What Are Judeo-Christian Values? | 5-Minute Videos

Judaism and Christianity are the only two religions that share a sacred text and a fundamental set of values. These values created and sustained Western Civilization. But now many want to discard them. If we do, at what cost?

Script:

Have you ever heard the term, “Judeo-Christian values?”

I suspect you have.

Can you name any of those values?

I suspect you can’t.

But you should because Judeo-Christian values are the moral foundation of Western civilization.

As the great British prime minister Margaret Thatcher put it:

“The truths of the Judeo-Christian tradition are infinitely precious, not only…because they are true, but also because they provide the moral impulse which alone can lead to that peace…for which we all long.”

Mrs. Thatcher was a believing Christian. I am a believing Jew. While we have different theologies, we have the same core values. And as far as society is concerned, moral values are far more important than theologies.

That is why traditionally religious Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and Jews are aligned on almost every important moral issue.

Here, then, are ten of those values.

Number 1: There is one God. That God is the God introduced to the world by the Hebrew Bible, or as Christians came to refer to it, the Old Testament.

Number 2: The Hebrew Bible introduced the most revolutionary moral idea in history: that there are objective moral truths just as there are objective mathematical and scientific truths. Without God, there is no moral truth; only moral opinions.

Number 3: Because there are moral truths, good and evil are the same for all people.

Number 4: God—not man, not government, not popular opinion, not a democratic vote—is the source of our rights. The American Declaration of Independence declares that all men "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights."

Number 5: The human being is “created in the image of God.” Therefore, Every human life is precious and therefore race is of no significance because God has no race.

Number 6: The world is based on divine order, and order is made by distinctions. Among these divine distinctions are God and man, God and nature, man and woman, human and animal, good and evil.

Number 7: Man is not basically good. Christians speak of “original sin” in referring to man's nature; Jews cite what God said in Genesis: “The will of man's heart is evil from his youth.” Both beliefs are diametrically opposed to the naive modern belief that man is basically good. And they lead to the same conclusion: we need God-based rules to keep us from our natural inclinations.

[DinduShecklestein]

Thank you, Lord. This comment section put my heart at ease a bit.

[hismajesty]

American was founded on Christian values. No prefixes, epithets, or other modifiers. Jesus Christ is God. God is King.

[marcuslegion]

If somebody ever tells you they are a
Means they're not a Christian at all.

[TheRadioAteMyTV]

I remember when this channel used to do lots of videos like this. It's been a while since then.

[fredericoruegger]

John 15:5
"I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing." Said Jesus!

[marcuslegion]

I'm not a judeo-christian I'm just a Christian....

[martinchivers]

Hi Dennis!
How is Jesus Christ himself and the Trinity valued in the Talmud?
What about the Sabbath vs Sunday?
Does this Hosea verse echo with the Christian "God is love" mantra?
Hosea 13:16
The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
    because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
    their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
    their pregnant women ripped open.”

[Munce]

Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God. Love it!

Great work Dennis! Scooby snacks for you.

My allegiance is to Liberty, the Repubic and Democracy.

[MegasXaos]

So long as the light of liberty shines among some, the promise of America will not be lost. Please, Mr. Prager and PragerU keep the light of liberty alive. You may be the only source of light in the darkness of modernity for some. But even out of the darkest night, the dawn will break.

[MartyMcFly]

This guy looks like an uncanny valley video game villain

[TheDovesNest]

This was FANTASTIC! Thank you for laying it out so simply and eloquently.

[stephenwhitacre]

This was an amazing video. Thank you so much. I greatly enjoy the video. It is so true. Judeo-Christian values should get more appreciation than they get.

[jomdizon]

What does Judeo mean? Judeo-Christian seems an oxymoron.
Judeo(non Christian) who rejects Christ? How are they compatible?

Im curious +

[alizak]

Thank you PragerU for this timely lesson.
This weekend I will be celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments with Jews around the world as we observe the holiday of Shavuot.
I have put aside my copy of the book "The Ten Commandments" by Dennis Prager, to take with me to where I will be praying and studying this weekend... and eating cheese cake, blintzes and ice cream.

[johnross]

FANTASTIC! You, personally, are a gift from God to mankind. Blessings on you! (I am a born-again, protestant, retired businessman).

[mswwalker]

I'm liking and commenting. Sharing, I've found, greatly depends on the audience. As soon as some of my 'friends' see it's a Prager U video, they immediately pass on it. Because reasons.
I'd love to have those folks watch things like this because I believe there is a lot here both right and left can agree on. I just don't know how to do it. Keep up the good work. Cheers,

[edwardprisby]

Mormons are polytheistic, not monotheistic. Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church, declared: “I have always declared God to be a distinct personage, Jesus Christ a separate and distinct personage from God the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was a distinct personage and a spirit; and these three constitute three distinct personages and three distinct gods” (Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, 370).

[afanasymarinov]

And Islam isn't sharing the same core values? Why not? I've never heard a sound argument why Judaism and Christianity are somehow closer related in core values than any of those to Islam.

[tomomiwatanabe]

Somehow this one didn't make Dennis' list.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

[whitleypedia]

They have seeped so successfully into the world's sense of morality that at this point they are taken for granted.