Judeo-Christian Values Form the Foundation of Western Society

What are Judeo-Christian values and have they crumbled in the West? Judeo-Christian values come from the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Genesis affirms God’s ownership of creation and the way we’re His image bearers, which means that He confers intrinsic human value and dignity at our conception.  All humans seek value and dignity.

Human value is not conferred by others, such as when one mother assigns a name and value to the baby in her womb while another assigns no name nor value. Pray for the mothers who’ve made the latter decision. Since 1973, the United States has lost a million preborn babies per year due to the faulty assumption that we have the ability confer value on others. Did you know that eagle eggs and turtle eggs have greater rights than preborn humans in the U.S.? Destroying eagle eggs or turtle eggs comes with stiff fines and even prison sentences.

Jesus said we’re to love God above all else and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus’ parable of the talents further explained how those to whom much has been given, much is expected. Coupled with the book of Proverbs and letters from Paul, we know we’re not to be lazy. We’re to work hard and to capitalize on the gifts God has given us. These axioms and principles form the foundation of Judeo-Christian beliefs. They distinguish the wheat from the weeds: those with a meritocratic performing mindset from those with a statist controlling mindset. More on that in a moment.

Before we further discuss our values today, let’s examine traditional values in the U.S. and other western societies. In the early 1900s, Max Weber wrote “The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” to highlight what he considered prevalent values in the United States: thrift and industriousness. He based much of his writing on his observations about our Founding Father, Benjamin Franklin, who lived between 1705 and 1790. In the dash between his years, he was considered a leading writer, scientist, and diplomat who contributed to the U.S. Declaration of Independence in 1776. Numerous quotations are attributed to Ben Franklin that help to characterize his opinions of the day. One of my favorites is “Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain, and most fools do.”

One of the most important parts of the Declaration of Independence, which is in complete alignment with our Judeo-Christian values, states: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”

In the 1960s, Judeo-Christian values carried on through people like President John F. Kennedy (JFK) and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK). JFK famously said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” MLK said, “I look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”

The importance of a meritocracy within our value system cannot be overstated, especially when the world is still polluted by those whose values are in opposition. During the time our Founding Fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. was polluted by people who believed that owning and enslaving other humans was appropriate since they took the dehumanizing position that the slaves weren’t fully human. We saw the same under Hitler in World War II. Thankfully, today the vast majority finds slavery and the holocaust to be abhorrent.

Yet we’re still battling another snake, one which slinks in the shadows of our societies. It gained traction around the beginning of the industrial revolution and was organized and vocalized under Karl Marx and weaponized by the Bolsheviks in Russia: communism. Like slave owners and Nazis, communists dehumanize people through the elimination of property rights, the exaltation of the state over the individual (and individual rights), the forced control by the state of the means of production (land, labor, capital), and the replacement of religion with atheism.

Given the untimely deaths of around 120 million in the past century under Pol Pot in Cambodia, Mao Zedong in China, and Lenin and Stalin in the USSR, communism has earned a bad name. People like Hugo Chavez of Venezuela who support it label it by another name: socialism. Under the guise of socialism, Hugo Chavez subsidized gas and power in Venezuela, forced mandatory gun buybacks, forced price controls, nationalized numerous industries (e.g., transportation, communications, energy/oil), and eventually drove the country into extreme poverty. Venezuela was once one of the wealthiest countries in South America; today it is one of the poorest with over 90% impoverished. Chavez’s government failed to take into account the power of human motivation and meritocracy. When one equalizes outcomes despite obvious differences in inputs, humans are demotivated to work hard. When doctors and cashiers are paid the same, doctors see no reason to study hard to complete medical school.

We need to be diligent to ensure that our government doesn’t fall prey to communism or Chavez’s form of “socialism.” Be on the lookout for price controls, which drive grocery store owners out of business. Be on the lookout for mandatory gun buybacks, which leave only government thugs with guns. Be on the lookout for anyone who wants to ignore our 1^st amendment on free speech or our 2^nd amendment on the right to bear arms. Be on the lookout for regulatory creep (pun intended) where government keeps strapping individuals and corporations with massive red tape. We especially see regulatory creep in the energy industry today, which has severely increased our energy costs. Cue in the Green New Deal.

If we don’t stay aware, our society will erode as others have in the past. People who impose these ideas have a statist controlling mindset virus. They want to control our speech, rights, actions, and outcomes. Stand with those who have a meritocratic performing mindset who believe when we work hard, we can go far. That’s how it’s always been in the United States and that’s how it always should be as it’s in alignment with our Judeo-Christian value system. United we stand. Divided we fall.

SJ Thomason is a Christian author, wife and mother of two young men. She holds a Ph.D. in business and works as a professor and associate dean of business.