The Myth of the Judeo-Christian Tradition

Most days my rather voracious inbox receives at least one email extolling the ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’. The email will invariably have come from the USA, generally though not exclusively from an evangelical Christian website or the politically conservative Christian right. (Why I choose to receive these emails is another story).

Like most people, I imagine, I never gave the phrase ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ much thought.  But recently it seems to have become more widely used, and it often surfaces in the ethical and civic quarrels that are currently tearing American society apart. The ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ is presented by its advocates as representing authentic American spiritual virtues. American society, according to these advocates, is being torn apart by those who spurn this tradition.

Of course Judaism and Christianity have much in common. Christianity emerged from Judaism; it includes the Hebrew bible in its canon and accepts its ethical precepts. And because Ashkenazi Jews have lived among Christians for so long, Christianity has influenced our behaviour.  Perhaps the most striking example is the prohibition of polygamy, imposed by an Ashkenazi rabbi in the 11th century to harmonise Jewish society with the norms of Christianity. There are strong cultural influences too, particularly in the way we practise Judaism. They include singing in synagogues, the weekly sermon and in Britain, the Chief Rabbinate.  But these influences are limited to the Ashkenazi world, to those Jewish communities which lived in Christian environments. Jews in Islamic and other lands were barely touched by Christianity at all.

The phrase Judeo-Christian tradition first emerged in the 19th century as a means of distinguishing monotheistic faiths from other religions. It took on a political nuance in the 1930s when anti-Semitism was on the rise. In an incisive history of the term, Mark Silk notes that it was used by organisations in the USA such as the National Conference of Christians and Jews, to indicate opposition to neo-fascist organisations like the Christian American Crusade. In 2019 the Washington Post called it a core tenet of American national identity, part of the civic religion of the United States.

Today the term has become politicised. There appears to be a racist element to it. After all, Christianity and Judaism are just two of a trinity of monotheistic faiths, often called the Abrahamic religions, of which the third is Islam. Judaism is far closer to Islam in terms of theology and practice than it is to Christianity yet Islam is omitted from the idea of a Judeo-Christian tradition. OK, Islam came to the USA later than Judaism, but it is now an integral part of modern America. To speak of an American society today shaped by Judeo-Christian tradition, indicates to my mind at least a deliberate attempt to exclude Islam from the cultural make-up of the United States.

The ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ has also been cited by those who oppose stricter gun controls in the USA. A Texan republican congressman recently expostulated: “The United States of America has always had guns. It’s our history. We were built on the Judeo-Christian foundation and with guns.”

American society has been riven this week by the Supreme Court’s ruling on abortion. Some on the Christian right see this as a triumph for the so-called Judeo-Christian tradition. One website praised an archbishop in San Francisco for denying communion to Nancy Pelosi, the pro-choice speaker of Congress. The president of the organisation whose website praised the archbishop said: “I feel confident that I speak for all of us in congratulating Archbishop Cordileone for his moral vision and faithfulness to Judeo-Christian tradition.”

This is nonsense. Unlike the Catholic church, Judaism is not categorically opposed to abortion. There is no dogma in Judaism which declares that life begins at conception or indeed at any other particular moment. There is no need for such a dogma, that’s not how Judaism works. The Jewish religion is a way of life; there are things we do and things we don’t do but in most instances we rely on our legal authorities to interpret our traditions and weigh up the consequences of an action, before deciding whether it should or should not be done.  And when it comes to the moment at which life begins, we do not have an official view. A foetus is different from a living person. There are no statutory mourning rituals for a miscarried foetus.

The Jewish position on abortion is very clear. The mother’s life has primacy. If a foetus is deemed to be endangering the mother’s life then it is regarded, in halachic terms, as a ‘pursuer’. In Jewish law, if we see someone chasing another with the intention of killing them, we are obliged to intervene even if it means killing the pursuer. Similarly if a foetus is deemed to be ‘pursuing’ the mother, endangering her life, an abortion is not only permitted but mandated. And the critical matter here of course is what we mean by danger. Are we speaking only about physical danger, that the mother will not survive childbirth? What about her mental health or her inability to raise children, for example, due to learning difficulties or poverty? Do these count as danger too?

There are no easy answers to these questions and most rabbinic authorities would not countenance abortion on demand, for the sake of convenience, without being able to show that the mother is in some way endangered. But this is a far cry from prohibiting abortion, ab initio, due to a dogmatic position that life begins at conception.

The idea of The Judeo-Christian tradition is a myth. It may have served a purpose once as a symbol of solidarity against fascism and anti-Semitism. Today it has become a symbol of bigotry, a rallying cry for the evangelical far right, for those who would impose a blanket ethical world view upon others, rather than encouraging the Jewish religious values of education, interpretation and debate. An internet search on the ‘Judeo-Christian tradition’ returns hundreds of results. It is revealing that while most of the articles in favour of such a tradition are on Christian websites, the vast majority of those written by Jews reject the idea that such a tradition exists at all. They are right. The idea of the Judeo-Christian tradition is an artifice. There is no such thing.