Mike Johnson conducted seminars promoting the US as a “Christian nation”.
Mike Johnson conducted seminars promoting the US as a “Christian nation”.
The new House speaker called for “Biblically-sanctioned government.”
Rep. Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican House speaker, used to conduct a seminar in churches premised on the idea that the United States is a “Christian nation.” This ministry, as he has referred to it, is yet more evidence that Johnson is committed to a hardcore Christian fundamentalism that shapes his views of politics and government.
The seminar, titled “Answers for Our Times: Government, Culture, and Christianity,” was organized by Onward Christian Education Services, Inc., a company owned by his wife, Kelly Johnson, a Christian counselor and anti-abortion activist who calls herself a “leader in the pro-family movement.” The website for her counseling service—which was taken down shortly after Johnson became speaker—described the seminar, which featured both her and Johnson, as exploring several questions, such as, “What is happening in America and how do we fix it?” The list includes this query: “Can our heritage as a Christian nation be preserved?” There were different versions of the seminar running from two-hour-long lectures to retreats lasting two days.
So much for the Constitution, eh, Mike? Can you point to any historical basis for the US being a "Christian nation" or nation of any religion?
Just like the Bible, the guys only cite the Constitution when it suits them, but ignore the rest.
Yep. Not one mention of their favorite character from "the" bible. If anything, the First Amendment DIRECTLY contradicts the so-called "first commandment".
Their favorite biblical character is likely Pontius Pilate.
The most they get is "endowed by their Creator" in the Declaration of Independence. One word in one document that isn't even an official part of our laws and doesn't refer to a specific "Creator." But they're ready to spin that into "this is really a Christian nation and anyone who isn't Christian or our flavor of Christianity isn't really a citizen!"
I find it really weird that they are now walking back all this stuff about his christofascism. When Johnson was asked about some of this directly, he claimed to not remember many of the things he wrote. And here, when they realized all the attention it was getting they took it down.
They're doing damage control over some of his core beliefs, which can never be good for someone who has a political job with a National profile.
I remember some of the magoos gnashing their teeth, crying, and almost literally tearing their garments over the early leak about the abortion decision. They were beside themselves - not just over the "leak" either, but about what they thought it would do to the party's chances.
I think many of them don't really want to show the naked fascist face of the party - just yet.
I'm already sick of seeing his punchable face in my feed.
It sure doesn't help that a weird little man with such weird ideas about my country has such a face...
FUCK THIS GUY AND FUCK THE GOP
Mike Johnson is...
- Part of the Regressive Religious Right with close ties to fundamentalist religious groups.
- Early on in his career he was a senior attorney and spokesman for the Alliance Defending Freedom, a Conservative christian legal advocacy group that wants to outlaw abortion and suppress the LGBTQ community. Alliance Defending Freedom is designated a hate group.
- Supports nation wide abortion ban, and an end to legal same sex marriage through the overturning of Obergefell v. Hodges
- Supports restrictions to medical marijuana and refers to it as a "gateway drug"
- Like Emmer, he supported and signed on to Texas v Pennsylvania in an effort to challenge the election results
- He voted to overturn those results in Pennsylvania.
- Supports an end to military aid to Ukraine.
- Johnson has remarked that his career is dedicated to "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."
- As a State Rep he sought to put forth legislation that protected people who discriminated against same sex marriage partners.
- He voted to repeal the ACA
- Proposed cuts to medicaid and social security
- Voted for Trump's tax cut legislation that disproportionately benefitted the wealthy.
- He was 1 out of 147 Republicans to vote to overturn the election results.
- Voted against a January 6 commission
- He reportedly does not even believe in climate change
- One of his committees wrote a statement in support of books on conversion therapy that were recently taken down from Amazon. (So basically a supporter of conversion therapy)
- He has opposed expanding medical marijuana access in his state and in his defense argued specifically that Marijuana can worsen some health conditions like epilepsy. (The context is important, his views on weed are outdated, he refers to weed as a "gateway drug". He went fishing for whatever he could find and take out of context to support his rigid stance. A study did find some adverse effects with epileptics, however, CBD/medical marijuana is also used in treatments for epilepsy)
- He voted in favor of Trump's Muslim ban.
- Has campaigned against LGBTQ rights and anti bullying legislation.
- He has supported similar legislation to Florida's "don't say gay" bill.
- Has referred to homosexuality as "unnatural" and a "dangerous lifestyle". He even argued in an editorial in his local Louisiana Newspaper that homosexuality would eventually lead to the destruction of "the entire Democratic system", and the legalization of pedophilia of course.
- While working for the ADF, he supported criminalizing homosexuality.
- He has argued in favor of including prayer and religious expression in public schools.
(not mine, but worth sharing and adding to)
Keep pasting this. Raise awareness. Too many people have no idea how backwards this guy is. If he gets hos way in even some of that stuff it's going to be really bad.
So, like, if being gay becomes illegal somehow, will they just round all us gay folks up and put us in jail? I wouldn't be opposed to going back into the closet if it would ensure my freedom.
One bullet-point is missing.
Can he eat a brick? I think he should.
That should instantly disqualify him for holding office.
Agreed. We need to start enforcing the separation of Church and State. A politician shouldn't be pushing policy based on some religious belief. Not everyone in the US is Christian, and then among those that do identify as such, you have a hundred branches of groups that didn't like something the trunk was doing and branched off to do their own thing. Basing any policy on something that sub group can't even agree upon seems insane.
Every time these people come out and say we need to do xyz because of some religious belief they have, that policy should be null and void on the spot and that person removed from office.
To paraphrase many others....those religious rules are for the believers in that religion, not for others. If I'm not in their little book club, I simply don't care what their "god" says, nor do I ever have to be concerned with it, ever. Only they have to listen to their "god". But there is no fun in that for those afflicted with the authoritarian mindset - they want to busybody others and be full-time Karens for everyone in the nation, if not the world.
The freedom of others to not only outright ignore their little bookclub's rules, but also to mock their beliefs is exactly what the Christopaths hate and loathe about this country, though, since it was founded as a secular one. If anyone were to doubt this is not a thing with them, one only need to point out the phenomenon known as "fatwa envy". I think if they are that unhappy about it, they should move somewhere more receptive to their regressive views about ruling over others in the name of their "god".
And this is the guy 1st in line to be president if anything happened to Biden and Harris…
Permanently Deleted
If there is a certain type of Merrikan that is truly insufferable, it's those that claim this is a xtian country.
This is the first instance of a country that was spelled out as a secular one, in writing. Not one reference to any god or gods, including their Yahweh/Allah/Jehovah. And for the dingleberries that want to hang their argument on the mechanism of dating used (anno domini) - LOL.
The closest America comes is in the Declaration of Independence:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
"Their Creator" is about as non-denominational as it gets. It's not like it's saying "endowed by Jesus God." It's more of a generic "men are born with these rights" statement than any statement of religion.
Yet the Christian Fundamentalists will point to that and say "See? That means God and clearly it refers to our God so that means it's a Christian country!"
Oh, and a big reason why the US is secular? We broke off from England where the king was the head of the Church. If you weren't part of the Church of England, you were persecuted against. The founding fathers were trying to avoid that in the US.
Yep, good points. Even though the Declaration holds no legal bearing, they will try to point to that (but ignore the Treaty of Tripoli, LOL). Though I think some of today's Christopaths would probably burn the Deist Founders as heretics if they had the chance.
Lastly, yes, the Founders were well aware of the worst impulses and excesses of religion that is given any power, given that the Inquisition was still going during their lifetimes. Given that many were Deists, surely they had to know that kind of heresy [1] would not be tolerated by the most fanatical of xtians.
[1] - Heresy literally means "choice". Kind of ironic that today's right wing that has co-opted terms like "liberty" and "freedom" are the very ones that would be America's own Morality Police, zealously trying to stamp out any and all heresy (choice) if they had the chance. Also, the same bunch constantly concern troll over things like "Shariah Law" - more irony, I guess, since they only differ on small matters of doctrine dealing with unverifiable superstitions, but don't really differ at all on the outcomes and the methods on who should be subjugated (women, LGBTQ, the "other" faiths).
imagine my surprise
Is this news supposed to be surprising?
Going off just the headline and not the dog whistling. We are. The nothing in particular group are just secret Atheists who grew up in religious households though lol. The agnostics are just cowards who don't want to commit.
Self-identified religious affiliation in the United States (2023)[1]
Protestantism (25%)
Catholicism (19%)
"Just Christian" (18%)
Nothing in particular (16%)
Agnostic (7%)
Atheist (7%)
Judaism (1%)
Buddhism (1%)
Hinduism (1%)
Mormonism (1%)
Islam (1%)
Other (2%)
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/religious-landscape-study/
Would you also say the US is a white country? See how that sounds?
He definitely means it in the sense of a country run by and for the benefit of Christians, not just a country where most of the people happen to be Christian. Quit trying to let him off the hook.
I just love how Lemmings are even better at making up imaginary arguments nobody mentioned just so they can be even more offended than Reddit ever was while completely ignoring any and all context lolcatnip.
I wouldn't class agnosticism as cowardly atheism, it's very much its own class.
Atheism is the disbelief of gods or enlightened creation.
Agnosticism is just a "we don't know" catch-all. There might be an Abrahamic god, with a heaven or hell that follows. There might be connected life and consciousness in the form of pantheism, where our consciousness dissipates and gets absorbed into the rest of existence. We might be living in a simulation, and wake up to a world with an entirely different set of rules and beliefs. Or maybe traditional atheism is right, this is our only existence, and we return to nothingness after death.
On a tangent, I'm weirded out by staunch atheists in the same way I'm weirded out by organized religion. We're living subjective experiences of reality fed to us by electrified sacs of meat in our head, and even that could just be the truth on paper given to us by a simulation. We don't know what we don't know. We don't remember what it was like before birth, but a nasty blow to the head could make it so we don't remember what it was like yesterday. Observable and measurable fact is all we have, and anyone who claims to know what's behind it or between the lines, or for that matter what isn't there, is just elaborating on their own worldview, not empirical evidence.
I mean, technically there is no such thing as empirical evidence since we only know about it through our senses.
That being said, I personally find it far more interesting and amazing to assume that the universe is as we observe it. The idea that all the complexity we see results only from interactions between a small handful of different types of tiny wave-particle things is oddly inspiring to me.
Yeah, something like ~30% are unaffiliated or outright unbelievers. I look forward to the day when the sum total of xtians is under 50% and all the pandering to xtians can finally just stop. So sick of it. They are welcome to have their faith and practice it in their house or place of worship, but I'm sick of pols that wear it on their sleeves, or worse, assume it is the government's role to create more xtians.
I would say the same thing if Buddhists were >50% and all the pandering was just nonstop to them. We'll all be better off if no group has a majority and no pol feels compelled to cater to them.
By the way, it's interesting that "just Christian", Catholicism, Protestantism, and "Mormonism" are broken out differently - they are all xtians. I mean Protestants have many sub-sects within them, and hardly agree on all the finer points of doctrine.
I remember my mind being blown the first time that I learned China was a largely Atheist country. They have tons of their own issues but even in our media we presume every other nation must be largely god-driven with religious dogma often being one of their defining characteristics.
Chinese? Must be buddhist! India? Must be Taoist! Japanese? Better have them praying at a shrine with secret christians in the mix.
I also can't wait. Honestly a lot of the 'Just Christians' I've met are just secret atheists who don't want to upset family too. Or those who managed to brainwash themselves so they don't have to be so scared of oblivion lol. The one part about religion I'm envious of.