Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson is an outspoken biblical Christian so it’s no surprise that he mentioned his faith shortly after his Republican colleagues elected him to lead the lower chamber.
“I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear. That God is the one that raises up those in authority,” Johnson said during his inaugural speech as speaker. “He raised up each of you. All of us. And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific time.”
Because of his belief that God plays a divine role in the things that happen on Earth and because he has a track record of living according to the Bible, Johnson was smeared by corporate media and Democrats as a “Christian nationalist,” “extreme Christian fundamentalist,” and a “Folksy Champion of Christian Right.”
“Mike Johnson is America’s most blatantly Christian nationalist House speaker,” MSNBC complained.
Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin’s pinned post on X accused Johnson of attempting to usher in “theocracy” because he believes unborn babies deserve a chance at life, marriage is between a man and a woman, Americans have a Second Amendment right to defend themselves, and the 2020 election was marred with irregularities.
Raskin repeated the accusation on prime-time TV later the same day.
“If he’s not for democracy, what’s he for? He’s for theocracy,” Raskin told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes. “He’s a nice guy, but nobody should be fooled by it.”
The New York Times’ Catie Edmonson claimed Johnson secured the speakership because he was “an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election and a religious conservative opposed to abortion rights, homosexuality and gay marriage.”
HuffPost complained that Johnson has a “Long History With The Religious Right” including working for the Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom for years before he was elected to Congress. Their primary concern with Johnson’s link to ADF was that the organization was “designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” which has a long track record of baselessly tarnishing Christian and conservative organizations.
“Come for the Noah’s Ark theme park, stay for the relentless efforts to strip women’s and LGBTQ+ rights,” the article’s subheading declared.
Newsweek similarly warned that Johnson’s “Ties to Christian Nationalism,” which the outlet defined as his “evangelical beliefs,” tenure at ADF, and Christian commentary, “have raised concerns now he has been elected to a position that is second in line to the presidency behind the vice president.”
The political left’s criticisms of Johnson are a reminder that their attacks on public displays of faith and religion are far from consistent.
President Joe Biden repeatedly invokes scriptures, hymns, and other religious quotes in his speeches. He even ran campaign advertisements boasting about his faith and the Psalm 30:5 passage that “carried him through dark times.”
Biden repeated these words during his inaugural address yet there has never been any outcry or worry that the Christian agenda might infect his leadership. Instead, the “very Catholic” Biden is praised by the press despite the fact that he “openly flouts church teaching and doctrine on major issues.”
Similarly, when Gavin Newsom emblazoned Jesus’ Mark 12:31 commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” on billboards all across the nation in an attempt to twist the verse in favor of radical abortion activism, corporate media uttered not a word of protest. Instead, most outlets chose to uncritically amplify Newsom’s cause.
When Democrats manipulate scripture to secure political wins, their allies in the leftist media do not care. When Christian conservatives like Johnson cite their faith, however, they are immediate candidates for the left’s “Christian nationalist” lies and fearmongering.
Blue politicians and their allies in the press put more effort into being outraged over Johnson’s speech than they did into condemning Democrats’ disingenuous bible-thumping because Johnson’s commitment to keep God’s commandments and follow the principles outlined in the Bible poses a direct threat to their increasingly pagan political agenda.