So, other Yids, is it that everything you want to say has been said already, or don’t you think it’s worth adding anything? I’d love to hear some other opinions.
Iguana
That is not a nice word.
Back to the original question, doesn’t it depend on usage?
If one wanted to describe the belief in One God, for instance, or the Western notion of Justice, that would be part of the Judeo-Christian tradition… and the term recognizes that Christianity sprang from Judaism.
If one were describing the Christmas tree, or the Chanukah driedle, it would silly to use the term “Judeo-Christian”.
You forgot about the Free Spirits. And what about those gnutty gnostics, are any of them still around?
The term is just a big PC scam. At some point in the past 100 years, someone wanted to start saying the U.S. was a Christian nation. There were some Jews, the next largest religious minority, who didn’t take too kindly to this. So, a compromise was reach and the U.S. was a Judeo-Christian nation. For a while. Then the ACLU showed up (finally) and started putting an end to that nonsense. The only time I hear the term now is from religious conservatives saying things like “What do you mean we can’t tattoo the ten commandments on all newborn citizens?? We’re a Judeo-Christian country for crissakes!!”
Can’t say this with any degree of certainty, but my impression is that the term Judeo-Christain is a term born out of political correctness. I believe the original term used was Christian heritage, but later thinkers (aka politicians) found it more inclusive to use the term Judeo-Christian.
What with demographic (& PC) trends in this country being what they are, we will likely soon be seeing references to our Judeo-Christian-Islamic heritage.
Someone tell me if I am wrong on this point…
There is no concept of ‘sin’ in Judaism. The Talmudic laws are not sins, certainly not in the way that Christianity speaks of sins.
Talmudic laws, I hope I am getting this right, are simply rules for being a good Jew. But there is no true concept of Hell in Judaism so there is really no damnation if you violate these laws.
Of course, this is stark contrast to the Christian view of mans relationship with God.
Tretiak: “Someone tell me if I am wrong on this point”.
You are wrong on this point.
IzzyR,
I will accept that. I checked out this page to see where my misconceptions may have come from and I think the problem was I was really being too simplistic.
http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/3/0,5716,108149+1,00.html
But there is clearly a distinction on the Jewish conception of sin and the Christian conception.
Yes, there are differences:
Judaism doesn’t believe in the concept of Original Sin. Judaism also doesn’t believe that man has a “sinful nature.”
Christianity (and please correct me if I am wrong) does belive in these concepts.
In addition, Judaism doesn’t believe that one little sin will disqualify you from an eternal reward. We believe that in the hereafter, you are rewarded for the good you did and punished for the evil you did. That’s why we don’t need a Jesus to die for our sins.
Lastly, there is (almost) no conception of an eternal Hell in Judaism. The reason why a child says kaddish for his parents for only one year is because we belive that (with very few exceptions) no one suffers in Hell for more than a year. (In practice, children only say kaddish for 11 months, so as not to give the impression that their parents deserved a full 12 months…) Christianity, on the other hand (and again, please correct me if I’m wrong) says that since man has a sinful nature, and therefore, must have sins, does not live up to God’s perfection. Therefore, without Jesus to forgive his sins, s/he is eternally condemned to hell.
Zev Steinhardt
Is judeo-christian an oxymoron? No. I think a prime example is Europe. Europe as it is today is influenced by moslty Christian traditians and cultures, but with quite a bit of jewish tradition and culture thrown in. It would be erroneous to speak of Europe as simply coming from a Christian backround, Jewry added and still adds quite a bit to the continent.
huh? I thought y’all had the book of genesis? I know the first part about Adam and Eve is just symbolic, but I didn’t know Jews threw it out entirely.
No. You die and that is it. If I ever catch up to the translator who keeps throwing the word eternal into the NT I’m going to wring his neck. Only the members of the trinity are immortal, but if you achieve a unity with them, you can achieve eternity that way.
No, we didn’t throw out Genesis. However, we don’t hold that mankind is condemned to Hell because of Adam’s sin.
No. You die and that is it. If I ever catch up to the translator who keeps throwing the word eternal into the NT I’m going to wring his neck. Only the members of the trinity are immortal, but if you achieve a unity with them, you can achieve eternity that way.
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Thank you for the correction.
Zev Steinhardt
Not from what my Mormon roomie tells me. According to him, the LDS is the true church of Jesus, and the Protestants and the Catholics are apostate churches led astray by corrupt teachers. Joseph smith retranslated the bible to restore the true teaching.
The LDS position on the role of Jesus and the Atonement are radically different from the mainstream, so much so that they cannot be considered to be Christian as the term is commonly understood. Of course, to the LDS folks, they ARE the true Christians, the branch of Ephraim, and so on. Pepperlandgirl, I’m sure you’ll correct my errors. 
I’m paraphrasing Genesis 1:17-19, but I think Adam’s punishment was to work for unjust rewards until he dies and returns to dust. Hellish as that might seem, that is the punishment of original sin as far as I’m concerned. I don’t know what the Judaic rectification for that is, if there is one. I lost track of your religion about 2000 years ago and haven’t gotten caughten up.
Your welcome. No one has ever thanked me before around here. Everyone just argues. Very refreshing.
Hold on, I’d have to disagree with jmullaney and his concept of the Christian Hell. You are holding to a form af annihilism. When you die you die and are blotted out of existance. I would say this is not in the theology of fundamental Christianity. While some do hold on to this theology, most denominations preach that hell is eternal damnation. And while I agree that it really isn’t supported by the NT text, that is what it has evolved into. But, you take a parable and verses out of Revelation and build a theology around it, and you’ll get that kind of thing. I think the twisting of the persona of Satan is another example, transformed from an agent of God in Judaism (an angel) to the nemesis of God and source of evil by Christianity.
I can say for a fact that fundamentalist Christians believe that Mormonism is nothing but a cult and in no way a form of Christianity. Same goes for Jehovah witnesses.
I’m not argueing, I’m debating
I don’t know if Zev was looking for a majority head count. I mean there are Jews for Jesus too, and I don’t know how he’d categorize them. I mean death is hell, and death is eternal. There’s a huge xtian mythology of angels, demons, saints, heaven, hell and I know a lot of people believe those things, but there are xtians who are much more like Jews than these other sects whose ecomomy (not theology, wrong word) sounds much like a Saturday morning cartoon show.
Jews for Jesus have a name in Jewish circles, they are called Christians. At least that is what I’ve hear
Death is eternal? I believe the resurection of believers is a major tenet in both the Judaic and Christian theology.
I don’t catch the rest of what you are saying either. Sorry, it’s probably me. Christian mythology? Are you throwing out the last 2,000 years of Christian evolution? And while I love Sat. morning cartoons, I don’t see your correlation between the two.
evolution, devolution, call it what you will. I’m throwing it out. I liked Porete’s book circa 1100. I hope you don’t think the low Catholics, the protestants, Calvanism, etc. have been good for the faith? You see this as an evolution? Towards what, Jerry Falwell?
carnivorousplant, as one myself, I didn’t mean ‘Yid’ as a derogatory word - I know that ‘Jew’ can be used as a negative word too (I’ve been on the receiving end of that), and I didn’t even mean to use it in the way gangster rappers use the ‘n’ word. I just wanted to get some response, and thought it wouldn’t hurt to use a Yiddish word other than ‘Putz’ once in a while.
I’m sorry if I offended any fellow (whatever)s, and to anyone who smiled thinking it was an anti-semitic phrase, you can gey aveck.
Ig"Yid is no more offensive than ;j"uana.