Mike Johnson’s Ties to Christian Nationalism Revealed

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson has been accused of having strong ties to Christian nationalism, a movement that believes the U.S. is a solely Christian nation and that its laws and government should be focused on the religion’s values.

Republicans ended their long and chaotic attempt to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy as Speaker on Wednesday after Johnson got the 217 majority votes needed on the House floor with 220 GOP lawmakers voting for the Louisiana congressman to get the gavel.

In his first speech as House Speaker, Johnson said that there are “no coincidences” and he got elected as the Bible teaches God “raises up those in authority.” Johnson said that God has “allowed and ordained each and every one of us to be here at this specific moment.”

While Johnson has made no secret about his evangelical beliefs during his six years as a congressman, his previous comments which appeared to echo those of a supporter of Christian nationalism have raised concerns now he has been elected to a position that is second in line to the presidency behind the vice president.

In an opinion piece for MSNBC, columnist Sarah Posner described Johnson as the “most unabashedly Christian nationalist Speaker” in history while noting the Republican previously worked as an attorney for the [Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly Alliance Defense Fund or ADF], a Christian advocacy group Posner described as having ambitions to “eviscerate the separation of church and state.”

The ADF has been termed a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which states it has called for the re-criminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S.

Johnson has expressed anti-LGBTQ views during his time working for ADF, including describing homosexuality as “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” in a 2004 editorial for The Shreveport Times, CNN reported.Johnson wrote that gay marriage in the U.S. would ultimately lead to similar rights being offered to pedophiles.

In a 2005 opinion piece, Johnson wrote: “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”

Ahead of getting elected speaker, Andrew L. Seidel, a constitutional attorney and author of the book The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American, posted on X (formerly Twitter): “Reminder that Mike Johnson is a virulent Christian Nationalist who pushed all kinds of hateful anti-LGBTQ bigotry while at ADF, a Christian Nationalist legal outfit that wants to drag this country back to the 5th century.”

In another post sharing a Politico article describing Johnson as the “social conservative’s social conservative,” Seidel wrote: “‘Social conservative’ is a self-destructive euphemism. There are more accurate terms like ‘Christian Nationalist,’ ‘extremist,’ ‘anti-democracy election denier,’ and ‘authoritarian.’

Johnson has been contacted for comment via email.

Elsewhere, videos have emerged online which show Johnson appearing to dismiss that there needs to be a separation of church and state in the U.S.

In a 2016 interview, Johnson said: “What’s happened over the last 60, 70 years is that our generation has been convinced that there’s a separation of church and state, we hear that term all the time, and most people think that that’s part of the constitution, but it’s not.”

In the same interview, Johnson said: “We don’t live in a democracy because democracy is two wolves and a lamb deciding what’s for dinner.”

“It’s not just majority rule,” he said. “It’s a constitutional republic. And the founders set that up because they followed the biblical admonition on what a civil society is supposed to look like.”

Speaking on a 2022 podcast, Johnson suggested his own interpretation of what the need to separate the church and state entails.

“The founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around,” Johnson said.

Democrats also look set to use Johnson’s anti-abortion views as a wedge issue against the GOP in future elections now he has been elected Speaker.

“Mike Johnson is currently the cosponsor of at least three bills that would ban abortion nationwide,” the campaign team for President Joe Biden posted on X on Wednesday morning ahead of the House Speaker vote.

Speaking during his first run for congress in 2016, Johnson told the Louisiana Baptist Message: “I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a life-long conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order. And I think that order is important.”

Johnson said it was his faith that pushed him to run for office.

“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,” Johnson said.