I mean its one thing for Speaker Johnson to join President Biden and the Democrats to pass CR. But who would have ever thought he would become a member of The Squad and block funding for Israel.



Jewish GOPer blasts speaker for tying Israel aid to IRS cuts: 'Playing God with money'

Carl Gibson, AlterNet
November 17, 2023 10:41AM ET



Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS


Rep. Max Miller (R-OH), one of the two Jewish Republican members of the House of Representatives, took offense to House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) proposal to cut Internal Revenue Service (IRS) funding in exchange for foreign aid to Israel.

In an interview with Jewish Insider, Miller said that while he reluctantly voted for the speaker's initial gambit of tying the GOP's partisan goals to a $14 billion aid package to America's top ally in the Middle East, it was still in bad taste.

"Putting any type of cuts to a supplemental package to one of our greatest allies in the world is disgusting," Miller told Jewish Insider. "I think it’s stupid. I’m supportive of Israel — don't get me wrong, I voted for it — but I think it’s a gimmick.”

Miller argued that in the wake of Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, in which roughly 1,400 people were killed — including US citizens — Johnson was "play[ing] gimmicks with people's lives." He added that historically, funding cuts to government agencies aren't typically included in foreign aid legislation.

"[Johnson is] playing God with money that is going to help Israeli-Americans and Israelis," Miller said. "We have Americans who were killed in that attack, we have Americans who are held hostage, and this man doesn’t want to help them — that’s the way I look at it as somebody who is one of two Republican Jews in Congress."

While President Joe Biden recently signed a short-term government funding bill into law to avoid a shutdown, that legislation doesn't include any of the foreign aid currently being debated in Congress. While the Democratic-controlled US Senate wants all foreign aid to be grouped into a single legislative package — which would include funding for Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan — some Republicans in both the House and Senate want each aid package to be considered on an individual basis. Miller said Speaker Johnson's Israel aid proposal was a political error that would increase the likelihood of a single foreign aid package.

"Now that you see it’s a gimmick, the Senate won’t pick it up,” Miller said. "The speaker knew that. He’s trying to play chicken with a body that he’s going to lose with, and we’re going to end up swallowing a huge supplemental now that’s going to include Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and our border. And probably, because he negotiated this so poorly, possibly a humanitarian package that’s going to go to the Palestinian people."

READ MORE: 'Clear violations of federal law': Watchdog group files ethics complaint against Mike Johnson

While Johnson justified his IRS cuts saying that aid to Israel needed to be "offset" by reducing funding elsewhere, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that the IRS cuts would actually increase the federal deficit. The CBO calculated that the IRS' inability to collect revenue due to having its budget cut would be an even bigger drain on federal coffers.



https://www.rawstory.com/jewish-rep...f-tying-israel-aid-to-irs-cuts-playing-god-w/

 

Didja see?
That religious fundamentalist whacko Johnson is releasing the january 6 videos. Every frame.

The nancy Antoinette star chamber bunch was rumored to be lawyering up in anticipation .......

 

So shooter, what got all those Trumptards so riled up. Do you have an idea.

And not only is Johnson a religious fundamentalist whacko! He's also an election denier. Of course you accidently left that out, eh

 

The definition of insanity is silty.

 

Yeah trying to get a trumptard to give logical answers to simple questions is an act of insanity, eh

 

WATCH: GOP Speaker Johnson’s Anti-LGBTQ Rant About ‘Depraved’ America — Just WEEKS Ago
Tommy ChristopherNov 17th, 2023, 7:54 am

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) was caught on camera ranting about “depraved” America just weeks ago — right before he ascended to the third-most-powerful seat in U.S. politics.

Johnson was elected speaker of the House after 23 days of chaos, and despite a record of supporting ex-President Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election — as well as a disturbing history of anti-gay rhetoric and action.

In one of several moments flagged in a report by Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson that’s getting a lot of attention, Johnson ranted on a World Prayer Network Zoom call about a “time of judgment” for our country:


IN AN OCTOBER prayer call hosted by a Christian-nationalist MAGA pastor, Rep. Mike Johnson was troubled that America’s wickedness was inviting God’s wrath.

Talking to pastor Jim Garlow on a broadcast of the World Prayer Network, Johnson spoke ominously of America facing a “civilizational moment.” He said, “The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? … Or is he going to give us one more chance to restore the foundations and return to Him?”

The segment was filmed Oct. 3, just weeks before Johnson’s unexpected rise to become speaker of the House. Garlow pressed the clean-cut Louisiana congressman to say “more about this ‘time of judgment’ for America.” Johnson replied: “The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ youth — the fact, Johnson lamented, that “one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.”

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski — the “K” in KFile — has previously resurfaced and revealed shocking tapes in which Johnson ranted about the evils of homosexuality as an adviser to an anti-LGBTQ group that espoused conversion therap


https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch...q-rant-about-depraved-america-just-weeks-ago/

 

'Radical' Mike Johnson wants 'to take the country back more than a half-century': analysis

Travis Gettys
November 21, 2023 10:31AM ET



(Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)


A deep dive analysis of new House speaker Mike Johnson's comments on talk radio reveal the Louisiana Republican's deeply conservative views are far outside the mainstream.

CNN reviewed more than 100 of Johnson's interviews, speeches and public commentary covering a period of more than a decade and found that he backed prison for abortion providers, the elimination of hate crime laws, criminalizing gay sex and imposing "biblical morality" in public life.

“Speaker Johnson embraces a view that is not only outside of the mainstream but is so radical in terms of his endorsement of the Thomas position, that even the extremely conservative Supreme Court majority isn’t willing to go there,” said Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a CNN legal analyst.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene declares war on Republicans

“It would take the country back more than a half-century.”

Johnson fought numerous legal battles to promote religion in the public square for the Alliance Defense Fund and restore the values he says were washed away by the 1969s counterculture, and he has recently described American culture as "dark and depraved" and deserving of God's wrathful judgment, according to reports.

“One of the primary purposes of the law in civil government is to restrain evil,” Johnson said on a radio show in 2010. “We have to acknowledge collectively that man is inherently evil and needs to be restrained.”

A year earlier, when discussing an anti-discrimination case involving a wedding photography company in New Mexico, Johnson argued that such laws should not recognize “behavior” like homosexuality.

“There are laws on the books that prohibit discrimination against people for their immutable characteristics, their race and creed and that kind of thing,” Johnson said in a 2009 radio interview. “There’s a difference — and the law has recognized a difference — between that and homosexual behavior. As something that you do, not an immutable characteristic of what you are.”

Johnson speaks often of homosexuality, which he called “inherently unnatural” and a “dangerous lifestyle." He has supported an Arkansas law against same-sex couples adopting children, and criticized the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas — which struck down a ban on gay sex in that state

"It recognized a fundamental right, a constitutional right to, to sodomy, which had never been recognized before,” Johnson said at a forum in 2005.



https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-house-speaker-2666323329/

 

They don't want an adult conversation about the new speaker, his political stands and how that might impact legislation passing through the house.
They want to attack Johnson and make his religion the issue.
And we can see why

 

They like to call themselves Christians but they aren't not really. Jesus was the first to preach the separation of church and state.

Mark 12:17 MSG
Jesus said, “Give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his.” Their mouths hung open, speechless.



Christians: Jesus is too woke
https://onlysky.media/jpearce/christians-jesus-is-too-woke/

 

New York GOP campaign coffers flounder without cash cow Kevin McCarthy: report

Matthew Chapman
November 20, 2023 5:43PM ET



Photo: Saul Loeb/ Agence France-Presse


A surprise result of Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) speakership ouster that has hit New York Republicans hard could threaten conservatives' hold on the House of Representatives in 2024, reported Politico on Monday.

McCarthy's success as a party fundraiser has meant major losses for New York Republicans, according to Politico's number crunch of campaign finance records.

While McCarthy-associated committees raised more than $1.8 million for Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, Brandon Williams and Nick LaLota, Johnson-affiliated groups brought in just $12,000, according to the Politico report.

ALSO READ: Marjorie Taylor Greene declares war on Republicans

“Losing McCarthy is obviously a setback for our fundraising; it’s like losing a hall of famer in that category,” LaLota said in a recent interview, adding that, “there are multiple all-stars looking to step up.”

McCarthy's campaign raised more than 20 times that of his successor, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for the 2022 and 2024 cycles thus far, despite both representing unchallenged Republican districts, according to the report.

This lack of campaign cash could prove problematic in 2024 when the House Majority will be up for grabs and seven New York incumbents face competitive races, Politico reports.

Writes Emily Ngo, "New York could decide which party has the House majority in 2025."

D’Esposito, Lawler, Molinaro and Williams will likely need big bucks to claim second terms, Politico reports, and what impact Rep. George Santos' recent scandals and Johnson's extremism will have on state swing voters remains unclear.

The 2024 race could be further complicated should New York Democrats convince the state Court of Appeals to redraw the congressional map that gerrymanders Republicans into more challenging seats, the report concludes.



https://www.rawstory.com/new-york-g...t-kevin-mccarthy-like-losing-a-hall-of-famer/

 

Ok now just how is this going to work. Just outlaw anal sex for gay men? Or outlaw anal sex for everyone? Are you ladies ad gentlemen on a pron forum willing to go along with that. I mean sure treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans would probably go along with it. They aren't getting any sex anyway. But I don't think the rest of us would.





Mike Johnson Said He Wanted to Revisit Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Gay Sex
CNN Wire
Wed, November 22, 2023 at 2:00 AM MST·10 min read
155



Mike Johnson

• 
  

By Andrew Kaczynski and Curt Devine, CNN

(CNN) — Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, voiced support for revisiting Supreme Court decisions that struck down restrictions on the use of contraception, barred bans on gay sex and legalized same sex marriages, according to a CNN review of his prior public statements.

On a conservative talk radio show the day the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Johnson underscored Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion that the high court should reconsider those other landmark rulings.


Johnson, citing his years as an attorney against “activist courts,” defended Thomas’ view, insisting that what Thomas was calling for was, “not radical. In fact, it’s the opposite of that.”

“There’s been some really bad law made,” he said. “They’ve made a mess of our jurisprudence in this country for the last several decades. And maybe some of that needs to be cleaned up.”

When asked about Johnson’s post-Roe comments, a spokesman for the congressman told CNN that Johnson “views the cases as settled law.”

Still, CNN’s review of more than 100 of Johnson’s interviews, speeches and public commentary spanning his decades-long career as a lawmaker and attorney paints a picture of his governing ideals: Imprisoning doctors who perform abortions after six weeks; the Ten Commandments prominently displayed in public buildings; an elimination of anti-hate-crime laws; Bible study in public schools.

From endorsing hard labor prison sentences for abortion providers to supporting the criminalization of gay sex, his staunchly conservative rhetoric is rooted in an era of “biblical morality,” that he says was washed away with the counterculture in the 1960s.

“One of the primary purposes of the law in civil government is to restrain evil,” Johnson said on one radio show in 2010. “We have to acknowledge collectively that man is inherently evil and needs to be restrained.”

His vision has been well received as a congressman in his deeply conservative district in western Louisiana. But his surprising rise to the speakership has brought his particularly subtle brand of fire-and-brimstone to second in line to the presidency — delivering him a national platform from which to shape and influence laws.

Johnson’s endorsement of Thomas’ opinion, legal experts say, positioned him significantly outside the mainstream.

“Speaker Johnson embraces a view that is not only outside of the mainstream but is so radical in terms of his endorsement of the Thomas position, that even the extremely conservative Supreme Court majority isn’t willing to go there,” said Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a CNN legal analyst. “It would take the country back more than a half-century.”

The frontlines of the culture war
CNN unearthed more than two dozen radio interviews from Johnson’s time as an attorney at the socially conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) where Johnson litigated and voiced support for what he sometimes described as a battle for the country between the forces of good and evil.

“The arrows in the culture war are particularly directed at our youth, where the Enemy often has the greatest effect,” read the 2005 webpage for “God & Country,” a Christian local radio show co-hosted by Johnson. “We cannot lose our children to the forces of darkness. Be aware and get active in your kids’ schools.”

Topics discussed on the show included “creation science” in public schools; how to “fight the porn industry”; God’s “design for government”; and “the true meaning of ‘separation of church and state.’”

As an attorney at ADF, Johnson repeatedly battled two organizations in his fight to keep religion in the public square: The American Civil Liberties Union, which he called “the most dangerous organization in America,” and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The groups clashed over prayer in public schools, public displays of nativity scenes and the right to open public meetings with prayer.

“They have convinced an entire generation of Americans that there’s this so-called separation of church and state,” Johnson said in 2008 about the ACLU.

Johnson’s rhetoric has tapped into a “persecution complex” for evangelicals as American culture leans increasingly left on social issues, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor.

“They want to feel embattled. They want to fight the culture war,” Burge told CNN.

“When he talks about Griswold and Lawrence, evangelicals know that what he really is saying to them is: ‘Our way of life is under attack and liberalism is on the march. Stand firm in our convictions,’” added Burge, referring to the landmark cases that legalized gay sex and contraception use.

Johnson served not only as an attorney at ADF but a national spokesman for the organization, making appearances on radio and national television where he often addressed so-called “right of conscience” cases involving Christian businesses.

Discussing one case in New Mexico, where a wedding photography company was found in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination laws for refusing to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony, Johnson argued anti-discrimination laws did not recognize a “behavior” like homosexuality.

“There are laws on the books that prohibit discrimination against people for their immutable characteristics, their race and creed and that kind of thing,” Johnson said in a 2009 radio interview. “There’s a difference – and the law has recognized a difference – between that and homosexual behavior. As something that you do, not an immutable characteristic of what you are.”

The New Mexico Supreme Court disagreed and ruled against the company, which ADF represented. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Johnson “doesn’t understand the problem with a government compelling its citizens to follow not just religion, but a particular religion,” said Katherine Lewis Parker, the former legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina, who opposed Johnson in a lawsuit related to prayer at official meetings.

In that 2007 suit, three residents in Forsyth County, North Carolina, argued local officials had an unconstitutional “practice of sponsoring sectarian prayer” with specific references to Jesus during meetings. Johnson defended the officials and argued that even in Congress, prayers often contain Christian references, which he called a “logical function of the nation’s demographics.”

During a deposition, Johnson peppered one of the plaintiffs about what type of prayer would be acceptable in county meetings. “So if someone might be offended by virtually any prayer, should we just get rid of prayer entirely?” he asked.

An appeals court ruled against Johnson’s arguments in 2011, though the Supreme Court later ruled in favor of allowing such prayers in a separate case.

“I think he is a true believer and I think he wants to blend religion and government,” Parker said of Johnson.

Homosexuality was a frequent topic for Johnson, which he has called “inherently unnatural” and a “dangerous lifestyle.” In addition to suggesting he hopes the Supreme Court will reverse its decision allowing same-sex marriage, he also wrote in support of Texas’ anti-sodomy laws, which said gay men caught having sex could be fined.

“It recognized a fundamental right, a constitutional right to, to sodomy, which had never been recognized before,” Johnson said at a forum in 2005 on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas — which struck down the ban on gay sex in that state.

Johnson supported an Arkansas law against same-sex couples adopting children, citing it as “good public policy” in 2008. In 2013, he opposed President Barack Obama’s appointment of an “openly homosexual” ambassador, Wally Brewster, to the Dominican Republic, calling it a provocative move against the Catholic country.

Move to government
In 2015, transitioning from his role at ADF to a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, Johnson sparked national controversy with the “Marriage and Conscience Act.” The bill aimed to protect individuals objecting to same-sex marriage on religious grounds but faced opposition from Johnson’s hometown editorial board, business leaders and even Republicans in the state legislature.

Critics argued it could enable discrimination against LGBTQ individuals by businesses. Following backlash, the bill never reached a vote. In response to the bill’s failure, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, issued a similar executive order.

“Apparently, defending religious liberty makes one ‘anti-gay’ now,” Johnson wrote on Facebook amid debate on the bill.

Just two years later, Johnson moved from the state legislature to Congress where he’s maintained a 92% rating from the CPAC Center for Legislative Accountability – 11% higher than the average Republican in 2022.

In Congress, Johnson signed on to some of the toughest anti-abortion bills, such as a 2021 so-called “heartbeat bill,” which would essentially outlaw abortion after six weeks. He has repeatedly called states that allow abortion “pro-death” states.

“It is truly an American holocaust,” Johnson said in May 2022 on local DC radio. “The reality is that Planned Parenthood and all these big abortion (providers), they set up their clinics in inner cities. They regard these people as easy prey. I mean, it’s true.”

Johnson also supported plans to change Medicare and Social Security benefits while increasing the retirement age, emphasizing urgency in addressing escalating entitlement.

He has blamed booming entitlements costs in part on abortion.

“And you don’t have 40 or 50 million able-bodied workers in the economy,” Johnson said on a podcast he co-hosts with his wife. “That would be paying taxes into the system to be able to support their elderly, you know, neighbors and friends.”

On numerous occasions, Johnson also voiced approval for a Louisiana state trigger law – passed in 2006 – which banned abortion without exceptions for rape and incest the day Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“I’m grateful to be from Louisiana, one of the dozen states or so that has a trigger law that will automatically become an abortion free state, pro-life,” Johnson said in 2022.

In 2022, Johnson introduced a bill that some described as a national version of what critics call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill never made it out of committee.

For Johnson and those who share his worldview, such policies have spiritual implications not only for individuals but the entire nation, said Philip Gorski, a professor and chair of the sociology department at Yale University who has studied Christian nationalism.

“There is much more at stake for Johnson and others who crome from that conservative Christian subculture,” he said. “There is this view the United States is a Christian nation which has entered into a sacred covenant with God that involves upholding certain standards of Christian morality, and when those standards are violated, when those precepts are broken, it threatens the entire country with divine wrath and all kinds of decline.”

Efforts to keep Trump in office
Following Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat, Johnson played a pivotal role in efforts to overturn the election – urging his colleagues to sign onto the Texas Attorney General’s longshot lawsuit aiming to throw out the results in key swing states.

“It was rejected by a bipartisan majority of the Supreme Court,” Eisen told CNN, but Johnson was willing to “perpetuate the loser as the winner and to twist the law and the facts to support that.”

Johnson also endorsed some fringe conspiracies, including the unsubstantiated belief that voting software machines were manipulated.

On January 6, 2021, Johnson voted to object the election results, later saying he was doing his “duty to uphold the Constitution.”

For Johnson, the vote to keep Trump in office reflected a striking evolution from his past critique of Trump in 2015, whom, as first reported by the New York Times, he openly labeled as “dangerous,” lacking “character,” and devoid of a “moral center.” It was the apex of the transactional relationship between the religious right and former TV star.

During a church service in 2022, reflecting on the conclusion of Roe v. Wade, Johnson remarked that much of the credit belonged to Trump.

“There is a lot of credit to go around, but you have to acknowledge, Donald Trump for all of his, peccadillos, okay? Bless him,” Johnson said. “He was true to his word.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-johnson-said-wanted-revisit-090003622.html

 

Let me show you something else here because its a perfect example of people who call themselves "Christians" but do not believe in the teachings of Christ.












Congressman Greg Steube
@RepGregSteube

In January, @RepMikeJohnson joined me on the House floor while we were in a deadlock over who our next Speaker would be. We lifted up the speaker’s race to the Lord and asked for his divine guidance. Immediately after the prayer, 14 members changed their votes, ultimately leading to Speaker McCarthy securing the gavel by the end of the day. Mike Johnson is a strong conservative, but above all else, he is a strong Christian. He’s not afraid to look to his faith for guidance. America needs that more than ever in the U.S. House. I look forward to voting for Mike Johnson as our next Speaker




9:19 AM · Oct 25, 2023
·
4.7M
Views




Matthew 6:5-8

New International Version


Prayer
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.


Those are not "Christians" according to Christ. They are hypocrites.

 

Better they should consult the devil, eh american hater?


Cause for damn sure no despicable wants God consulted on anything involving politics.

 

Oh yeah its LGBTQ+ and Drag Queens children need to be protected from.


House Speaker Mike Johnson's Latest Resurfaced Admission Is Next Level Pervy
Ariel Messman-Rucker
Wed, November 22, 2023 at 6:14 AM MST·2 min read
1.2k



Mike Johnson


Everyone who pegged House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) as viciously anti-LGBTQ+ was just proven right yet again this week when a 2016 video surfaced showing the Republican saying that he and his high school buddies would have taken advantage of transgender-inclusive bathroom policies to peep on girls in the locker room. Proving what we’ve been saying all along — that the danger isn’t coming from the trans community.

“Gender identity, no one knows what that means, and even an effort to define … can cause more problems,” Johnson said in a 2016 interview with AM talk-new radio station Keel, according to reporting by LGBTQ Nation.

Maybe you’re too dim to understand what gender identity means, Mike, but that’s not a problem we share.


“I went to Captain Shreve High School,” Johnson continued. “I graduated in 1990. My crew, my boys… I can tell you, they would’ve said, ‘Hey, next Thursday is gender identity day, man. You know, we’re going to self-identify as girls, and we’re going to be in the other locker room.’ It opens it up to high jinks and all sorts of problems.”

When you boil his comments down, Johnson is saying that it’s perfectly acceptable to strip trans people of their rights because he and his friends would have abused policies so they could perv out in a women’s restroom.

It would also be hilarious if it weren’t so tragic that Johnson thinks of himself as an arbiter of what kinds of laws are necessary to protect teens. Not only do we now know he would have been all too happy to watch teenage girls undressing in a locker room, but we also recently learned that he and his teenage son act as each other’s porn “accountability partners.” Gross.

Conservatives frequently rail against gender-inclusive bathrooms because they claim to be worried about “women and children.” Johnson isn’t even creative in his hate; he’s just invoking tired right-wing talking points. Ya boring!

Despite the perceived “dangers” of trans-inclusive bathroom policies, there is zero evidence that these policies increase the risk to anyone’s safety, according to a 2018 study from the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law as reported by LGBTQ Nation. There also hasn’t been an increase in assaults in any states that have passed such policies.

So Johnson is vehemently anti-LGBTQ+ and a total creep. Who knew those two things would go hand in hand?


https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-speaker-mike-johnsons-latest-131446617.html

 

Keep beating that horse american hater. Eventually you'll get it to move.

 

‘We Cry Out To You!’ Watch GOP Speaker Mike Johnson Pray To Forestall God’s Judgment After Anti-Gay ‘Depraved America’ Rant
Tommy ChristopherNov 17th, 2023, 8:43 am


756 comments
Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) prayed for God to give America some more time seconds after ranting about “depraved” America in an anti-gay rant.

Johnson was elected speaker of the House after 23 days of chaos, and despite a record of supporting ex-President Donald Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election — as well as a disturbing history of anti-gay rhetoric and action.

In one of several moments flagged in a report by Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson that’s getting a lot of attention, Johnson ranted on a World Prayer Network Zoom call about a “time of judgment” for our country, which he called “dark and depraved” and cited an increase in young people who “identify as something other than straight.”


Seconds after that rant, Johnson closed the call with a prayer beseeching his Heavenly Father not to smite America just yet, and welled up with apparent emotion as he closed:

Heavenly Father. We just turn to you and we come to the end of our own knowledge and experience and expertise and wisdom. And you delight in that, when we acknowledge it to you. We cannot proceed one more step as a nation, individually or collectively, without your divine hand of providence, your intervention, your your, your movement on the hearts of decision-makers who have been called and placed here, and for your people out in the land.

So we we cry out to you, God! We do humble ourselves and pray. We repent for our sins individually and collectively. And we ask that you not give up on our nation, not give us the judgment that we clearly deserve, but that your mercy and grace would guide us through these terrible troubled waters and that you would heal our land.

And you draw people to account. You draw them to recognition that we use this, these disastrous, calamitous times to get the attention of the people that you do that and that it’s for your glory.

And I pray specifically for the faithful here who were called here to serve. For those on this call tonight and all those who are leading out in the field in their various spheres of influence that you would draw your people close to you so that we would, so we can hear your voice. So we could hear your voice clearer. And that you would guide us as you desire to do. And we know that. We know that you want to work in our presence, God, so here are your remnants. And don’t give up on our land. And we’re grateful for that. Your mercy and grace that’s guided us these 247 years. We pray for more, so long as you tarry before you return. Trust in and believe that we’re confident of that, God. We give it to you in Jesus’ name.

CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski — the “K” in KFile — has previously resurfaced and revealed shocking tapes in which Johnson ranted about the evils of homosexuality as an adviser to an anti-LGBTQ group that espoused conversion therapy.



https://www.mediaite.com/news/we-cr...udgment-after-anti-gay-depraved-america-rant/

 

Hey Trumptard Mike Johnson!

 

House Speaker Mike Johnson Spent Years Defending Christian Speech In Public Schools
Jennifer Bendery
Fri, November 24, 2023 at 3:00 AM MST·10 min read
429



Before coming to Congress, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) spent years taking up lawsuits in defense of Christian speech and activities in public elementary schools and universities.

Johnson, who was a relatively unknown Louisiana congressman before being elected House speaker last month, previously spent eight years as senior attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, an evangelical legal group focused on dismantling LGBTQ+ rights and outlawing abortion. It was in his role there that Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, took up case after case aimed at chipping away at the separation of church and state.

What’s alarming about this pattern in his background is that it raises questions about whether the House speaker ― the person second in line to the U.S. presidency ― disputes the first freedom guaranteed by the First Amendment in the Constitution: ”Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

In 2004, Johnson was the lead attorney for Stockwell Place Elementary when the Bossier Parish public school got sued for pushing Christianity on its students.

A set of Jewish parents sued the school after learning it was holding prayer sessions, teaching Christian songs in class and promoting a teacher-led prayer group called Stallions for Christ that met during recess. The Jewish parents, who had two children at the school, also cited a teacher with a Christian cross on the classroom door, a Nativity scene in the school library and a graduation program featuring Christian songs and a student-led prayer, and religious speeches delivered by two local sheriff’s deputies.

In their lawsuit, which you can read here, the parents claim their children were ridiculed and bullied by other kids for not participating in the religious songs. They raised concerns with the principal, who allegedly responded by defending the school’s Nativity scene and religious songs, and told the parents to “deal with it.” The parents also complained to the school superintendent, who allegedly defended the teacher-led prayer group because “this is the way things are done in the South” and “welcome to the Bible Belt.”

Johnson spoke about the lawsuit at his church, the Airline Drive Church of Christ in Shreveport, before taking on the case. He warned the congregation what was at stake with cases like the Jewish family suing to keep Christian activities out of a public school.

“The ultimate goal of the enemy is silencing the gospel,” said Johnson, according to an April 2004 story in the Shreveport Times about the lawsuit. “This is spiritual warfare.”

Here’s the article in the the Shreveport Times from April 2004:


"The ultimate goal of the enemy is silencing the gospel,” Johnson said in 2004 amid a lawsuit involving a Jewish family suing a public school for engaging students in Christian speech and activities.

The Louisiana Republican also told church attendees, some of whom were reportedly nodding and wearing “I support Stockwell Place” T-shirts, that “if we don’t (win), they’re going to shut down all private religion expression.”

Johnson’s comments at church came a week after he wrote an opinion piece in the Shreveport Times calling the Jewish family’s lawsuit “the latest example of the radical left’s desperate efforts to silence all public expression of religious faith.”

Here’s Johnson’s article:


Johnson said in 2004 that a Jewish family suing a public school for engaging in Christian speech and activities was
Johnson said in 2004 that a Jewish family suing a public school for engaging in Christian speech and activities was "the latest example of the radical left’s desperate efforts to silence all public expression of religious faith.”

Johnson spokesperson Taylor Haulsee on Tuesday disputed that the House speaker was referring to the Jewish family as “the enemy” in the 2004 lawsuit.

“You are mischaracterizing his remark,” he said in a statement. “Johnson was referring to any coordinated attempt to impede religious expression that is protected under the Constitution, not any single family.”

Haulsee also emphasized that the first bill Johnson brought to the House floor as speaker was a resolution condemning Hamas and standing with Israel.

The lawsuit was settled in August 2005 with a consent order clarifying the types of religious expression allowed in public schools. But most of the case had been dismissed months earlier because the family moved out of state.

“On or about December 28, 2004, the McBride family moved to Missouri to escape the harassment and threats Tyler and Kelsey were enduring at Stockwell Place Elementary,” reads a March 2005 amendment to the lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which was not officially a party to the case, said at the time that the Jewish family likely would have won their case had they not moved away.

“The ACLU believes (the complaints) were meritorious and had the plaintiffs remained in the state, they would have been found meritorious,” Joe Cook, then the executive director of the ACLU’s Louisiana affiliate, told the Shreveport Times when the case was settled.


Before coming to Congress, Johnson spent a lot of time defending religious speech and activities in public schools, specifically Christianity.
Before coming to Congress, Johnson spent a lot of time defending religious speech and activities in public schools, specifically Christianity.

In another case in 2006, Johnson represented parents suing the Katy Independent School District in Texas for allegedly trying to ban religious expression and “acknowledgement of the Christian religion.” The parents argued that the school district violated their First Amendment rights by preventing them from “speaking about their religious beliefs” and “distributing religious items or literature to classmates” on school grounds.

This lawsuit was dismissed in 2010 with prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs can’t refile the same claim again in this court. The school did have to pay Johnson’s attorney fees, though.

The House speaker twice represented teenagers, in 2007 and in 2008, who were denied public school transportation to a “Just for Jesus” religious event.

In 2007, Johnson represented a high school student in a civil rights action lawsuit after her school refused to provide a bus for her club, called the One Way Club, to attend a “Just for Jesus” event. The student claimed that the school provided other clubs with transportation for fields trips and that it wasn’t fair to not provide a bus for the religious event. The lawsuit was eventually dismissed because the student found her own ride to the event.

A year later, Johnson represented a middle school student who sued her school for not providing a bus to the same event. This student, who was part of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, claimed that she was denied school transportation to the “Just for Jesus” event because she and others in her club talked about their religious beliefs.

School officials claimed the real issue was safety concerns, because there was a shooting near the “Just for Jesus” event the year before, and some students had been “injured and fearful.” The school officials suggested the organizers of the event hold it during non-school hours or on the weekend. As a compromise, school officials offered to give students excused absences if they went to the event on their own during the school day.

The judge in the case ruled that the school worked in good faith with the student by offering an excused absence and rejected Johnson’s argument that the student demonstrated “a substantial threat of irreparable injury.” The student voluntarily ended her suit shortly afterward.

It is repugnant to Sonnier that he ... must obtain governmental permission to talk to a student about his Christian faith.Johnson defending a traveling evangelist's right to preach on a public university campus.

Johnson also led lawsuits in defense of religious speech on the campuses of public universities. In 2008, he lost a case involving a traveling evangelist who sued Southeastern Louisiana University after a school police officer told him he had to move to a free speech zone on campus to deliver his remarks and get his speech pre-approved.

As they stood there, the evangelist, Jeremy Sonnier, began engaging with a student about religion, at which point the officer warned he would be arrested if he didn’t move.

Sonnier’s legal argument, led by Johnson, was that the university’s speech policy was “unduly burdensome” and based on religious grounds.

“It is repugnant to Sonnier that he, as an individual citizen, must obtain governmental permission to talk to a student about his Christian faith,” reads the legal document, presumably written by Johnson.


A passage from a lawsuit led by Johnson in 2008 in defense of a traveling evangelist.
A passage from a lawsuit led by Johnson in 2008 in defense of a traveling evangelist.

A federal judge ultimately dismissed the case with prejudice, meaning Sonnier can’t refile the same claim again in the court.

In another lawsuit in 2003, Johnson represented a student at Texas Tech University who accused the school of violating his First Amendment rights by requiring him to get his speech pre-approved in order to speak on campus in a spot that was not in the “free speech area” gazebo. The student was challenging a school policy that barred students from engaging in speech that might “intimidate” or “humiliate” another person on campus.

The university initially denied a permit to the student to deliver remarks outside of the designated area expressing his religious view that “homosexuality is a sinful, immoral and unhealthy lifestyle,” and passing out literature citing Scripture. But the student was ultimately given permission to do this if he moved across the street.

In 2008, Johnson was the lead attorney for the Tangipahoa Parish school board in Louisiana when it got sued for opening its meetings with prayers and requiring they be delivered by eligible members of the clergy in the parish.

The plaintiff took issue with the school board bringing religion into its meetings at all and with the denial of his wife’s request to give an invocation at a meeting because she was a non-denominational Christian.

“Plaintiff finds equally objectionable the non-secular manner in which the Board meetings are conducted,” reads the plaintiff’s legal filing. “The Board meetings are an integral part of Tangipahoa Parish public school system, requiring the Board to refrain from injecting religion into them. By commencing the meetings with a prayer, the Board is conveying its endorsement of religion.”

The lawsuit was dismissed in 2010 after the parties reached a compromise.

Asked Tuesday if Johnson fundamentally disagrees with the separation of church and state, his office pointed to comments that he made last week on CNBC, when he claimed that Americans “misunderstand” the concept.

“When the Founders set this system up, they wanted a vibrant expression of faith in the public square because they believed that a general moral consensus and virtue was necessary,” Johnson said in the TV interview. “The separation of church and state is a misnomer. People misunderstand it.”

He claimed that Thomas Jefferson meant something entirely different from what we think it means when he coined the phrase.

“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,” Johnson said. “It’s exactly the opposite.”

He never actually said, though, if he disagrees with the separation of church and state.

An abject danger to our democracy.Rachel Laser of Americans United for Separation of Church and State

Rachel Laser, the president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said she has “grave concerns” about Johnson’s claims.

“Any public official ― let alone the speaker of the House and second in line to be president ― who claims America is a Christian nation and discredits church-state separation is an abject danger to our democracy,” she said.

Laser said Johnson is “repeating the myth that Christian nationalists typically use” to deny that church-state separation is foundational to democracy.

“Church-state separation is baked into the Constitution, from Article VI’s prohibition on religious tests for public office to the First Amendment’s religious freedom protections. Our freedoms, equality and democracy rest on that wall of separation. Without it, America would not be America.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-speaker-mike-johnson-spent-100001772.html