Wes Huff has deservedly risen to being the most prominent Protestant apologist, due to a weak field and his rigor. A recent collaboration with Jordan Peterson was promoted with Wes Huff dropping the term “Judeo-Christian ethics” only to later defend its use for academic purposes. But Huff’s retcon of the term leaves much to be desired.
So much noise online regarding the term “judeo-Christian.” Guys — in academia it’s simply the term that describes the combined corpus of Old and New Testaments. The Jewish heritage of the Hebrew scriptures combined with the New Testament. That’s it. I know you want there to be some conspiracy but there isnt, that’s the way we’re using it. It has nothing to do with geo-politics or a one world order.
Wes Huff is incorrect on all counts. The first usage of Judeo-Christian refers to Jewish converts to Christianity from the 1800s. This usage did not preclude the eventual usage towards a generic civic religion. In the 1930s and 40s the “Judeo-Christian” would arise as a catch-all for Western civilization to contrast against fascism in Western civilization. The tyrannical FDR was among the early adopters of Judeo-Christianity under the current understanding.
After the Second World War, Judeo-Christian became a term to contrast with atheistic communism. Huff’s academic appeal falls especially flat since he used the term to describe Western culture, not academically.
But none of this changed the oxymoronic nature of the term as it invokes two religions that are vehemently opposed.
With regard to “Judeo Christian”:Â The 10 Commandments are Jewish. The great stories of the Old Testament are Jewish. The Jews developed the idea of subsidiarity as the alternative to tyranny and slavery. The Jews established the cultural preconditions for the rise of universal literacy.
The fate of Israel at the hands of the Islamists is the fate of the West. This rising tide of anti-semitism sickens me. Those of you engaging in it for your oh-so-moral reasons—you’re despicable. And remember, you proud “Christians” objecting in all your purity to the term: Christ Himself was a Jew.
Jordan Peterson treats Talmudic Judaism as the religion of the Old Testament, skewing his entire conclusion. Moreover, the fate of America and Israel is not intertwined.
Huff’s association is suspect, as Jordan Peterson is a fraud who built his empire on self-help whilst having a disastrous life outside of capitalism. As Wes Huff used the term Judeo-Christian for Jordan Peterson’s Peterson Academy, one has to wonder whether Peterson’s affinity for Talmudic Judaism is influencing Huff’s messaging and delivery.
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