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GOP Whip Eric Cantor: U.S. Middle East Policy Should Reflect "Judeo-Christian Tradition"

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Stop all the religion talk...it is biased. Accept others for who they are. Get off your hiney and make the world a better place. Be a mentor, a tutor, visit an old person.

Mark Bitnerski of NY 4:40PM September 15, 2009

Todd practices what he "preaches"--he is rewriting history to suit his own preferences. Unfortunately, for his view, the facts do not support his view.
The Bible was around for many centuries before the emergence of democratic freedom in the modern world. There were many influences on the development of the idea of a republican form of government as opposed to a theocracy or a monarchy. One of them was the British common law (based on the ancient laws of the pre-Christian British); another was the rediscovery of the Ciceronian natural law political philosophy (from the 1st century BCE); another was the protestant restiveness under repressive monarchs--like those described in the Bible; a lengthy string of continental and British political philosophers--such as Hooker, Grotius, Milton, Locke, Montesquieu, Hume, etc. made significant contributions to the formation of the political beliefs of our founding fathers.
For all of its sharp criticisms of the imperial power of Egypt and of Rome, the Bible nowhere advocates democratic freedom.
It is true that some of the colonists who immigrated to North America were primarily seeking religious freedom--for those who shared their own particular brand of Separatist Anglican faith, but for no one of any other religious persuasion.
Those "true Christians" in the Mass. Bay Colony were so "loving" they executed several persons who criticized their colonial theocracy or refused to fully cooperate with it. Roger Williams fled the colony in order to save his life over exactly that issue. He later wrote (1641) a powerful book "The Bloody Tenent of Persecution, for Cause of Conscience" against those loving Christian leaders in Mass. Bay Colony. Williams founded the colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, which was the first colony to explicity practice, as a matter of law, religious toleration of Christians and Jews.
Most of the colonies were organized and conducted for purely economic reasons.
Religious freedom and toleration was very slow to come to the colonies. It did not even characterize all of the original states of the union after the Constitution was adapted.

Asinus Gravis of TX 3:42PM July 24, 2009

America was founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ. One can rewrite history if you wish but it is an inseparable fact of our founding as a nation. Freedom is a biblical concept that we all enjoy here in the U.S. and take for granted. However, it is the Bible where our founders both learned & enacted the principles and concepts of Liberty.
Freedom allows for people to make certain choices. It does not dictate that others subscribe to Christianity but leaves them free to be responsible to make right choices on their own. And true Christians love people. Though we may not agree with someone's choices or religious preference, we allow them to have the freedom to choose what they believe so as it does not infringe upon the rights of others- such as does abortion where a baby dies in the process.
It is a shame that many in America are being deceived to believing that diversity means that we need to change who are as a people- with a tradition rooted in biblical precept. We should stand for the principals should be held dear while extending our hand to others across the globe. We do not have to change or conform to the ideals of others or other religious views in order to accomplish this end.
It is the desire of the living Jesus that I serve that we reach out to all peoples everywhere, no matter what their religion, race or whatever, and show them the love of God. A phrase I have heard comes to mind, "You lose what you compromise to keep." We should not compromise our deep rooted Christian tradition in the United States of America.

Todd Nessa of FL 10:58PM July 23, 2009

Talking about Judeo Christian tradition is insane. The personalities in the bible are all Muslims. Davis is Daud. Moses is Musa and Jesus thr prophet is Issa. We all worship those prophets and respect them. Inrahim ( Abraham) was the first Arab and a great prophet. Islam is the last religion so the right thing to call America is Judeo Christian Islamic nation.

Yaakov Sullivan of CA 11:11AM July 23, 2009

It is noticeable that Sara failed to spell out the verbal jello of "Judeo-Christian" values.
It is also obvious to any student of early American history that most of the colonies that revolted from English rule and formed the original states had utter disdain for the Jewish religion and its adherents. They were widely persecuted for their faith, and in some cases taxed to support protestnt state churches.
Apparently Sara has been relying on the pseudo-history invented by my fellow Texan, David Barton. Barton's nonsense has been refuted passage-by-passage by Chris Rocca's "Liars for Jesus."
You are correct about one fact, i.e., Israelis seldom serve as suicide bombers in Palestine.
Why should they? They have air superiority and can bomb the hell out of Palestinian targets--and have. They have tanks with which to bulldoze Palestinian homes--and they have--and to bombard civilian populations with deadly shells--which they have. They have an extensive asrenal of highly diverse and technologically sophisticated weapons--which they have used to decimate Palestinian civilians, infrastructure, and their own "moral superiority."
Israel left the high moral ground a hell of a long time ago. They for decades have maintained an occupying army on Palestinian lands; they have undermined and thwarted all Palestinian efforts to develop a viable economy. They have killed ten times as many Palestinians as the later have killed Israelis. They both target innocent civilians. The Israelis have violated every treaty they have made with the Palestinians, as was amply demonstrated in President Carter's book "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid."
John Hagee and his "Christian Zionists" are neither followers of Jesus' teachings, nor do they give a damn for the Israelis. They are dead set on bringing on the destruction of Israel and Arabs in a Battle of Armageddon. That is all based on a grossly superficial reading of a few selected passages from scattered sections of the Bible--one based on ignoring what is actually being said in the books from which the passages are selected. Their message is foreign to the gospels and to the prophets.

Asinus Gravis of TX 10:38PM July 22, 2009

Asinus: You couldn't be more wrong than you are today. First of all, the U.S fundamentally is founded on Judeo-Christian values. I did a whole research project on God and Politics two years ago with a group of critics and as we dove into the background and the making of America and looked at all the journals and and speeches by our founding fathers, it was clear that each and everyone of them specifically designed and included ideas that were fundamentally based on biblical principles. Each and everyone of them, time and time again proclaimed that the United States of America was a country founded on Judeo-Christian values. Their ideology shaped the policies they made in every way. The Republic/Democracy was created by a compromise of these principles. I know many liberals who too agree with me on this. The reason America has back Israel for so long is because fundamentally we share the same ideology (in principle), which has united us for decades. You are also wrong when you say that it is Israel’s fault for the conflict that is between Palestine and Israel. If you were to thoroughly research history, it is Israel whose been the one to have to fight back in defense. You don't hear about Jews blowing themselves up in Palestine populated areas killing innocent women and children in market and mall areas do you? Of course not. They would never do such a thing. They deal with this threat from Palestinians every single day and I would say that if America dealt with this once, we would be pursuing these terrorist until the day they left earth (in fact, we are pursuing them even if I don’t agree with how it’s being done). Israel has more patience than we do and in my belief has tolerated a lot more. When they do retaliate it's because they've had enough. I am sure innocent Palestinians have been caught in the middle of cross fire and it is an unfortunate loss of life, but I believe it has been at the hands of their own leaders, leaders who have historically used their own women and children as shields in order to deter Israel from bombing them. They hide out in civilian populated areas in order to deter Israel from bombing specific regions suspected of terrorist activity and yes strapping bombs to your chest and driving your car into civilian populated areas, killing innocent children and women (like Palestinians have done for a long time now) is considered terrorist activity and any nation has the right to act on it in defense! Israel does not take action unless it is severely attacked first. If you look at any major conflict or violence that has broken out between the two, it has been Israel fighting back in defense. Bill Clinton even acknowledged this when he was President as he researched the Middle East conflict while trying to stir up some peace agreement before his term ended in 2000.

Sara of ME 7:53PM July 21, 2009

Mr. Cantor is probably too uninformed to realize that the "Judeo-Christian tradition" was invented after World War II. That was so that instead of sounding quite so narrow minded in talking about "Christian this" and "Christian that" in pushing public policy preferences, it sounded so much more "understanding" and "broad minded" to nod the head to the substantial Jewish population here.
Unfortunately when it comes to spelling out precisely what "Judeo-Christian" is supposed to mean, explanations quickly turn to verbal jello--i.e., whatever the powerful in this country want to do.
Mr. Cantor appears to favor the idiotic policy of rubber stamping whatever it is that the Israelis happen at the moment to be doing or want to do.
That has the added feature of overlooking the outrageously inhumane and immoral policies that have been and continue to be pursued against the Palestinian citizens and infrastructure. Yes, I recognize that the immoral practices are not all done by the Israelis.
If Mr. Cantor would bother to read the Biblical book of Amos (or Isaiah, or Jeremiah, or Hosea, or Micah) he would discover that God promised to wipe out the nations that commit against their neighbors the sorts of atrocities being perpetrated by the Israelis. So, it is the Israelis who are foremost in violating the Jewish Torah tradition, not to mention the teachings of Jesus.

Asinus Gravis of TX 2:23PM July 21, 2009

If you're Eric Cantor, then "embracing the Judeo-Christian tradition" means he'd like for you to elect Republicans to conduct your foreign policy. It also may mean he'd like you to continue to especially cater to the Jewish people as Jews in Israel and everywhere else---because they deserve it after the holocaust and all.
If you're Christians United for Israel, then "embracing the Judeo-Christian tradition" may be mostly about hoping for the fulfillment of some interpretation of prophecy involving "end-times" events where there is a battle over in the Holy Land, the Christians win forever---and the status of Jews in both life and death is unclear.
If you're a liberal like me who actually cares about Jews and Israel (and everybody else), then you "get it" that supporting Israel means absolutely denying radical Islam (Iran) any deliverable nuclear weapons. When an Islamic nation says it wants to "wipe another nation off the map"---you had better believe them.

Muser of NM 12:55PM July 21, 2009