Mike Johnson dismisses 'Christian nationalism' as label to silence Christians: 'Wildly inappropriate'

Michie said:

WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., dismissed the term "Christian nationalism" on Sunday as a pejorative intended to silence Christians in the public square.

Speaking with Fox News anchor Shannon Bream during an interview ahead of the Rededicate 250: A National Jubilee of Prayer, Praise & Thanksgiving event on the National Mall, Johnson was asked to respond to criticism from Americans United for Separation of Church and State President Rachel Laser, who on Saturday denounced the all-day prayer festival as "a Christian Nationalist crusade to impose one narrow version of Christianity on all Americans."

Johnson, a Southern Baptist, dismissed Laser's comment and those who would agree with it, noting that Rededicate 250 was intended as "a recognition of the deeply embedded history and the religious and moral tradition of the country."

"This is an appropriate thing for us to do on the 250th anniversary. The people who are upset about it oppose that. They want to erase the history of America and pretend as if we're not a nation that was dedicated originally to God," he continued, adding that the national motto "In God We Trust" is inscribed above his dais in the House chamber.

Continued below.

Mike Johnson dismisses 'Christian nationalism' as label to silence Christians: 'Wildly inappropriate'

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La , dismissed the term Christian nationalism as a pejorative intended to silence Christians in the public square

www.christianpost.com

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Mike Johnson is correct.

Having these Christian affirmation events does not violate the conscience of anyone.

We live in a "In God we Trust" nation where "God" was a term understood by the founders to refer to the God of the Bible.

If we pass laws saying "it is illegal to choose to be an atheist" or "it is illegal to be a Bapt8ist" or "To be a Catholic" etc then that crosses a line. But that is not a line being crossed today

BobRyan said:

Mike Johnson is correct.

Having these Christian affirmation events does not violate the conscience of anyone.

We live in a "In God we Trust" nation where "God" was a term understood by the founders to refer to the God of the Bible.

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No, it wasn't really. The phrase was only used a handful of times, in passing, prior to the civil war, when it was added to our coinage. It wasn't adopted as the national motto until the cold war.

In both cases, it was done as an attempt to identify the nation as Christian in some manner, which is arguably a "Christian nationalist" thing to do.

I asked Google Gemini to tell me about the Christian heritage in the founding of the USA.
Gemini responded:

The role of Christian heritage in the founding of the United States is a rich, complex story. It wasn't a single, uniform influence, but rather a tapestry woven from different traditions—from strict Puritan colonists to Enlightenment-influenced Deists.
Here is a breakdown of how Christian thought, language, and culture shaped the birth of the nation.
## 1. The Colonial Roots and Covental Thinking
Long before 1776, the earliest European settlers came to America driven by deeply religious motivations.
* **The Puritans and the "City upon a Hill":** Settlers in New England, like John Winthrop, viewed their migration through a biblical lens. They believed they were entering into a covenant with God to establish a model Christian society. This birthed an early American sense of mission and exceptionalism.
* **Religious Safe Havens:** Other colonies were explicitly founded as refuges for persecuted religious groups. William Penn established Pennsylvania for Quakers, while Lord Baltimore founded Maryland as a haven for Catholics. These experiments laid the early groundwork for religious pluralism.
## 2. The Great Awakening (1730s–1740s)
A few decades before the Revolution, a massive religious revival swept through the colonies. Led by passionate preachers like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, the First Great Awakening fundamentally altered the American mindset.
* **A Unifying National Event:** It was the first truly shared experience across all thirteen colonies, breaking down regional barriers and creating a cohesive American identity.
* **Spiritual Egalitarianism:** The revival preached that every individual had a direct relationship with God, independent of church hierarchy or monarchs. This spiritual equality naturally translated into political egalitarianism—if all people were equal before God, they should have a say in their government.
## 3. Biblical Rhetoric in the Revolution
When the conflict with Great Britain intensified, the language of the Bible became the primary vehicle for political protest. The clergy played such a massive role in rallying support for the war that the British labeled them the **"Black Robed Regiment."**
* **"Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God":** This popular slogan (proposed by Benjamin Franklin for the national seal) perfectly captures how the Founders framed the war. They used biblical narratives—especially the Book of Exodus and Israel's escape from the tyranny of Pharaoh—to justify their fight for freedom.
* **The Language of Liberty:** Verse like **Leviticus 25:10**—*"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof"*—was so central to the cultural zeitgeist that it was cast right onto the Liberty Bell.
## 4. The Philosophy of the Founders
The men who drafted the founding documents were a diverse group ideologically. Some, like Patrick Henry and John Jay, were orthodox Christians. Others, like Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, were Deists or theological rationalists who believed in a Creator but rejected orthodox dogmas.
However, they almost all shared a profound respect for Judeo-Christian morality and viewed it as indispensable to self-governance.
> "Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
> — **John Adams**
>
The consensus among the Founders was that a free republic could only survive if its citizens were virtuous, and they believed religion was the most effective vehicle for instilling that virtue.
## 5. The Concept of Natural Rights
The philosophical core of the American founding—found right in the Declaration of Independence—relies on a theological premise:
$$ \text{Rights} \leftarrow \text{The Creator} \leftarrow \text{Humanity} $$
```
"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..."

```
Rather than arguing that rights are granted by a king or a parliament (which could then be taken away), the Founders argued that human rights are a divine inheritance. Because these rights are granted by God, no earthly government has the legitimate authority to strip them away.
## 6. Disestablishment and Religious Freedom
While Christianity deeply saturated the culture, the Founders made a deliberate choice *not* to establish a national church. The **First Amendment** protected the "free exercise" of religion while preventing the federal government from establishing an official state denomination.
This wasn't done to wipe out Christian influence, but rather to protect it. Influential Christian leaders of the era, particularly Baptists like John Leland, strongly advocated for this separation because they knew from European history that when church and state mix, the purity of the faith is corrupted.
The resulting framework created a society where Christianity wasn't enforced by the sword of the state, but instead flourished dynamically through volunteerism and cultural influence.

iluvatar5150 said:

No, it wasn't really. The phrase was only used a handful of times, in passing, prior to the civil war, when it was added to our coinage. It wasn't adopted as the national motto until the cold war.

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"And this be our motto
In God is our trust."
-Francis Scott Key, 1814.

"Let Tyrants shake their iron rods
And Slavery clang her galling chains.
We fear them not; we trust in God.
New England's God forever reigns."
- William Billings, 1778,

RileyG said:

Interesting, it was adopted around the same time The Pledge of Allegiance inserted "One nation under God."

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"Without God, without sun
We will get the harvest done."
- Slogan seen in the USSR sometime in the late 1950s to early 1960s.

Some in the US might prefer that one.

Tuur said:

"And this be our motto
In God is our trust."
-Francis Scott Key, 1814.

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ah right, the fourth stanza that nobody ever sings.

iluvatar5150 said:

ah right, the fourth stanza that nobody ever sings.

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If no one sings it, I wouldn't know it. Memorized the whole thing for high school graduation decades ago and it stuck.