ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Tuesday, October 31, 2023

Speaker Johnson Explains Biblical Teaching On Border Walls

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Rep. Mike Johnson was sitting in the chairman’s seat in the House Judiciary Committee last April before he was elected to be Speaker of the House when an interesting debate broke out over the biblical duty toward illegal immigrants.

Rep. David N. Cicilline, a Rhode Island Democrat who is Jewish, accused Republicans, particularly evangelical Republicans, of ducking God’s admonition found in Leviticus to welcome the foreigner and love him “as yourself.”

Johnson's response is even more relevant today than it was last April.

Be informed, not misled.

The Media's Mystery Man

Johnson is a Louisiana Republican, evangelical Christian,  and a member of a Southern Baptist Church. He figured it was time to set his colleague straight. Leviticus’ charge, he said, is a personal challenge to people, not a blueprint for writing a government’s laws.

“You have to see to whom the order is given. That order is not given to civil authorities and the government. That order is given to individuals,” he said. “We do reach out to the sojourner, but it is not the job of the federal government to do it.”

For good measure, he said the Bible “speaks favorably” about borders and walls, including Nehemiah, who rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem.

“We don’t build walls because we hate the people on the outside. We build walls because we love the people on the inside,” Mr. Johnson said.

The Washington Times says this:

"It was a striking example of faith in action. Mr. Johnson repeated it on Wednesday when he took the oath of office to become speaker of the U.S. House."

His 17-minute speech was laced with references to his faith, including a sense of heavenly ordained destiny.

“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear, that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us,” the newly minted speaker told colleagues. “I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time. This is my belief.”

That kind of faith in action would be familiar to many people in middle America, but it shocked the Washington establishment, where the dissolution of religion in public life is taken as an inevitable goal and forthright pronunciations of God’s will at work make people uneasy. News media struggled to understand this odd specimen.

The Los Angeles Times published this: 

He’s been showing who he is since 1998, when he graduated from law school, and started going after the LGBTQ+ community every chance he could. And I’m not just talking about trying to stop same-sex marriage, because let’s face it, many progressives were against it back then as well. But Johnson was extreme by comparison — advocating for laws that banned two adults from having consensual sex in their own home.

So, to anyone who considers themselves an ally of the LGBTQ+ community, know this: Same-sex marriage and other protections are not safe.

Johnson (R-La.) has made attacking the queer community a huge part of his life’s work. We don’t yet know his style as a leader in the House, but we know exactly where he intends to go.

People Magazine was so stricken by Johnson and his wife's "Covenant Marriage" that they broke away from the Hollywood beat and wrote about it.

Johnson and Kelly have publicly spoken about their covenant marriage, a stricter type of marriage that prevents couples from divorcing until at least two years after their wedding and only under certain circumstances. Covenant marriages are also only legal in three states, including Louisiana.

"People" had this to say about the Johnsons:

During a 2001 interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America, the Johnsons elaborated on their decision, with Kelly saying, “From a woman’s perspective, I’ve been in some bad relationships before, and I just knew that when I met the man that I was supposed to marry, I wanted to know it was for a lifetime. ... It gives me such peace and security.”

While speaking to ABC in 2005, Johnson shared that part of his reasoning for wanting a covenant marriage was inspired by his own struggle with his parents’ divorce.

"My wife and I both come from traditional Christian households," Johnson told the outlet. "My own parents are divorced. As anyone who goes through that knows, that was a traumatic thing for our whole family. I'm a big proponent of marriage and fidelity and all the things that go with it, and I've seen firsthand the devastation [divorce] can cause."

Kelly agreed, adding that Johnson's willingness to enter a covenant marriage showed her that he “wants it to be forever.”

MSNBC, of course, has set its course to attempt to destroy Speaker Johnson;

Sinful. Destructive. Morally wrong. Physically dangerous. Inherently unnatural. Deviant. Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson has spared no invective in describing the LGBTQ community. He’s gone as far as saying same-sex marriage will destroy “the entire democratic system.” His legislative record points to an obsession with gay sex.

As speaker, Johnson will have to work with the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House to govern. Yet on LGBTQ rights, he’s shown no willingness to compromise. The bipartisan Respect for Marriage Act passed last year with 39 Republicans and all of the Democrats in the House voting in favor. The law balances protections for same-sex and interracial marriages with religious liberty concerns. But that type of bipartisan compromise didn’t move Johnson, who has said same-sex marriage will lead us down the road to acceptance of pedophilia and marrying animals.

Ironically, there is a current effort to legalize pedophilia as we speak.

His 17-minute speech was laced with references to his faith, including a sense of heavenly ordained destiny.

“I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear, that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us,” the newly minted speaker told colleagues. “I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment and this time. This is my belief.”

That kind of faith in action would be familiar to many people in America, but it shocked the Washington establishment, where the dissolution of religion in public life is taken as an inevitable goal and the mention of God’s will at work makes the Left very uneasy. 

Nicole Carr, executive director at the American Humanist Association, said the new speaker’s remarks showed “that he will place his biblical beliefs above his obligations to act on behalf of all Americans.”

News media struggled to understand this man. Because they don't understand his worldview---or strongly disagree with it---they are now turning on him seeking to destroy his political career.

The Associated Press published this:

MIRACLE? After taking the oath of office on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson laced a 17-minute speech with references to Scripture, including a sense of heavenly ordained destiny. The Washington establishment and news media weren’t sure what to make of his religious faith.

Other outlets have pored over the speaker’s opposition to abortion and gay rights advances or pointed to his work at the Alliance Defense Fund, now known as the Alliance Defending Freedom, which battles in the courts for pro-religious and socially conservative wins. The Washington Post said Mr. Johnson is determined to “shrink the separation between church and state.”

He's not a mystery to 60 million believers.

Rick Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and Republican presidential candidate who is no stranger to displaying his faith in his public career, said Mr. Johnson is as authentic as they get, and that showed through in his acceptance speech. “I thought it was refreshing,” Mr. Santorum told The Washington Times. “It was beautifully honest. There was no pretext, there was no manipulation. It was just an honest, authentic man who presented himself as plainly as he could and laid out what his objectives are.”

Santorum said Mr. Johnson isn’t seeking to impose his religious beliefs on anyone but it’s perfectly right that his political beliefs flow from his views on morality. That, he said, is no different from someone on the political left whose beliefs flow from a “point of view that’s not biblical and may be out of some professor’s textbook that you’ve never heard of."

Yes AP, it's a Miracle. 

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, fired off an email to supporters saying that as the speaker election fiasco played out over the weeks, he had organized a prayer pledge that he delivered to House Republicans through Mr. Johnson, then a junior member of the party’s House leadership.

Mr. Johnson’s ascension to the rostrum was “a remarkable display of God’s grace and power,” Mr. Perkins said.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.