The traditional Judeo-Christian values that once formed the bedrock of American culture have been replaced by a new “cultish religion” that seeks to destroy Western civilization, Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro warned Friday.
Shapiro made the comments while discussing the recent “Jeopardy!” episode in which none of the contestants were able to complete a portion of the Lord’s Prayer. He said this illustrated how little Americans today knew of the religious tradition that had held American society together.
“But you know what this says?” Shapiro said on his podcast. “It really says that the level of biblical Judeo-Christian knowledge in this country has absolutely plummeted through the floor. And you want to know why America’s collapsing socially? That would be the reason. The reason is there used to be a natural backdrop in the United States of particularly Christian values that everybody sort of understood.”
On the episode Shapiro was referencing, host Mayim Bialik read a clue that said, “Matthew 6:9 says, ‘Our Father, which art in heaven, [THIS] be thy name.’” The camera cut to contestants Laura, Joe, and returning champion Suresh, but not one of them buzzed in with a response.
“Now I’m a Jew. Okay. We don’t do the Lord’s Prayer. That’s not a thing for us. Okay. But I also have watched movies and TV shows, and I live in America, so I know that the answer is ‘hallowed,’” Shapiro said.
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The Daily Wire co-founder added that people of faith, particularly Christians, Jews, and Muslims, all held some traditional values that starkly contrasted with the new values being pushed at schools and by corporations across the country.
“There is a common set of values shared by Jews and Christians and Muslims, actually,” Shapiro said. “And that set of values actually makes a difference in American public life. It’s why the notion that we should be posting ‘Pride’ progress flags in classrooms, but not the Ten Commandments is so absurd on its face.”
Judeo-Christian values had been “supplanted” by a newer toxic religion that sought to take down Western civilization, the best-selling author added.
“We have supplanted one religion for another religion, and the new religion is bad. It is a bad religion. It is a cultish religion that requires not just acceptance and tolerance, but destruction of the traditional forms of morality that used to undergird all of Western civilization,” Shapiro explained.