Johnson Cites 'Misunderstanding' on Separation of Church, State

The new House speaker has thrown his support behind former President Trump while aiming to correct what he claims is a "misunderstanding" about a core principle of US government. According to Mike Johnson, the Founding Fathers very much wanted faith to influence public life, despite the First Amendment prohibiting the government from "establishing" a religion and protecting citizens' right to practice religion. "We need more of that—not an establishment of any national religion—but we need everybody's vibrant expression of faith because it's such an important part of who we are as a nation," the Louisiana Republican told CNBC on Tuesday, while also stating that he's "all in" for Trump, whom he previously described as potentially dangerous.

The constitutional lawyer, who was asked about his decision to pray on the House floor, has long argued for the teaching of the Bible and religion in public schools, per NBC News. Back in 2016, he claimed the US was not a democracy but a "biblical," constitutional republic, per the Guardian. "The separation of church and state is a misnomer," he told CNBC on Tuesday. "People misunderstand it ... It's not in the Constitution." He correctly attributed the phrase to an 1802 letter from Thomas Jefferson, who wrote that the First Amendment's establishment clause laid out that Congress shall "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof"—"thus building a wall of eternal separation between church and state."

According to Johnson, "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." It's an echo of an earlier statement in which Johnson claimed "the founders wanted to protect the church from an encroaching state, not the other way around," per Rolling Stone. The outlet reports Johnson "has ties to the far-right New Apostolic Reformation—which is hell-bent on turning America into a religious state." It notes the Appeal to Heaven flag, which has lately become a symbol of "an aggressive, spiritual-warfare style of Christian nationalism" and was seen among the crowds of Jan. 6 rioters, hangs outside his district office. (More Mike Johnson stories.)