Ohio Gov. and 2016 GOP presidential candidate John Kasich has backed off his idea of creating a federal agency for the purpose of exporting core western values to the world, a move that comes after media seized on his use of the term “Judeo-Christian.”
If elected president, the governor said Tuesday at an event in Washington, D.C., he would marry U.S. public diplomacy with the country’s broadcasting industry to create an agency that broadens America’s influence in the world.
“We must be more forceful in the battle of ideas,” Kasich said. “U.S. public diplomacy and international broadcasting have lost their focus on the case for Western values and ideals and effectively countering our opponents’ propaganda and disinformation.”
“I will consolidate them into a new agency that has a clear mandate to promote the core, Judeo-Christian Western values that we and our friends and allies share: the values of human rights, the values of democracy, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of association,” he added.
His remarks, which came as he discussed increased efforts among U.S. governors to halt the resettlement of Syrian refugees in American states, were meant to mean that he would see values traditionally associated with the West promoted throughout the enitre world, particularly in the Middle East.
The Guardian, a U.K. news outlet, was one of the only news groups to note correctly that Kasich, an Anglican, didn’t mean he’d create an agency to export faith values. In fact, Kasich’s “Judeo-Christian” remarks weren’t even the focus of the Guardian report.
For newsrooms in the United States, however, the story was a bit different, as Kasich’s use of “Judeo-Christian” was played up in headlines.
“2016 candidate John Kasich: I would create a NEW government agency that would ‘promote Judeo-Christian values,'” the New York Daily News reported.
The Huffington Post also focused on the term, blaring in a headline, “John Kasich Calls For New Agency To Promote ‘Judeo-Christian’ Values To The World.”
“John Kasich proposes creating a propaganda department to spread ‘Judeo-Christian values,'” the Washington Post reported, suggesting that the proposed idea “seemed to contradict the 1st Amendment to the Constitution.”
The Post suggested that Kasich was likely was using an old Cold War term to mean values like free speech and democracy; and not religious values.
“[A]ssuming he doesn’t get elected and start a radio station telling people to read the Bible or the Torah, there’s nothing wrong with” his idea of exporting Western values, the report added.
Nevertheless, the narrative that Kasich is in favor of establishing a faith-based federal agency took off, opening him up to attacks from fellow 2016 competitors.
“I don’t think we should be promoting Judeo-Christian values in the Arab world,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Real Clear Politics in an interview. “I think that was the Crusades.”
Perhaps sensing that there was little he could to push back against U.S. media’s characterization of his remarks, Kasich backed off his plan Wednesday.
“I don’t think you need a new agency, it’s really breathing life into something that kind of has become dormant,” Kasich said at a news conference in Virginia. “You don’t hear much about the Voice of America anymore.”
“This is about taking Voice of America and these things that have been effective in communicating who we are and just upgrading it,” he added, saying that “once we win the battle of bullets” against Islamic terrorists, America must “engage in the war of ideas” to discourage potential jihadis from joining terrorist groups.
Interestingly enough, before he backed away from his proposal, few — if any — in conservative media made an effort to correct the record on what the Ohio governor actually meant when he said “Judeo-Christian.”
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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Gov. Kasich as a Roman Catholic.
