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April 2007
Opinion
Dennis Prager
Which is More American? The Bible or the Koran?
America derives its moral values from the Bible... If the Bible ceases to be regarded as the central text of American life, the position of American Jews will be diminished.
There are probably few issues about which American Jews feel more passionately than the question of whether America is—or should be—a secular or a religious country.
I learned this painfully at the close of 2006, when I became a major topic of discussion—mostly negative—in the American and Jewish media. From The New York Times and The Washington Post to CNN and Fox News, what I wrote in a November 28 column, and the reactions it provoked, became the focus of national attention.
The story in brief is this: Shortly after his election as the first Muslim member of Congress, Keith Ellison (D-MN) announced that during the photo-op reenactment of the swearing-in ceremony, he would be sworn in with the Koran. As this would be the first time that any national elected official would substitute another religious text for the Bible, I was, and still am, disturbed by this symbolism for two reasons.
First, I believe that America derives its moral values from the Bible more than from any other source, religious or secular. Second, American Jews have had an honored place throughout American history because of the Christians who believe in that book. If the Bible ceases to be regarded as the central text of American life, I am certain that the position of the Jews in America will be diminished.
Many American Jews disagree with this thinking. For one thing, most liberals—and most American Jews are liberal—argue that America does not derive its values from the Bible, but that the United States was founded on the secular values of the Enlightenment.
It is difficult to overstate how unfortunate I believe this view of American history to be. Of course the Enlightenment played a role in forming America’s values. But its concepts were largely add-ons to already-established Bible-based values. The Europeans who settled on North American soil and formulated America’s original ideals were deeply religious people. These Bible-based Christians did not need the Enlightenment to tell them that government should not be theocratic. They were as aware as any Enlightenment figure of the dangers of state religion.
As for my second argument—that the Jews hold a special place in America because of the country’s Bible-believing Christians—I am convinced that most American Jews do not think about this. For them, it is simply a given that Jewish security is based on a secular America.
This is a tragedy. Every Jew worries about Jewish security. After thousands of years of persecution culminating in the genocide known as the Holocaust, how could we not? So the question of what helps us remain secure in America warrants considerably more than a knee-jerk response.
Theocracy is obviously not in our interest. But neither is secularism. While the United States has no state-established religion, it was designed to be a deeply religious country. And American religiosity was uniquely Judeo-based. America’s Christians were not Europe’s Christians—which is why it is both foolish and immoral to liken America’s Christianity to Europe’s, as Jews do when they cite the Crusades and the Inquisition. America’s Christians were such Judeophiles that they founded America to be a Israel.”
I want to emphasize how Judeo-based the Christians who founded America were. For example, Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin—who are generally considered deists, rightly or wrongly—wanted the great seal of the United States to depict the Jews leaving Egypt. The insignia of Yale is in Hebrew—and it consists of the words from the breastplate of the Jewish high priest. Until 1800, one could not graduate from Harvard without knowledge of Hebrew. And the inscription on the Liberty Bell is from the Torah. I doubt that one in a hundred American Jews knows that.
So when a congressman-elect announced that he would replace the Bible with another religious text, I was appalled. There were things I wrote in my first column that I regret and deserve criticism. I wrote that “Ellison should not be allowed to take his oath on the Koran.” I immediately said I was wrong. To cite but one of many examples, on December 22, The New York Times quoted me: “I completely respect Congressman-Elect Ellison’s right to take an oath on the Koran, and regret any language that suggested otherwise…. My entire effort in the Keith Ellison matter has been to draw attention to the need to acknowledge the Bible as the basis of America’s moral values. Judeo-Christian values are the greatest single protection against another Holocaust.”
Most American Jews were unconcerned about this unprecedented displacement of the Bible. Indeed, most Jews celebrated the use of the Koran instead of the Bible for its “diversity.” This attitude betrayed a lack of understanding about where America’s values come from, and about why we Jews have had a special place in American life.
America has no state religion, nor should it ever be allowed to have one. But is has always been a Judeo-Christian country. Jews—and America itself—will suffer if we cease to be one. Just ask the Jews of secular Europe how their secular societies treat them and Israel. For that matter, just think about how our secular universities have become anti-Israel hate centers.
And that is why I cared so much about America’s first swearing-in ceremony in which the Bible was replaced.
Dennis Prager hosts a nationally syndicated talk-radio show.