Political columnist Sarah Posner called him “the most unabashedly Christian nationalist speaker in history.”
All over social media, church-state separationists and LGBTQ right allies and voting rights advocates have warned today that the new speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives represents the most extreme ideology of the Christian right.
Mike Johnson, R.-La., may not be well known by most Americans, but his track record is extensive and consistent:
- He’s an election denier who believes Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.
- He’s a young earth creationist who believes the world was created 6,000 years ago.
- He’s a virulent opponent of the LGBTQ community, even to the point of lamenting the dissolution of anti-sodomy laws in a dozen states.
- He’s a hardline anti-abortionist.
- He believes America was founded as a “Christian nation.”
- He has ties to far-right Christian groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom.
He’s also a Southern Baptist. He served as a trustee of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from 2004 to 2012. He’s a member of Cypress Baptist Church in Benton, La. He previously attended First Baptist Church in Bossier City.
“Mike is the real deal, and God’s hand is all over him and his family,” his pastor, John Fream, told Baptist Press. “I am so excited and hopeful for our nation with this great man of God leading. Mike loves his church, his country, his family and his Lord.”
On the contrary, Posner, an MSNBC columnist, expressed the fears of other moderates and liberals. She said Christian nationalists may no longer have their champion in the White House “but, in Johnson, they now have a true believer second in line to the presidency.”
In a speech delivered after his election Wednesday, Oct. 25, Johnson implied he and all other elected officials have been placed there by God.
“I don’t believe there are any coincidences. … I believe that Scripture and the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he said. “He raised up each of you. … I believe each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country, and they deserve it. And to ensure that our republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.”
When Johnson first ran for Congress in 2016, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message he was called by God to politics.
“I was called to legal ministry and I’ve been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war.’”
“Some people are called to pastoral ministry and others to music ministry, etc. I was called to legal ministry and I’ve been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault,” he said.
Among his original goals in Congress, he told the Louisiana paper, was to overturn the Johnson Amendment, which prohibits churches and other nonprofits with tax-exempt status from endorsing political candidates.
“My faith is very real to me,” Johnson said, “and God is ever present in my life. I’m a committed Christian and my faith informs everything I do.
“My values follow the model of our Founding Fathers, I believe, and I think this is important. We were established as one nation under God. We are perilously close to forgetting that principle now — and we desperately need to return to this fundamental understanding.”
In 2016, Johnson said in a video interview: “What’s happened … over the last 60 or 70 years is that our generation has been convinced that there is a separation of church and state. Most people think that that’s part of the Constitution, but it’s not.”
In nominating Johnson as speaker, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., cited the biblical story of God commanding Samuel to anoint David as king. Stefanik implied Republicans were following God’s direction in choosing Johnson.
Paul Raushenbush
On the other hand, Paul Raushenbush, president of Interfaith Alliance, responded to Johnson’s election by reminding him he was elected to serve all American people, not just Republicans or Christians.
“As Speaker Johnson takes on the responsibility of leading the U.S. House of Representatives, he must remember that he was elected by the people, not by God as he appeared to be indicating in his speech in Congress today. I would remind the Speaker that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution, not the Bible.
“Our nation includes people of diverse religions and beliefs, a wonderful mix which is the result of the promise of religious freedom found in the First Amendment. Unfortunately, America is faced with a rising tide of Christian nationalism that threatens the very foundation of our democracy, and the civil rights of our people.
“The fear that many Americans share today is that the speaker’s worldview is ruled less by a commitment to the American people, but rather a desire to impose his narrow religious vision upon the rest of us. As a pastor and a citizen who loves this country, I am fine with the speaker turning to his personal faith to inspire him, but he must use his leadership position to protect freedom of religion and civil rights, as well as the separation of church and state that make our nation a home to all.”
Nathan Empsall
Likewise, Nathan Empsall, executive director of Faithful America, called out Johnson’s Christian nationalist track record and support for Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
“This is who Republicans just elected to be second-in-line to the presidency: an insurrection-supporting politician who will do anything to grab power, no matter who it hurts, simply to enforce his brand of right-wing Christianity on the rest of us. It is certainly good for Christians to run for office and to let Jesus guide us in everything we do, including holding the values of love, equality, dignity and justice in public life. But that is not the same thing as using secular law to force others to adhere to our religion in their private lives, nor is it the same as trying to punish those who are different from us by stripping away their freedoms and their right to vote.
“House Republicans can take God’s name in vain by slapping the words ‘Christian’ or ‘biblical values’ on these harmful, anti-democracy values if they want, but you can also call a goose a llama if you want, and it will still be a goose. The policies, behavior and values of Speaker Mike Johnson — just like those of Donald Trump, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz — are a distortion of the gospel and not the acts of love, peace and service to which Jesus calls us.”
Tony Perkins, head of the rightwing advocacy group Family Research Council, went on Newsmax to laud Johnson, his friend of 25 years.
“He comes to this not really seeking it. He stepped forward when there was no other option for people. He felt led to do this and he comes to it with a sense of confidence and peace and tranquility that was communicated in the speech,” Perkins said. “He is a very, very sharp guy and he’s going to be able to navigate that terrain — not to say that he’s not going to draw fire from the left and will — but it’s going to be hard for them to make it stick because of his style and his personality and the fact that he genuinely likes people.”
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