenced, and walk out of the church. This became a subject of remark in the congregation, as setting a bad example. At length the Doctor undertook to speak of it, with a direct allusion to the President. Washington was heard afterwards to remark that this was the first time a clergyman had thus preached to him, and he should henceforth neither trouble the Doctor or his congregation on such occasions, and ever after that, upon communion days, 'he absented himself altogether from church.'"
- The Reverend Bird Wilson from his sermon "The Religion of the Presidents"
Should I continue?
Apparently not...
Classical philosophy predates what book? What book are you talking about?
The Bible.
Or I could know because I have a relationship with Him. Relationships are built on communication, you do know that right?
And how do you know the communication is coming from him, and not your own thoughts? One of the funny thing about believers is the fact that God always seems to agree perfectly with what they want to do.
