Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) Invokes "Judeo-Christian Values" to Imply Islam is "About Hate."

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) posted on Twitter about “Judeo-Christian values” and falsely suggested that Islam is a hate-based religion. 

Gaetz’s comment came after a congressional hearing about the influence and out-sized power of tech companies. During the hearing, Gaetz protested that Amazon relies on information from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) to classify organizations as hate groups. In particular, Gaetz sought to criticize the SPLC’s classification of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) — a violent terrorist organization — as a hate group, as well as some extremist Christian groups that traffic in homophobia and Islamophobia.

When challenged by a Twitter user who wrote that the Florida Congressman “wouldn’t raise the same complaint if it were Muslim organizations being flagged,” Gaetz responded: “Judeo-Christianity is about love, not hate.”

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 — and in this case, to attack Islam.

Overt Christian antisemites, like Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes — an associate of Gaetz’s staffer Darren Beattie — also object to the term. However, their dislike for it is rooted in their open dislike of Jews, not out of a desire to respect Judaism as distinct from Christianity.