Minnesota Congressman, Who Used Antisemitism to Win Election, Cites "Judeo-Christian Values"

Jim Hagedorn (R-MN), who ran antisemitic campaign advertisements during the midterm elections, used the phrase “Judeo-Christian values” to attack the Black Lives Matter movement.

In the same post, Hagedorn accused the Black Lives Matter movement and “armies of rioters,” of waging war against the United States and “western culture.” The term “western culture” is a white nationalist dog whistle used by far-right extremist hate groups like the Proud Boys, who style themselves as “Western Chauvinists.” By “Western,” they mean “white.”

Hagedorn then added, “We must stand and defend our country, our nation’s identity, our Judeo-Christian values and American way of life.” The entire statement made it clear that he views Black liberation movements as a threat to the “American way of life,” rather than an integral part of American history, present, and future. This argument requires a re-writing of history that minimizes the privileging of Christianity from the founding of the United States and through today. Many American texts from the 18th Century about religious freedom were, quite explicitly, about freedom for Christians. Any inclusion of Jews was largely incidental, or for the purposes of trying to convert Jews to Christianity.

Perhaps initially a nod to religious texts used by both Jews and Christians, used to inspire American Christian opposition to the Nazis, “Judeo-Christian” in has been a conservative slogan for decades. By 1950, it was clear that the phrase was used to essentially just mean “Christian,” with “Judeo” tacked on to give the impression of diversity of faith. This was demonstrated in a statement from the Earl McGrath Commissioner of the Federal Office of Education (now the Department of Education). McGrath asserted that American public schools should uphold the “ideals of the Judeo-Christian conception of life” in order to build a “truly Christian, democratic community.”

Rather than pointing to commonality between Judaism and Christianity, the term “Judeo-Christian” effectively and intentionally excludes Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Indigenous faiths and more. While people of all ethnicities practice all of these religions, it is not a coincidence that the faiths excluded from “Judeo-Christian values” are more often associated with people of color. It’s a blatant example of the way Jews and Judaism are used as a shield by conservatives to attack other minority groups.