More Judeo-Christian narishkeit

From my homeboy Dennis Prager, attempting once again to cover his ass in the wake of Koran-gate:

If you want to predict on which side an American will line up in the Culture War wracking America, virtually all you have to do is get an answer to this question: Does the person believe in the divinity and authority of the Five Books of Moses, the first five books of the Bible, known as the Torah?

Funny, Dennis, this suspiciously sounds like yet another litmus test.

Dennis is nice enough to throw facts a bone for a change by pointing out that he says the Torah, not whole Bible because, according to a flashcard just handed to him, Jews apparently do not believe in any of that Book of Mark crap. (Not that this, of course, stopped him when he said Jews should swear on it anyway.)

It's an interesting implication- out of all the different flavors of Christianity, the one text they all agree on is the Torah. And guess what?

"Bible-believing" Christians and Jews do believe in the divinity of the Torah.

And they line up together on virtually every major social/moral issue.

Name the issue: same-sex marriage; the morality of medically unnecessary abortions; capital punishment for murder; the willingness to label certain actions, regimes, even people "evil"; skepticism regarding the United Nations and the World Court; strong support for Israel. While there are exceptions -- there are, for example, secular conservatives who share the Bible-believers' social views -- belief in a God-based authority of the Torah is as close to a predictable dividing line as exists.

Dennis conveniently forgets that all religious Jews, Orthodox or not, know damn well that the Torah doesn't always line up with the GOP. Outlawing abortion, for instance. And homosexuality might be condemned, but I don't recall Leviticus saying a damn thing about a marriage amendment. I also don't think the UN is there- unless you're going to try and twist Jeremiah around (a favorite pastime of Protestant doomsday prophets).

As for another issue that isn't in the Torah (and which a lot of Jews and right-wing Christians might disagree on), how about gun control?

That is why one speaks of Judeo-Christian values, but not of Judeo-Christian theology. Torah-believing Jews and Torah-believing Christians have very different theological beliefs, but they agree on almost all values issues -- largely because they share a belief in the divinity of the same text.

Sigh. No Dennis. Believing that a text is divine does not ensure identical interpretation. Just look at how Jews (and different groups of Christians) group the Ten Commandments (or what they do with them). And finding common threads of social and political conservatism cannot necessarily be attributed to the single factor of "believing the Torah is divine"- especially when Jews and Christians don't even agree on what that term means IN THE FIRST PLACE!

Many members of all these different religions have found it quite remarkable how similar their values are to those of members of these other religions. An evangelical Protestant who might regard Mormonism as nothing more than a heretical cult will find himself seated next to Mormons at a rally on behalf of the Boy Scouts. An Orthodox rabbi who might never set foot in a church will join a panel of Christians in opposing the redefining of marriage. And so on.

And, again, that demonstrates that there is more going on here than merely the philosophical/ethical predeterminism you're peddling, Dennis, because I'm sure there are plenty of other Orthodox rabbis who don't care about passing a marriage amendment, maybe even a few defending the gays, much less crap like the Boy Scouts. When was the last time you saw some hasidim fighting for the Scouts, Dennis? Hell, those uniforms aren't even tsniusdik.

Take Shmuley Boteach. He's against gay marriage, but does it without invective. Indeed, Shmuley's articles, much as I disagree with his argument, is one of the best I've read from the "other side", and a position I can actually respect (or at least the closest I can get).

Anything else, Dennis? Oh, he's talking about God now. Yeah, turns out that belief in God really isn't the major factor because people have different interpretations about what that means. Brilliant, Dennis. You clearly earned that degree in comparative theology you got over the internet.

Oh wait, I spoke too soon. God doesn't matter, but the book does. And as we all remember, Dennis has a real mental hard-on for certain books.

What matters is not whether people believe in God but what text, if any, they believe to be divine. Those who believe that He has spoken through a given text will generally think differently from those who believe that no text is divine. Such people will usually get their values from other texts, or more likely from their conscience and heart.

You heard it here first, Dennis Prager thinks consciences are bad. But I thought that we were supposed to be learning to "think from the gut" and stuff!

That a belief or lack of belief in the divinity of a book dating back over 2,500 years is at the center of the Culture War in America and between religious America and secular Europe is almost unbelievable.

He's right, it sounds even more ridiculous when he says it.

Dennis concludes by demonstrating a rare moment of insight- seculars and the religious think that each others' beliefs are dumb. Then, of course, everything has to go back to him and Keith Ellison.

This divide explains why the wrath of the Left has fallen on those of us who lament the exclusion of the Bible at a ceremonial swearing-in of an American congressman. The Left wants to see that book dethroned. And that, in a nutshell, is what the present civil war is about.

The only problem with this argument (well, yet another problem) is that even other religious (and conservative) Jews like Dennis' pal Michael Medved thought his Koran-fatwa was grade-A retarded, and said so several times in print.

Hey, I know, maybe Medved doesn't believe in the Torah! Yeah, and he probably practices witchcraft, too! What's that you say, Goody Yente? You saw him fly over your barn?

Somebody get Dennis a sling, a few bags of rocks, and a flight to Israel- this sounds like a job for the New Sanhedrin TM! (Cue Justice League music.)

Edit: Charlie Hall gives Dennis a good fisking as well.