House Speaker Mike Johnson made headlines on Monday when his podcast and church sermon website suddenly disappeared. Despite this, traces of his lectures can still be found online, including a three-hour sermon organized by his wife’s ministry that criticizes the newly elected’s Christian fundamentalism.
The contents of Johnson’s evangelical musings, which he seemingly wants to hide, shed light on the little-known congressman, revealing that he does not truly believe in democracy. In a sermon at the First Baptist Church of Haughton, Louisiana in 2019, Johnson stated, “By the way, the United States is not a democracy. Do you know what a democracy is? Two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner. You don’t want to be in a democracy. Majority rule: not always a good thing.”
Furthermore, Johnson has attacked the concept of social services, arguing that the church, not the government, should be the sole provider of care. He shared his disappointment during a discussion about the Catholic Church in South America, stating, “…the Catholic Church used to provide soup kitchens and orphanages and do all this stuff and it doesn’t do it anymore and now they’re just willfully, everybody’s willfully, having the civil government take all these responsibilities over. And it’s just a sad development because that’s not how it’s supposed to work.”
Johnson’s comments on the “immigration crisis” also raise eyebrows. He attributes the issue to refugees’ failure to “assimilate” to the “rule of law” and overlooks the complex and costly process of becoming a U.S. citizen. Ultimately, Johnson places the blame on the refugees’ lack of Christian faith, stating, “The reason that illegal immigration is such a crisis, such a problem is because you have a lot of God-fearing folks and rule-abiding people who are following the law…That’s our origin. But at some point, if the rule of law is eviscerated in that process, the whole system topples. And we’re dangerously close to that right now, because why? We ain’t following the Bible’s rules on this.”
Despite the controversy surrounding Johnson’s views, he was elected as House Speaker by a unanimous vote from House Republicans on Wednesday. This decision came after 22 days of congressional chaos and failed attempts to elect more prominent party members, including Representative Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who were unable to unify the party.
