Speaker Johnson in the “Negative World”

“I’m not at church,” an unidentified Republican aide huffed to a POLITICO reporter, turning his or her sheer disdain with Speaker Johnson’s presentation at the House GOP retreat into its own news story. The POLITICO headline blared, “Mike Johnson invoked God in a GOP presentation on keeping the majority” and “It didn’t land well.” In the story, at least some Republican staffers mocked Speaker Johnson’s presentation as a “sermon” and “horrible.” Our conclusion: It turns out that Democrats aren’t the only ones uncomfortable with the idea of Christians holding public office actually behaving like Christians.

At the retreat, Speaker Johnson is alleged to have made the mistake of telling his GOP colleagues that “when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or state will become their guide,” and referenced Bible verses. He also mentioned America’s moral decline and argued from historical and religious points that the Republican Party “needed to save America.”

Unfortunately, the response to Speaker Johnson’s comments have become an all-too common trend. On the one hand, it’s essentially an American tradition to flirt with public expressions of Christianity in order to win an election. To that extent, we still live in what Aaron Renn calls the “Positive World,” in which “publicly being a Christian is a status enhancer.” For example: Even the most deistic presidents of the Founding Generation never publicly disavowed Christianity. President Eisenhower joined the Presbyterian Church, even undergoing baptism. And, the media still make a point of insisting that President Biden is a “devout Catholic.” In many situations the public flirtation was likely a marriage of convenience. Voters want leaders who appear moral and what better way to publicly trot out your morality than by identifying as a Christian?

But hostility to actual Christian statements from officeholders is to be expected from today’s political left, where every election cycle is presented as a referendum on implementing The Handmaid’s Tale and where the acknowledgement of the most basic tenets of Christianity gets millions of Americans smeared as “Christian nationalists.” However, it is somewhat surprising and even concerning that Republican members and staffers are now actively crying to the press that a Christian speaker of the House is behaving like a Christian behind closed doors.

Historically, the speaker’s office is hardly a bastion of Christian family values. While the first speaker, Frederick Muhlenberg, was a Lutheran pastor and Revolutionary War soldier, the stereotype for the office is a little more secular than theological. Speakers of the House have been forced to resign following affairs and even been thrown in jail. One is hard-pressed to recall a speaker as public and genuine about his faith as Speaker Johnson.

Since coming to Washington, Speaker Johnson has notably kept his nose clean and avoided the common Washington pitfalls that have engulfed several of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. By all accounts, he is a “good guy.” His faith has always been genuine. His resume is replete with examples of a faithful life in the public square, from his time as a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom to his service with the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

The treatment of Speaker Johnson—both by the media and by his own party—makes it natural for one to wonder whether America remains ready for a Christian speaker of the House. Between the rise of the “Nones” (those who are religiously unaffiliated) and the transition into what Renn calls the “Negative World” (in which Christian faith is no longer understood as a public asset), what was once a clear “yes” is now instead an open question.

Publicly identifying as a Christian and using Biblical language once carried with it clear political and societal benefits in the United States. But today—when the media slams genuine Christians as extremist nationalists or as holding onto “antiquated beliefs” and GOP staffers feel compelled to leak to reporters that the speaker of the House is behaving like a Christian—that may no longer be true.

Yet even in the Negative World, Christians are duty-bound to hold steadfast to the truth, regardless of the political or electoral consequences. While Speaker Johnson’s faith makes him an easy target for the media and even Republican staffers who purport to be on his side, his public resolve makes him an excellent example of Christianity in the public square.

The Negative World may continue to advance. But take heart, Christ has overcome the world.