Preacher Mike Johnson
There shall be no wall between the state and (my) church
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made news again by claiming the idea of a wall between religion and state in America is a “misnomer.” Johnson blamed Thomas Jefferson for the misnomer, stating that there is no Constitutional injunction separating church and state.
Of course, by “church,” Speaker Johnson means his church, a Christian one that is evangelical and nationalist. He didn’t mention freedom of religion in America, or Muslims or Hindus or atheists or Wiccans. Johnson, who’s said that the Christian Bible is his operating manual and his belief system, has only one church in mind.
Johnson sees himself as a Christian preacher. He should resign his position, take up the Bible and cross, and preach. Because he totally misunderstands the intent of the founders.
From its earliest days, the colonies were a haven for Christian dissenters, meaning those who didn’t kowtow to the establishment Church of England, which indeed was and is a state church. Among the founders were deists like Thomas Jefferson and non-theists like Thomas Paine. Not surprisingly in the “rational” Age of Enlightenment, America was founded on the notion of freedom of belief and tolerance of others and their beliefs, however imperfectly that tolerance was often practiced. (Few Americans, even today, for example, cop to being atheists, especially if they’re in politics.)
The colonists recognized that the conjunction of state power with organized religion corrupted both. They knew history, including their own, hence that “wall” that Thomas Jefferson spoke of. That wall wasn’t anti-church or anti-religion. It was erected to protect religion and personal beliefs from being tainted by state interests and power.
Preacher Mike Johnson wants to tear down that wall—as long as the state embraces and advances his version of Christianity and not any other version, or for that matter any other religion.
It’s a sign of the times that when America most needs talented and skilled leaders, it gets instead a self-admitted Christian zealot who takes his guidance from his particular reading of the Bible.
Can someone please tell Mike Johnson he’s Speaker, not Preacher, of the House?
"O tempora! O mores!" Had I known I would live to see such times I might well have put even more energy into my gloriously misspent youth.
I eagerly admit I am a devout atheist, and wish all other critical thinking atheists would do the same. Religion acts to divide people, and the sooner people treat religion as a human cultural manifestation rather than a form of tribal affirmation, the better off the human population will be.