Judeo-Christian Ethic

[Malla Pollack]

That very solidarity with Jews assumes that the values Christians consider to come from Judaism are accurately Jewish.  

Whether anyone using the term "Judeo-Christian" means to insult Jews or not, the term is considered insulting.  Judaism is not a mere prefix.  The fact that I care enough about this to bring it to the list's attention should speak for itself.  

I see  no point in continuing this discussion on list.  Those who wish to actually respect Judaism will follow my advice and substitute "Christian," "Biblical", "Jewish and Christian" or some other variant. Those who don't, well I won't start a campaign to make them sit in the back of the bus.


Malla Pollack
Visiting, Univ. of Oregon, Law
541-346-1599
mpollack at law.uoregon.edu
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Frank Cross 
  To: Malla Pollack ; Volokh, Eugene 
  Cc: CONLAW PROF 
  Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2004 11:20 AM
  Subject: Re: Judeo-Christian Ethic



  I may be uninformed, but I don't see the disrespect of the term Judeo-Christian ethic.
  I always assumed that the Judeo was an emendation of those who claimed a Christian ethic and meant to show respect and solidarity for Jews, a sort of anti-antisemitism.  I always viewed the term as being a form of respect and deference that Christians showed Judaism, not an insult

  Of course, Christians and Jews do not totally share beliefs, and I assumed that people who used the word Judeo-Christian knew this.  I figured the phrase was meant to refer only to those beliefs that were shared.  Thus, if a belief was Christian but not Judeo, it would not be part of the Judeo-Christian ethic.

  Now, the word may be misused, I don't know how often, but given that both groups share some of the same scripture, it doesn't seem like an intrinsically unreasonable word 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/private/conlawprof/attachments/20040226/898f2a90/attachment.htm