Since being chosen as the new speaker of the House, Rep Mike Johnson’s extreme religious views have sparked widespread criticism. Johnson and his allies have now tried to defend these views not by explaining them or claiming they’ve been exaggerated but by falsely portraying them as undeniable, widely accepted truths.
The background
In early October, a small group of Republicans in the House ousted former Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his role. That kicked off weeks of bitter fighting over who to replace him.
The fourth choice
House Republicans eventually settled on their fourth choice, Rep. Mike Johnson from Louisiana. Since his ascension to the powerful post, which puts him second in line to the presidency, Johnson has come under intense scrutiny for his extreme views.
Johnson’s alleged bigotry
Johnson has a lengthy history of advocating and fighting against rights for LGBTQ+ Americans. He opposes marriage equality and has even “called homosexuality an ‘inherently natural’ and ‘dangerous lifestyle’ that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy ‘the entire democratic system,’” according to a report from CNN.
More reported bigotry
Of particular worry to many Americans is Johnson’s long fight against women’s reproductive rights. He previously argued that abortion deprived the economy of “able-bodied workers,” a statement that drew widespread comparisons to the dystopic novel The Handmaid’s Tale, in which fertile women are forced to birth children for the ruling class.
Election denial
Johnson was also a leading figure in the attempt to overturn the 2020 election, in which Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump. Trump personally asked Rep. Johnson to get his Republican colleagues to sign onto an amicus brief challenging the election results, and the representative managed to convince more than 100 Republicans to sign on.
Religious extremist
Central to all of Johnson’s reported extreme views and actions are his religious beliefs. Johnson has been open about the fact that the Bible guides his worldview.
Bible before anything
In fact, Johnson believes in a literal reading of the Bible. That means he thinks the Garden of Eden was real, that everyone is descended from Adam and Eve, and that the planet is just 6,000 years old.
Bible as history
Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, is that Johnson previously supported teaching the Bible in public schools as literal history. Doing so would violate the First Amendment, preventing the government from promoting any religion.
Church and state
The separation of church and state is one of the founding principles of the US. Johnson, however, isn’t a fan. Mary Margaret Olohan, who interviewed Johnson on the Daily Signal this week, said that “like many Americans of faith, Johnson sees government as a ‘design of God’ and ‘a gift to mankind in a fallen society.’”
Johnson’s argument
“It’s a central premise of the Bible that God invented civil government,” Johnson told Olohan. The new speaker believes that he and his colleagues were chosen and given their authority by God.
The defense
These views are extreme. “Most Christians wouldn’t say that [God inventing civil government] is a ‘central premise’ of the Bible,” explained Julie Ingersoll, a religious studies professor. “Johnson’s focus on authority, as well as the way he distinguishes ‘civil government’ from other forms of government, tracks with the language of Christian reconstructionism.”
Christian reconstructionism
While the religious right today has distanced itself from Christian reconstructionism, a movement founded in the 1970s by controversial extremist R.J. Rushdoony, it retains its insistence that a “biblical worldview” should inform governance. In fact, they deny the authority of civil government to create laws they believe conflict with the teaching of the Bible.
Immutable truths
Johnson and his supporters have not attempted to downplay their extreme views. Instead, they have doubled down, arguing that critics are merely “folks who don’t have any reference to what the Bible teaches.”
Fellows in extremism
Those are the words of David Closson, the director of the Family Research Council’s Center for Biblical Worldview. He dismissed critics of Johnson’s extremism as biblical illiterates who are “trying to scare millions of Americans when so many of us would just be saying ‘Amen.’”
Resistance
Despite the claims of Johnson, Closson, and other extremists, the vast majority of Americans do not believe in their supposedly immutable truths, which include regressive gender roles, creationism, or the necessity of involving a particular interpretation of the Bible in every aspect of civil government.
The implications
The response of Johnson and his allies to valid criticisms of their extreme views is telling. First, they serve to bolster the religious right’s conviction that their so-called “biblical worldview” is the only valid interpretation of the Bible and government. Second, they aim to scare reporters away from scrutinization.
Hope for efforts to “backfire”
Johnson and his allies hope to cast critics of their extreme views as people ignorant of Christian beliefs. “We can only hope,” wrote Sarah Posner, that “their efforts will backfire.”
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