CX

We often here of "Judeo-Xian Values" especially recently with this whole Alabama debacle and a few other news items. My question is can the values generally prized in the U.S. be considered to have come from Judeo-Xian ones? Here is a list of values and whether or not they are expressed in the Old or New Testament

Personal Liberty ----- No
Democratic Self Rule ----- No
Individual Equality ----- No
Intrinsic Worth of Every Person ----- No
Honesty ----- Yes
Justice ----- Yes
Opportunity for all ----- No

Any thoughts?

David Bowden

Great topic.

I'd add two 'self-evident' but non-Biblical American rights to "Personal Liberty": Life, and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The Biblical God allegedly cut off Adam and Eve's lives (and, by inheritance, all of us - the original sin of the parents being held against their children being a traditional Christian principle) because they ate fruit from a certain tree which God allowed to grow in their garden. And one could argue that Adam and Eve's thirst for wisdom/knowledge, that fatal, sinful lusting after complete understanding, is a key element in any enlightened person's Pursuit of Happiness.

Two other traditional American values (if Ben Franklin and others like him are an important part of our tradition) are Toleration of Dissenting Views, Free Speech, and Moderation in Opinion. Not so in the Bible.

If believing the wrong thing will send you to the inferno, then orthodoxy becomes a life and death issue, and one must limit one's exposure to infidels and their teachings. Tolerance and Moderation is impossible if dissent is non-existent. If allowing heterodoxy will bring God's wrath against the state, then orthodoxy must be enforced by strong rule: free speech is out where "wrong" speech will get you stoned or burned at the stake. In the Old Testament, dissenters against the Jewish religion were typically killed or driven out; in the New Testament, non-Christians or Christian 'heretics' are expelled from the assembly, consigned to hellish punishment, said to be Antichrists or servants or sons of Satan, and so on.

Also, Separation of Church and State / Religion and Government. This traditional American value is unknown in Biblical teaching.

Americans traditionally reject state-sponsored religion. The Old Testament is the record of one state's religion, and the punishments which came when that state's religion wasn't adhered to. The New Testament explicitly puts all government under the lordship of Jesus -- a point which some Christians try to build on in their attempts to tear down the wall of separation.

-David