The day after he was elected speaker of the House, which was also the day after 18 people were shot to death in Lewiston, Maine, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) smoothly executed the rhetorical three-point turn that Republicans often use after mass shootings: (1) invoke prayer; (2) declare that now is not the time for politics; and (3) dismiss the foolish notion that gun violence is related to guns. To that point, Johnson told Sean Hannity, “At the end of the day, it’s, the problem is the human heart.”
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In a statement, the Biden administration rejected “the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans’ ‘hearts’” and instead blamed congressional Republicans’ fealty to gun industry lobbyists.
No doubt gun industry donations have shaped Republicans’ uncompromising position on gun-control legislation. But there’s another force at work here, too.
The House will ignore calls to ban assault weapons — a ban the majority of Americans want — not only because its new speaker is a Republican but also because he is a Christian nationalist.
A Christian nationalist is someone who, like Johnson, believes the United States is a Christian nation and does not believe in what Johnson dismisses as the “so-called ‘separation of church and state.’”
Indeed, Johnson got right to work mixing church and state in his first speech after he won the speakership.
“I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he said from the pulpit — er, the House rostrum. “And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment.”
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Johnson must have been so surprised when God brought together a majority to pass the Respect for Marriage Act last year! He himself voted no, of course, since, as he once opined, “Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”
Make sense of the news fast with Opinions' daily newsletter
In a statement, the Biden administration rejected “the offensive accusation that gun crime is uniquely high in the United States because of Americans’ ‘hearts’” and instead blamed congressional Republicans’ fealty to gun industry lobbyists.
No doubt gun industry donations have shaped Republicans’ uncompromising position on gun-control legislation. But there’s another force at work here, too.
The House will ignore calls to ban assault weapons — a ban the majority of Americans want — not only because its new speaker is a Republican but also because he is a Christian nationalist.
A Christian nationalist is someone who, like Johnson, believes the United States is a Christian nation and does not believe in what Johnson dismisses as the “so-called ‘separation of church and state.’”
Indeed, Johnson got right to work mixing church and state in his first speech after he won the speakership.
“I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he said from the pulpit — er, the House rostrum. “And I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment.”
Press Enter to skip to end of carousel
Johnson must have been so surprised when God brought together a majority to pass the Respect for Marriage Act last year! He himself voted no, of course, since, as he once opined, “Experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic.”