Mike Johnson, newly elected speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, warned conservative Christian lawmakers Dec. 5 the nation is engaged in a battle of worldviews.
“What we’re engaged in right now is a battle between worldviews. It’s a great struggle for the future of the republic,” Johnson told members of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers at the organization’s awards gala at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, is a Southern Baptist noted for his ultra-conservative beliefs and his participation in perpetuating Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election being stolen.
Despite his own track record of supporting Trump’s Big Lie, Johnson urged the Christian conservatives at the gala to speak with “clarity” and “conviction” now more than ever. He said the next generation has “no frame of reference to the great foundational truths.”
Despite his own track record of supporting Trump’s Big Lie, Johnson urged the Christian conservatives at the gala to speak with “clarity” and “conviction” now more than ever.
Johnson received the NACL’s American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage. The theme of the evening was “Save the Nation.”
“We don’t want to divide; we want to unify,” Johnson said. “We want to bring people into the truth and into the light and to believe in America and that our best days are ahead because they are if we’ll turn to God.”
Also receiving an award from the group, along with Johnson, were Glenn and Jenny Story, co-founders and executives of Patriot Mobile, a “Christian” mobile phone company that is behind efforts to post the Ten Commandments and “In God We Trust” signs in public schools and elect religious conservatives to school boards to fight secularism and so-called Critical Race Theory.
Glenn Story, Jenny Story, Jason Rapert, Lori Rapert
Andrew Wommack, founder of the far-right group Wommack Ministries and Charis Bible College, received the George Washington Lifetime Christian Leadership Award from the group. Wommack is an outspoken Christian nationalist who has called Democrats “demonic” and complained that homosexuals, who are the “tip of Satan’s spear,” received too much sympathy after a gunman killed five and injured others at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The NACL was founded in 2019 by former Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert, a Republican. The group claims it is “the first formal national association of Christian lawmakers” who seek to “save the nation” by merging church and state.
The group’s stated mission is “to bring federal, state and local lawmakers together in support of clear biblical principles by meeting regularly to discuss major issues, propose model statutes, ordinances and resolutions to address major policy concerns from a biblical worldview.” The group claims, “America would be better off if more Christians would run for elected office at the local, state and federal levels. … We need to elect more godly leaders in our national at every level.”
Further, the group’s website states: “NACL is committed to abolishing abortion in our nation, restoring marriage between one man and one woman, standing up for religious liberty in every venue, promoting universal school choice and championing the right to introduce our young people to the importance of God in their lives. We are doing everything we can to restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.”
Politically, NACL members promote abortion bans, condemn same-sex marriage and transgender care, support Bible reading and Ten Commandments displays in public schools and universal school choice, and have drafted legislation calling for school textbook ratings from a conservative point of view.
Theologically, NACL members say they embrace a “biblical worldview” that claims political organizing is spiritual warfare, that spiritual revival can come through political activism, and that Christians should have dominion over nonbelievers.
Johnson is the first high-level federal official to embrace NACL.
The group’s national board of advisors includes a long list of conservative Christian activists:
- Tony Perkins, Family Research Council
- Walker Wildmon, American Family Association
- Mike Huckabee, MyFaithVotes
- Kristan Hawkins, Students for Life of America
- Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel
- Rick Scarborough, Recover America
- Rod Martin, former member of the Southern Baptist Convention‘s Executive Committee
- Frank Pavone, Priests for Life
Many NACL members share Johnson’s belief that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump and support his efforts to overturn the results. Johnson has released video footage of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that conservative Christians already have exploited to support Trump’s false claims. In her new memoir, Liz Cheney calls Johnson one of Trump’s key collaborators in a GOP-led House she described as a “threat” to the country.
Focus on the Family claims Johnson’s views are mainstream but have been attacked by a hostile news media that “doesn’t know much about biblical Christianity.”
NACL says its name is significant. In science, NaCl describes the chemistry of salt, and members say they are fulfilling Christ’s call to be “salt and light.” One member said NACL’s work is “spreading the gospel all over the country.”
Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is one of the Christian groups and leaders to question such claims of America as a “Christian nation.”
“The idea that the government is the best to evangelize what we think religiously is a terrible idea,” said Holly Hollman, BJC general counsel. “Christians have had a great impact on the law in the history of America, but we’ve never been a Christian nation officially, legally.”