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 Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t hide his religion or his belief in the primacy of his Christian beliefs. Quite the contrary. Here’s what he told Sean Hannity Thursday on Fox News: “Someone asked me today in the media, ‘People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview. That’s what I believe.’” This came the day after he used his precious first remarks as speaker to tell the House and the country that he believes God has ordained him. “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority…I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.’” (He also introduced his “dedicated wife of 25 years” to the nation—and her absence at his acceptance speech—like this: “She's spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord. And, um, she's a little worn out.”) In this speech, he highlighted British writer and Christian apologist G.K. Chesterton who, Johnson said, asserted that America is “the only nation in the world founded upon a creed,” which is “listed with almost theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.” That is, “we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”—“created,” Johnson emphasized, not born. He also noted that the motto, “In God We Trust,” added to the Capitol’s rotunda in 1962, was meant as a rebuke to the Soviet Union, Marxism and communism, “which begins with the premise that there is no God.” Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez, who studies evangelical Christianity and politics, told Politico this week, “Christian supremacy and a particular type of conservative Christianity is at the heart of Johnson’s understanding of the Constitution and an understanding of our government.” Johnson calls himself a “bible-believing Christian.” He has been called a Christian nationalist, convinced of the centrality of his faith in the founding of America, which he believes is under attack. In the podcast he produces with his wife, Kelly, he said, “What we found was often the Christian viewpoint is not given equal treatment and equal platform and equal chance. Very often religious viewpoints, specifically Christian viewpoints, are censored and silenced.” In his rejection of abortion and homosexuality in a 2006 article, Johnson criticized “the earnest advocates of atheism and sexual perversion,” adding, “This sprawling alliance of anti-God enthusiasts has proven frighteningly efficient at remaking America in their own brutal, dehumanizing image.” Surely, then, when asked about the mass shooting in Maine, this would be a chance for him to speak out against the most sacred commandment—Thou shalt not kill—and use his new divinely ordained power to speak to the need to address the availability of weapons that make murder possible on a quick and massive scale. Right? Nope. “The problem is the human heart,” he told Hannity. “It’s not guns. It’s not the weapons. At the end of the day we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves and that’s the Second Amendment…This is not the time to talk about legislation.” Mike Johnson is now second in line to the presidency. I worry that he puts his religion to the forefront of his efforts to remake government and America. This is a man who, benefiting from a courtly demeanor, rejects a clear separation of church and state. What do you think? What do you hear when the new House speaker says he’s ordained by God? What does it portend for his leadership and the road ahead? |
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