Speaker Mike Johnson Quotes

The tentacles of the Southern Baptist Convention reach long. Its influence pervades not only all of evangelicalism but also school boards, city councils, and state houses across the country. As I was finalizing this manuscript, the US House of Representatives elected a Southern Baptist as speaker. Mike Johnson, widely described as an election denier and Christian nationalist, is now second in line to the presidency. So, no one should underestimate the impact of this faith group’s theologies and ideologies.

People are curious, what does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?’ I said, ‘Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it.’ That’s my worldview, that’s what I believe.”5 Does Speaker Johnson really believe this? Even where it explicitly endorses chattel slavery? Even where it treats rape of a woman as a property crime against whatever man has rights over the victim’s body? Even where it acknowledges that the God of Israel demands child sacrifice? Even where it insists women aren’t allowed to teach and are supposed to just shut up because they were the ones who got duped by the talking snake? What about where it endorses communalism? What about where it says a man should gouge out his eye if that eye causes him to lust after a woman? What about where it says the most pious people will castrate themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? Isn’t that what the Bible says?