Mike Johnson Is Misleading You
“We may safely affirm (though contradicted by all the judges and writers on Earth) that Christianity neither is, nor ever was, a part of the common law.”
Thomas Jefferson, February 10, 1814
It’s handed down as common knowledge. It’s stated as if fact by politicians and talking heads. Every school-aged child learns this “fact”: the United States was founded as a Christian nation.
Except it’s just not true.
The founding fathers were pretty clear about this.
For example, John Adams, in making the case against monarchy and for democracy, wrote:
“Let the pulpit resound with the doctrine and sentiments of religious liberty. Let us hear of the dignity of man’s nature, and the noble rank he holds among the works of God. . . . Let it be known that British liberties are not the grants of princes and parliaments.”
Here, Adams is arguing that the “divine right of kings” does not exist. And, consequently, that it cannot be the basis for government. In short, Adams states that we should be free of religion and that God should not determine our rulers — or our rules.
Adams goes further in writing:
“We should begin by setting conscience free. When all men of all religions . . . shall enjoy equal liberty, property, and an equal chance for honors and power . . . we may expect that improvements will be made in the human character and the state of society.”
Thomas Jefferson, making similar claims about the relevance of God and government, wrote:
“It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God.”
In other words, Jefferson is stating that any citizen can have any religious belief they might choose. If any citizen can have any belief about the gods — even that they do not exist — then he certainly cannot be advocating for a Christian nation. In his mind, any and all religions are equals.
And from one more Founder, James Madison wrote:
“Congress should not establish a religion, and enforce the legal observation of it by law, nor compel men to worship God in any Manner contrary to their conscience.”
So, the Founders seemed pretty clear that they were rooted in Enlightenment rationalist thinking. They were equally clear that they did not favor a national religion, nor governmental control over any citizen’s religious practice, no matter what it was.
Indeed, a great many scholars have looked at this question, and they conclude that the US was NOT founded as a Christian nation.
For example, Steven Green, author of Inventing a Christian America, writes that the Founding Fathers did NOT rely upon Protestant Christian principles in order to write the basic documents of the new nation. Instead, the Founders relied on Enlightenment and republican (small “r”) notions to create the US.
Kevin Kruse, author of One Nation under God, similarly argues that the Founders did NOT intend a “Christian nation.” In fact, they seldom mention the Creator, and that was by design. Because the Founders were concerned that a national religion would corrupt the state, they explicitly disallowed any religious test for office holders (which is now under threat), and they stated that Congress cannot interfere a citizen’s free exercise of faith.
Many experts agree that the Founding Fathers, in particular the ones who had a hand in writing the Constitution, were “theistic rationalists.” As noted above, Enlightenment thinking and rationality were incredibly important to the Founders. As such, they sought to keep religion out of government. Green argues that the idea that the US is a “Christian nation” emerged only in the 19th century as Americans sought to establish a national identity.
And yet, this week (November 2023), the (relatively) newly elected Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson (R), said in an interview that the “separation of church and state” is a “misnomer.”
“People misunderstand it. Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the Constitution. And what he was explaining is they did not want the government to encroach upon the church — not that they didn’t want principles of faith to have influence on our public life. It’s exactly the opposite.”
Johnson seems to be relying on the fact that the phrase “separation of church and state” itself does not appear in the Constitution. Fair enough. And, yet, as we have seen (and I could have added many more examples), the Founders were explicit in the idea that church and state should be separate. Johnson goes on to say that we generally get the phrase backward. He argues that the Founders did not want to keep religion out of government, but rather, they wanted to keep government out of religion. Given everything was have already seen, they probably did believe the latter. However, they were also explicit that they believed the former, as well.
They argued explicitly that no one person can enforce another person’s beliefs. They stated that the government cannot, and should not, enforce a citizen’s beliefs. Further, they were explicit that religion within government would “corrupt” it. That certainly seems as though they wanted religion out of government.
In the wake of this interview, we have come to learn that Mike Johnson is aligned with the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR). The NAR envisions itself as a fifth branch of Christianity (alongside Catholicism, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, and Eastern Orthodoxy) The mission of the NAR is to “colonize” the US such that Christians will control the government, the media, education, entertainment, business, and so on.
In fact, Al Jazeera has called the NAR “America’s Own Taliban.”
No, Mike Johnson is being less than forthright, at best, and outright lying, at worst. Contrary to the designs of the Founders, Mike Johnson and the NAR want a national religion (Christianity), and they want to dictate what others see, read, and believe.
Right now, that pesky “separation of church and state” is standing in their way.
Let’s keep it that way.
Ritch Calvin is an Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at SUNY Stony Brook. He is the author of Queering SF: Readings, Feminist Epistemology and Feminist Science Fiction (Palgrave McMillan) and edited a collection of essays on Gilmore Girls (McFarland). His most recent book is Queering SF: Readings (Aqueduct Press).
