Author: Judeo-Christian Values Attacked on All Sides
Saturday, 31 Jul 2010 12:07 PM By: John Rossomando
America’s Judeo-Christian ethic is the foundation for many of the nation’s ideals, but it is facing unprecedented assaults from popular culture, books, and government, author David Brog tells Newsmax.TV.
President Barack Obama does little to defuse the situation, says Brog, executive director of Christians United for Israel.
It doesn’t take much digging to see the assault, says Brog, who details the battering in his book In Defense of Faith: The Judeo-Christian Idea and the Struggle for Humanity.
We’ve had a wave of books severely critical of faith: Christopher Hitchens “God Is Not Great”; Richard Dawkins “The God Delusion” and Sam Harris The End of Faith”
Books should propel enlightening discussion, Brog tells Newsmax, but these are some of the most superficial and hateful rejections you would expect from much more shallow sources.
Pundits consistently blame religion for the world’s ills, but misinterpretations often distort a denomination’s image, he says.
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Then there’s Hollywood, Brog says. When’s the last time you saw a serious Christian or Jew as the hero of the film instead of the villain or the crazed maniac? This is a serious, consistent drumbeat, and I’m afraid it’s taking a toll on our society.
Brog contends that the Judeo-Christian tradition has nurtured the West’s love, compassion, and morality, ironically the same values the atheistic critics of faith claim to represent.
Although some tea party critics maintain that the movement is mean-spirited, Brog counters that tea partyers he knows are people of deep faith. These people of faith share the grass-roots movement’s belief in limited government and personal responsibility and are trying to preserve those values, he says.
I’d like to see people of faith take a greater role in the tea party, he says. I’d like to see the tea party’s message be one of compassion, be one of concern, not one of apathy.
Brog also wants the Obama administration to reaffirm America’s support for Israel in spite of the difficulties the Arab and Muslim worlds pose for U.S. foreign policy.
American presidents have traditionally recognized a special relationship between the United States and Israel, based on our shared principles of morality and democracy, he says. I would like to see this administration walk in that tradition rather than in the tradition of a George Marshall, the secretary of state who told Harry Truman, If you recognize Israel, you jeopardize our support from the Arab world’
When asked about Islam’s place in U.S. society and the promotion of shariah, Brog responds: I have a deep concern about radical Islam; I don’t have a concern about Islam. I think Muslims, like every other faith tradition, ought to contribute to this nation and be an important part of this nation, and we need to elevate those who follow Islam.
However, he is troubled about radical Muslims who interpret Islam as sanctioning violence.
We need to do everything we can to foster freedom of religion, to respect Islam, but to recognize there are those in this country who wish us ill, he says. We need to be aware of the problem, but our administration doesn’t even recognize the nature of the problem.”
He cited the Obama administration’s refusal to use the term militant Islam to refer to violent radicals.
They are not confronting the real problem, and therefore we are not going to be able to solve it, Brog says.
Brog also says in the interview:
- A mosque should not be built near ground zero in New York
- The Obama administration has failed to bring Americans together and has fostered a climate of intolerance of those who see the Judeo-Christian tradition as the unique source of our values.
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