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Since World War II, most American Jews have believed that the more secular American society is, the more secure their status.
This has been, as I have argued all of my life, a colossal error. Indeed, it may turn out to be a fatal error. With the outburst of unprecedented levels of antisemitism, American Jews are living the famous warning: “Beware what you wish for; you just may get it.”
The primary reason American Jews have lived in the most Jew-friendly, even Jew-honoring, country in history is that most Americans have been Christian. But we must make a key distinction here. American Christians have been not just Christian, as Europe was, but Judeo-Christian. Nearly all the American Founders were either traditional Christians (i.e., believers in the Christian Trinity) or believers in God but not in the Christian Trinity. Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin fall into this latter category. But almost to a man the Founders were Judeophiles. Indeed, Jefferson and Franklin wanted the seal of the new United States to depict the Jews leaving Egypt.
In an 1808 letter, John Adams wrote about the Jews: “They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their Empire were but a Bauble in comparison of the Jews. They have given religion to three quarters of the Globe and have influenced the affairs of Mankind more, and more happily, than any other Nation ancient or modern.
“I will insist the Hebrews have (contributed) more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations…”
It wasn’t just the Founders who appreciated the Jews’ contribution to the formation of the great concepts of Western civilization.
Mark Twain who, though not a religious man, was raised in a religious Protestant home, wrote in 1899, in an essay in Harper’s magazine, “Concerning the Jews:”
“The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
The only inscription on the Liberty Bell is from the Hebrew Bible, specifically the Book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah: “Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land Unto All the Inhabitants thereof.”
Until 1800, you could not graduate from Harvard University without knowing Hebrew. The insignia of Yale University is in Hebrew, depicting the breastplate of the Jewish High Priest.
In a famous study published in the American Political Science Review, Donald Lutz, a professor of political science at the University of Houston, surveyed the political literature of the American founding. He found that the Bible was cited more frequently than any other work or any other author. The Bible accounted for approximately one-third of the Founder’s citations. The single most frequently cited work was Deuteronomy, the fifth of the five books of the Torah.
The late great Catholic theologian Michael Novak wrote that the roots of the doctrine that “all men are created equal lie in Judaism, carried around the world by Christians.”
As American society and Americans individually become less religious, i.e., less Christian, the Jews become less significant.
Yet, many, perhaps most, American Jews, have bought — and promulgated — the idea that Jewish security in America lies in secularizing, i.e., de-Christianizing, America.
As noted above, I have warned against this dangerous foolishness all of my life. As I said to John Anderson, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia, on his podcast: “I say this as a Jew… I don’t romanticize Christianity when I say its death is the death of the West. I am rooting for Christianity’s survival as much as you, the Christian, are.”
Look around, my fellow Jews. Are you happy with the results of the secularization of America? Do you feel more secure? Or less?
I ask you: Is it not obvious that when more Americans attended church every Sunday, America’s Jews were far more secure?
Mr. Prager, thank you for this good article!
As a footnote, I agree that Twain seems to have not been an orthodox Christian. However, in “The Innocents Abroad,” an account of a tour which included the Holy Land, he showed his solid understanding of Christian teachings.
Satan fully understands and believes the Scriptures.
Nothing I have read of Mark Twain’s would convince me to compare him with Satan! Correct me if I’m wrong.
I do not comment about Twain’s spiritual condition. I make the true statement that Satan and his demons both know and believe in the Scriptures. They also recognize and believe in the Messiah.
But satanic “belief” is not the faith of Abraham or of Christians. There is no “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.” Gen. 15:6
There is no redemption, no remission of sins and no sacrifice made for Satan and his angels (demons).
We Christians believe we are saved by faith in the LORD God. He alone is our righteousness – for we have none of our own.
We are not saved by our knowledge or works – even if both are good. Knowledge and good works are both insufficient to pay for sins against Perfection.
Clear evidence that both Christians and Jews have evolved and that our values are basically the same.
We lose those values when we believe in government, climate change, science, objectivity, international rules based order or any other modern religion.
Secularism is also no friend to Christianity. We see trends trying to eliminate Christian Holidays and Christian schools and universities. The secular world is a dangerous and sometimes evil place.
One of Islam’s tenets is: First we kill the Saturday worshippers; then we kill all the Sunday worshippers.
There is nothing wrong with objectivity. The profound cultural decadence of the West is tied more to post-modernism and moral relativism, both of which embrace subjectivity over objectivity.
Correct. It’s irrational philosophy, not the decline of religion, that has led to decline.
Far too many heterodox American Jews worshipped the false god of social justice before 10:7
Hopefully their eyes have been opened
Yes, Twain endured an education infused with Christianity, and he may well have been the better for it. However, to gauge his sentiments toward Christianity, at least as it was practiced in the USA at the time, read his “The War Prayer”, Why shucks, Tom Sawyer wasn’t too enthusiastic about it either.
Liatris Spicata? Is this the original, the real, the one and only, Liatris Spicata from the Geller Report?
The Liatris Spicata that was incessantly attacked by Intrepid and Felix 1999 at the Geller Report?
If it is, welcome back, nice to see you.
You are lying like you always do. I never attacked this person. I don’t even know who she/he is. And I haven’t been to Geller in over two years.
If you have proof pony up, loser. Post my quotes. If not eff off, worm.
Correlation is not causation.
For centuries the Christians persecuted the Jews with pogroms, violence, and legal discrimination. The Christians put the Jews in ghettos and restricted them to a few occupations. Not only did the Christians persecute the Jews, they persecuted, killed, and waged war with other Christians over interpretation, exegesis, heresy, and blasphemy.
The Aristotelian Renaissance (the rebirth of Aristotelian reason and logic) and the Age of Enlightenment (the light of Aristotelian reason and logic) broke the stranglehold that Pure and Theocratic Christianity had on Europe and the Western mind.
The Founding Fathers were born, raised, and educated in the Age of Enlightenment. The United States of America is the product of the Age of Enlightenment, America as the Founding Fathers envisioned it could not have been founded in any previous era or the era that has come after it, the era we live in, the era of the Counter Renaissance and the Counter Age of Enlightenment.
“The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
~1797 Treaty of Tripoli signed by Founding Father John Adams
“Since the golden age of Greece, there has been only one era of reason in twenty-three centuries of Western philosophy. During the final decades of that era, the United States of America was created as an independent nation. This is the key to the country—to its nature, its development, and its uniqueness: the United States is the nation of the Enlightenment.” – Leonard Peikoff
It is astonishing how “stuck on stupid ” and pathetic you are. You make it seem as if that was the only thing that ever happened to Jews was a never ending “Christian Jihad” against Jews. Do you actually have any proof that it was never ending. The Jews managed to thrive in Europe any way, until the 1920s Germany.
And now it’s the Left that is rearing it’s head again with their own brand of Nazism and anti-semitism. The Christians are not involved in this one. The the stupid college kids engaging in terrorist-chic.
And again with your so called Aristotelian Renaissance. No one cares or gives old Aristotle a second thought these days except in colleges. I guess that is why there was so much Christian art and music that flourished during the Renaissance and the Baroque. I’m still waiting for the discovery of all of those Objectivist works of art since the ugly short little woman came along with her familiar….Little Lenny.
Greek philosophy, your foundation and bedrock of the rational and scientific beginnings and aspects of Western Civilization, folded like a cheap suit in the face of the spread of Christianity, which absorbed the teachings of your pagan heroes. Without Christianity no one would remember or care about the Greeks or their fragile democracy. Without Christianity no one would remember or care about the Greeks or their fragile democracy.
And so what if Jefferson said “The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”. That was the point of the founding. That is why there is a 1A. It doesn’t negate the founders belief in God and Christianity as a whole. And, unfortunately for you, this is still a predominately Christian nation.
Must really suck to be you, having drag your assets out of bed each day and crimp from your commonplace book, all of the crap you copied into it but were too cheap to buy.
BTW, Prager is successful and has a following and a readership. You don’t.
Correlation is not causation. Really? What does that phrase have to do with the Prager article? Do you say this crap in an attempt to sound sophisticated and intelligent?
Try actually getting a real education at a real college.
You are a few centuries off in your thesis — which is pure and utter nonsense in any case, c0mpletely wrong on every single point. The “Aristotelian Renaissance”, as you call it, did not happen during the so-called “Age of Enlightenment” of the 18th century, which actually rejected Aristotle and Scholastic metaphysics in the 100 years following the Galileo trial in favor of the mechanistic physical universe paradigm promoted by Descartes, Locke, and Newton. The revival of Aristotle and classical learning in Western Europe occurred 500 years earlier with the grand philosophical project of St. Albert the Great and St. Thomas Aquinas, which harmonized Christian theology with Aristotelian metaphysics, culminating in the apogee of Christian medieval thought with Scholasticism.
The early modern political breakdown and theological schism of medieval Christendom in the 16th century (the so-called “Protestant Reformation”) had more to do with the worldly ambitions of secular rulers like King Henry VIII of England and the princes of the Holy Roman Empire in Germany than any alleged “rebirth of Aristotelian logic and reason” (for the record, Martin Luther despised Aristotle). The so-called “persecution” of the Jews during the medieval period was largely the Jews’ own fault, as they kept running interference and wreaking havoc with local economies through nefarious practices like usury and coin-clipping. The Christian rulers, like the Catholic kings of Spain, were right to expel them. The 1492 Alhambra decree effectively expelled the entire Jewish population from Western Europe.
However, in 1656, the dictator Oliver Cromwell ended King Edward Longshanks’ 1290 “Edict of Explusion”, which allowed the Jews back into England after 365 years, where they resumed their practice of usurious lending and corrupting the local political and financial system. Later, when the Holy Roman Empire was finally dissolved in 1807, after the Battle of Jena that Napoleon “emanicipated” the Jews and made them full citizens of the French Republic, where they once again proceeded to run interference and cause havoc in Europe all over again through transnational banking cartels, culminating in the final destruction of the old traditional political order in the Great War of 1914-18 at the behest of the Rothschilds, who had the Churchill family in their debt.
Would today’s Christians think that the past behavior of man’s church was indicative of the Christian Church that really believed and followed Jesus? I think that man’s church was evil and destructive and some still are.
Who are you? The Grand Inquisitor?
Among the Roman Catholic doctrines or practices that the Calvinist reformers rejected was anti-Semitism of many Popes and the Monarchs of Spain and Portugal. After the largely Calvinist Parliamentarians under Oliver Cromwell overthrew King Charles I and the established church of theArchbishop of Canterbury Laud was to revoke the royal edict of expulsion of five centuries earlier and to invite Jews displaced from other European nations back into England. This Calvinist attitude of Jewish accommodation was carried into the British colonies in North America by the Puritan and Separatist settlers. With only a few exceptions most Evangelical churches in North American have been supportive of the State of Israel. The late Charles Krauthammer chided his fellow American Jews for their ambivalence towards U.S. Christians pointing out their practical support of Israel despite theological differences.
As a child I was taught that from time to time we Christians need to be given a short swift kick in the butt and be reminded that “Our Lord was a Jew”. If we would honor, embrace and understand Him we must honor, embrace and understand His people and His faith. American Christians understand this better than most of the rest, but it needs to be repeated. “Salvation cometh from the Jews.”
I don’t really see your point, unless you are one of those Cyrus Scofield Bible-belting Christian Zionists who preach bogus dual-covenant dispensationalist theology. The Sanhedrin rejected Jesus as the Jewish Messiah and arranged to have Him crucified as a seditionary by the Roman authorities. The Jews have been ripping on Jesus ever since (go ask Sarah Silverman). The tearing of the veil surrounding the Holiest of Holies, the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, and the abject failure of the Bar Kochba Revolt all prove that the old Mosaic Covenant had been superceded by the Church founded by Jesus upon His chief disciple Simon Peter as the New Israel.
“The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?””
The secret is the LORD God, who alone is responsible for the glory of the Jewish people. Judges 7:2; Deuteronomy 8: 17 – 18; Psalm 44:3 and MANY others. If the Jew glories in being a Jew and believes he excels or is saved by his membership in that tribe alone, he is gravely mistaken.
God is faithful, even when we are not. This is the secret of the Jews, who alone received the Covenants, the Holy Scriptures, the Promise of Messiah and the eternal throne.
Mr. Prager, as always you hit the nail squarely on the head. It has been a mystery to me for decades the American Jews fascination with the Left. Voting for their destruction every election cycle. Are they willing to wake up?
The power they have to right the ship, lump women in there also. If these two factions ever got on the same page what a wonderful world it would be.
The Tower of Babel is alive and well.
Notice how everything going on is meant to separate us, isolate us. Marginalize us, pit us against one another.
Phones: never set it down. Just visited Disneyworld (I know demonland but it was all about our 6 year old granddaughter) thousands and thousands of people. And yet in this mass of humanity fully 75 percent of people were glued to their phones. The “in the moment” memorialized in a photo. Lost forever to the demon in the box phone.
Stores: All going to automated kiosks.
Culture: cancelled / removed
Education: faithful cogs in the wheel indoctrinated
Main stream Media: demonic in every form
Churches: Heretical teachings
Medicine: Lies, lies and more lies
2 Timothy 4:3-4
Anything / everything is in play now.
It has been told it would be thus.
What we are all living is the sum total result of living in a Godless world. The Altar of Man a despicable, evil, place.
I hate cliches but here goes…
Know God know peace!
No God no peace.
People are certainly too wedded to their phones (Wireless Pocket PCs these days), but most amusement parks have apps with interactive maps to tell you current wait times on rides, what rides are down, where the bathrooms, different eateries, and kiosks are.
I took someone to six flags recently, and not only did it save a bunch of time and extra walking, but we got to ride a lot more rides and not wait as long for food by catching them when the lines happened to be short. We did find ourselves on our ‘phones’ a lot, enough to notice, and worry about the battery charge.
Terrific essay by a brilliant analyst! Absolutely correct!
PS De-Christianizing paves the way for Islamism and Communism.
Good and very true article Mr Prager.
Your article begs the questions:
Why do Jews like/want secularism?
Why do Jews dislike religion?
Answer: They may actually have to look God in the eye and ask the question does He exist?
Is the Bible real and true?
Israel means “struggle with God”.
Jews, please turn back to the God of the Bible! He’s trying to get your attention. Wake up! He also wants you to know His Son, Jesus. This is the topic which causes the Jews to close their collective eyes and ears. Sad!
Also, Matthew 23:37-39
Jerusalem……….you will not see Me until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’
God is waiting for you Jews to KNOW HIM!
The problem with the article is that it does not distinguish between Bible-believing Christians and those who call themselves Christians who believe in replacement theology. Catholicism and all the Protestant denominations that came out of Catholicism believe in the false doctrine called replacement theology. The Church hasn’t ever, will never replace Israel and the unconditional promises made to the Hebrew Nation of Israel.
Being endowed by our creator with unalienable rights, rather than by man, means man cannot rightly take them. It seems trivial and inconsequential, but it’s an essential concept to protecting the rights of all. Secularism undermines the immutability of our rights, by denying their authorship and sacred nature. Even atheists used to recognize that, and respect it despite their personal disbelief in God, because it was what protected their right to be atheists.
What man endows, man can take. I’ve seen it expressed from so-called ‘constitutional scholars,’ like bill clinton and hussein obama, that our constitution gives us our rights, not our Creator. That was no accident. Without the origin and nature of rights being generally known, it’s almost impossible defend them.
I’m not entirely convinced by Mr. Praeger’s reasoning. The fatal error many Jewish Americans have made is supporting progressivism. The principles of our Founding are the only security for all Americans, and the only harbor in troubled waters that all of us can rely on.
Please tell us about Jews on the USA supreme court
the common misconception being promulgated is that islam is a religion , it is not . islam is a terrorist entity and has been since its inception . it has been given a semi religious wrap to drag its feckless ignorant adherents into ishmaels raging jealousy . this is what happens when a woman doesn’t believe god and what he says with a man acquiescing to his wife foolishness . abraham and sarah were disobedient and produced isaac and ishmael , ishmael is the head of the arab nations and from that time on has murdered and harangued the jews and the nation israel . regardless what the west does the conflict will continue until israel recognises Jesus Christ as saviour and messiah . unfortunately it will not occur until the second half of the 7 year tribulation . we don’t have far to go . jew and gentile need to reconcile to god before it is too late .
Well all of the comments are nice BUT when is someone going to do something about the barbarians running everything?
I haven’t commented here in many years but I see that Dennis Prager hasn’t changed.
The secularism that Prager blames for the collapse of civilization has solely a collectivist basis. He himself has stated that Jews born in New York city have “Democrat” inscribed on their birth certificate. Of course he was joking, but the statement had a basis in fact – Jews are overwhelmingly left-collectivist.
The secularism of the Founders was profoundly individualist. (Yes, the Founders were secularists when government was involved). When Jefferson wrote that “all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” he chose that phrase very carefully to mollify both Christians and Deists.
Jefferson used George Mason’s “Virginia Declaration of Rights”, the one adopted by most of the states, as a model for the D of I. Mason wrote “That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.”
Not nearly as poetic as Jefferson’s version, but clearly it shows the individualist basis for rights. Rights inhere within the nature of humankind. Allowing that a Creator provided human beings with a nature of which rights are a part, does not in any way obviate the fact that these rights now inhere within humankind.
Secularism in government is a threat to no one when it is based on individualism. However, the problem for Jews (and many Christians) is that their identity is collective. There is a difference between someone who says “I happen to be Jewish” and someone who says “I am a Jew”. In the second case, Jewishness is the essence of the speaker. In the first case, humanity is the essence and Jewishness is a non-essential attribute.
Collectivist secularism has a strong attraction for those whose identity is collective. Prager is right, secular Jews have made a major error, but it was not secularism, it was collectivist nature of that secularism that caused the problems.
Yes, it’s based on the worship of the omnipotent state, itself based on faith and altruism.
Dennis Prager denies man can reason.
“Look around, my fellow Jews. Are you happy with the results of the secularization of America? Do you feel more secure? Or less?”
Look around with your eyes instead of your false assumptions.
Use your faculty of reason and stop denying it exists.