Not long ago, the Boston Globe highlighted a phrase repeatedly used by Sen. John McCain on the campaign trail: "Judeo-Christian values."
Take the candidate's recent 60 Minutes interview in which McCain said: "I have the utmost faith in this country, which was founded on Judeo-Christian values. And those are my values."
As a Jew, I'm flattered McCain is thinking of us.
But I agree with author and theologian Arthur Cohen, who 50 years ago warned about "the Judeo-Christian contradiction." Cohen argued that the phrase "Judeo-Christian tradition," though a seeming nod toward civility and ecumenicism, in truth undermines Jewish theology.
ALAS, MCCAIN'S usage isn't even ecumenical. It's a nod to evangelical Christians who pit "Judeo-Christian values" against secular, enlightenment values. True to Cohen's warning, this theocratic vision leaves little room for Judaism as a living, breathing religion often at odds with Christianity.
True, McCain's usage shouldn't be construed as a theological endorsement. His repetition of the phrase has all the marks of a verbal tic mandated by a campaign consultant.
Take McCain's remarks back in February, noted by the Globe, in which he placed job re-training (!) under the Judeo-Christian rubric:
"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."
Was McCain really treating government-funded retraining programs as sacred ethical imperatives? Or was he simply pandering to the evangelicals who twice elected George W. Bush president?
As McCain told Beliefnet last year, "The number one issue people should make 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?'"
JUST WHAT is this Judeo-Christian tradition?
I got an unhealthy dose of the language of Judeo-Christian values when I set out to critique conservative columnist David Klinghoffer's book, How Would God Vote: Why the Bible Commands You to Be a Conservative.
On issue after issue, what Klinghoffer touted as a "Judeo-Christian" ethic was in fact a Christian concern, pure and simple.
Take for example an issue on the ballot in several states this November: gay marriage.
As citizens, we have to ask: Is gay marriage really the life-and-death governmental concern opponents portray it to be?
As Jews, we consider homosexual sex one of many Biblical "abominations," ranging from eating non-kosher animals to having sex during menstruation, and as one of a number of capital offenses including adultery and desecrating Shabbat. Why, then, can Klinghoffer claim Judeo-Christian support in getting the government to ban gay marriage while keeping lobster legal?
From a Torah, that is to say Jewish, perspective, a far better case can be made for banning government subsidies to the shellfish industry. Similarly, Israeli religious bureaucrats have their biblical priorities straight when they try to ensure that no bride gets married when she is having her period.
Well, it turns out that although St. Paul thought keeping kosher was passé, he simply didn't like homosexuals. (See I Corinthians 6:9-10).
In other words, is a ban against gay-marriage Christian? Very. Judeo? Not so much.
I FOUND something similar with another hot-button "values" issue: abortion.
John McCain said he believes life begins at conception. That's a fair conservative Christian position, but one that runs roughshod over the Talmudic tradition that life doesn't begin until 40 days after conception.
Republicans mocked Sen. Barack Obama for characterizing the question of when life begins as "above my pay grade." But give Obama credit: Unlike McCain, he wasn't denying the Jewish tradition.
Of course, Christian intolerance is endemic to Judeo-Christian history.
As Cohen observed: "We can learn learn much from the history of Jewish-Christian relations but the one thing we cannot make of it is a discourse of community, fellowship, and understanding."
KLINGHOFFER, HOWEVER, is so ignorant of that history that he portrays the Crusades as a good thing!
Although Klinghoffer describes himself as an Orthodox Jew, he values siding with Christians against liberals and Muslims above honoring the suffering of his own people.
It's enough to make one wonder. Will John McCain and his Christian backers be any more cognizant of a distinct Jewish point of view than is Klinghoffer, conservatism's Jewish apostle?
Frankly, I'd feel better if McCain just forthrightly called for an America that reflected "Christian values."
It has the virtue of honesty. And truth has always been a value in the Jewish tradition.
Larry Yudelson is the editorial director of Ben Yehuda Press and co-author of How Would God REALLY Vote: A Jewish Critique of David Klinghoffer's Conservative Polemic.
