Priest Warns About House Speaker Johnson's Comments, "Red Flag"

Jesuit Catholic priest, author, and consultant to the Vatican Father James Martin responded to House Speaker Johnson’s remarks after one of his recent speeches started circulating online.

Speaker Johnon’s “Moses” moment

Johnson addressed the National Association of Christian Lawmakers at the group’s award gala in December. That night, he received NACL’s “American Patriot Award for Christian Honor and Courage.”

NACL’s story

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NACL was founded in 2019. Its founder and president is State Senator Jason Rapert of Arkansas, who served between 2011 and 2022. The goal of the gala, based on the event’s ads, was to “abolish abortion, bring back “traditional marriage between one man and one woman,” and “expose the ungodly effort to undermine our culture by Leftists.”

Johnson shared his story

The House Speaker, a Republican from Louisiana and a divisive figure due to his, some would say, extreme religious beliefs, shared, “The Lord impressed upon my heart a few weeks before this happened that something was going to occur.” He continued, “And the Lord very specifically told me in my prayers to prepare, but to wait. ‘Prepare for what?’ I said to the Lord.”

Johnson spoke about his House Speaker role

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He continued, “You know, I had this sense that we were going to come to a Red Sea moment in our Republican conference and the country at large,” adding, “You know, the Lord speaks to your heart. And He had been speaking to me about this, and the Lord told me very clearly to prepare and be ready.”

House Speaker went on

Johnson further shared, “At the end, when it came to the end, the Lord said, ‘Now step forward.’ ‘Me? I’m supposed to be Aaron.’ Now the Lord said, ‘Step forward.’ Psalm 77 speaks of the Exodus in the 14th chapter of Exodus, and it says, ‘Only God saw the path through the roiling sea, we could not see it, men could not see it.’”

What triggered the priest

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Johnson’s speech continued, but Father James Martin paid particular attention to the last part, writing on X, “A good spiritual director will tell you that insights you feel are coming from God, which are usually subtle, must be carefully tested and weighed.”

“Red flag”

Republicans against Trump posted Johnson’s speech with the caption, “Speaker Mike Johnson says that the Lord told him “very clearly” to prepare to become a ‘Moses’ who will lead the nation through a ‘Red Sea moment.'” Father Martin warned, “One red flag for spiritual directors is, Then God said this.’ Not everything that pops into your head during prayer is from God.”

Martin has no further comments about Johnson

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Newsweek contacted Father James Martin, SJ, editor at large at America magazine, after his X post. He simply stated, “I would rather not comment on him as a person. I’m sure he is a person of faith. This was more an observation about spiritual practices and dos and don’ts.”

Johnson’s other controversies

Dishonest businessman telling lies, lying businessperson holding fingers crossed behind his back. Lie — Illustration. Image credit: Depositphotos

In January, Johnson was one of the speakers at the National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the group as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group. SPC explains, “In advancing the cause of ‘religious freedom,’ which they understand as the freedom to discriminate against anyone they find morally inferior, FRC has established itself as a ‘network of churches,’ which limits public scrutiny of its political activity.”

Johnson’s views on science

A Louisiana legislator arrived in D.C. around a decade ago. He was associated with “young Earth creationism, ” which claims the Earth is approximately 6000 years old and that people lived with dinosaurs. But, one of the most frightening aspects of Johnson’s beliefs was connecting school shootings with evolution.

The big question

According to Meidas Touch, during a 2016 sermon, Johnson stated that a “series of cultural shifts” in the United States, led by “elites” and “academics” in the 30s who were engaging with the theories of Charles Darwin, destroyed the influence of Christian creationism from society.

And shocking answer

Johnson also blamed the 60s and the 70s for “no-fault divorce laws” and “legalized abortion.” Then he declared, “And people say, ‘How can a young person go into their schoolhouse and open fire on their classmates?’”

Johnson explained, “We’ve taught a whole generation, a couple of generations now of Americans, that there’s no right or wrong, that it’s about the survival of the fittest, and you evolve from the primordial slime. Why is that life of any sacred value? Because there’s nobody sacred to whom it’s owed. None of this should surprise us.”