Much talk about Christian nationalism and some talk about a Judeo-Christian tradition prompted me to consider Christian and Jewish values which presumably underlie them. The first thing to say about Christian nationalism and a Judeo-Christian tradition is that both are non-religious constructs. Nationalism is obviously a political matter, and a claimed Judeo-Christian tradition, given pronounced, even antithetical, differences between Jewish and Christian beliefs, is a historical matter which falsely implies a commonality between them. The tradition is often invoked to exclude people, particularly Muslims, from America’s body politic. The second thing to say about them is that both have little, if anything, to do with the professed values of their faiths. Christian nationalists—my examples are J.D. Vance and Charlie Kirk—express little Christian love of non-Christians (not to mention non-whites), and Christians and Jews have shared more hostile than friendly relations over two millennia; consider only their quite different recent experiences during, and subsequent reactions to, the Holocaust. I say no more about the Judeo-Christian tradition because I have nothing to add to my 2016 blog on the subject.
There are many lists of Christian and Jewish values. The several lists of each religion which I reviewed on Google differ slightly but not significantly; all values listed are representative. I offer one list of Jewish values and of Christian values without the associated principles found in the texts hyperlinked.
Righteous Giving/Justice Love and Compassion
Repairing the World Forgiveness
Loving-Kindness Honesty and Integrity
Compassion Humility
Preservation of Life Kindness and Gentleness
Truth/Integrity Faithfulness and Obedience
Peace and Harmony Self-Control
Study of Jewish Texts/Education Justice and Responsibility
All of the lists of Jewish values omit repentance and forgiveness. I digress on this absurdity because many Christians think of Jews as unforgiving and revengeful: an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. But rabbis understand this text to be, not the Lex Talionis, or law of revenge, but a law of just compensation, the payment of a penalty proportional to the harm done. The omission is inexplicable because of the prominence of the Jewish holy days of Rosh Hashanah, new year’s day, and, ten days later, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar except for the weekly Sabbath. Between these two holy days, Jews are supposed to make special efforts to repent wrongs which they have done to people and seek their forgiveness; on Yom Kippur, they are supposed to repent wrongs to God and pray for forgiveness. Just as Jews repent to achieve forgiveness for their wrongs, so they forgive those who repent their wrongs (but, differently from Christians, only those whom they deem sincerely penitent).
All of the values on all of the lists are worthy ones. Neither separately nor together do the lists comprehend all religious values (for example, the serenity of some Asian religions). The values partly overlap and partly differ. Jewish repairing the world and Christian peace and justice partly align with one another; so, too, Jewish truth/integrity and Christian honesty and integrity. With a few exceptions, all of the values are personal ones; they do not state or imply political, especially partisan, ones. Nothing on the list of Jewish values suggests the Christian value of humility; nothing on the list of Christian values suggests the Jewish value of education. There is no objective way to establish that any value or any set of values is superior to another. Indeed, the values on each list implicitly preclude competition or conflict with values on the other list.
But the nature of the values on both lists opposes those of Christian nationalism and the Judeo-Christian tradition, the purposes of which are antithetical to the values of the religions which they purport to profess. For what is political cannot be what is personal, and vice versa. Both religions are personal but may be communal. However, when the communal is institutionalized, it often becomes political and departs from its religious values. Under the Trump regime, the growth of Christian nationalism reflects the growth of conservative political power which adorns itself with the honorific title of “Christian” to mislead the gullible. Whether it will persuade a majority of Americans to accept it as the basis of a theocratic polity remains to be seen. If it does, Jewish and Christian values will be a measure, by contrast, of its abuses.
I provide an AI-generated summary of the values and principles of Christian nationalism because they are unfamiliar to many. “Christian nationalism does not have a formal, static set of doctrines, but rather encompasses a consistent set of core beliefs and associated social/political values that have remained largely stable over time. The ‘values’ of Christian nationalism, in the view of scholars and critics, are distinct from the general tenets of the Christian faith and are primarily focused on the fusion of a specific, conservative form of Christianity with American civic life.” Its values and principles include:
- Fusion of Christian and American Identity: The central belief that American identity is inseparable from Christianity, that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, and that the government should take active steps to maintain this status.
- Hierarchical Social Order: A preference for a traditional social hierarchy that emphasizes specific, patriarchal gender, sexuality, and family structures. This includes the belief that men should lead, women should support as wives and mothers, and that traditional marriage is exclusively between a man and a woman.
- Ethno-Racial Boundaries: An overlap with white supremacy and nativism, which envisions a “preferred citizen” who is typically white and native-born. This often translates to anti-immigrant sentiment and opposition to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, which are viewed as weakening the nation.
- Authoritarian Control: A belief that strong rules and a strong leader are necessary to maintain social order and that the nation’s “God-ordained” status is under constant threat. This can lead to a willingness to bend or break democratic norms to achieve their vision and a higher likelihood of endorsing political violence.
- Perceived Victimhood and Conspiratorial Thinking: A pervasive sense that the “true” American way of life and values are under attack by “elites” and minority groups. This often involves an embrace of anti-establishment politics and a greater likelihood of believing in conspiracy theories.
- Prioritizing Specific Rights: An emphasis on certain rights like gun rights, religious expression in public spaces, and states’ rights, while potentially limiting access to other civil liberties and voting rights.
- Free-Market Capitalism: The belief that free-market capitalism, including privatization and deregulation, is God’s preferred economic system, and a general opposition to social spending or “creeping socialism.”
“The values of Christian nationalism are not ‘new’ in the sense of a recent ideological shift, but rather a set of long-held beliefs that have become more prominent and politically organized in recent years, often in response to changing demographics and perceived threats to their cultural dominance.”
Clearly, Christian nationalism cannot be Christian according to the values regarded as distinctively Christian. Moreover, its nationalism is both antithetical to fundamental American values and principles, foremost among them the created equality of all people, and threatening. It touts America as a nation, that is, presumably, as a country of a people sharing and united by a common descent, ethnicity, history, culture, or language. America is not such a country and thus not such a nation. Its diversity of peoples from different countries, of different ethnicities, with different histories, cultures, and languages disqualifies it in the usual terms and conditions defining a nation. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) recognizes this fact—which Christian nationalists and their sympathizers oppose vigorously by attempts to ignore demographic and delete historical facts. In this limited sense, Christian nationalism is false to the facts. In a larger sense, it implies the need to cleanse America of or repress those who depart from the standard which Christian nationalists advocate or, by their actions, imply, by erasure, enclosure, or elimination. Enclosure is more likely and would lead to the creation of an apartheid state since white Christians constitute only about 40-44% of the American population.
What makes, or can make, America a nation of diverse peoples is a shared dedication to democracy which centers itself on the equality of all people and a government legitimized by the consent of the governed, a government of, by, and for the people. The values of both religions, if more widely accepted and acted upon, would help unify and uphold such a nation.
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