Speaker Johnson in the Thick of It

At the current trajectory of his political career, House Speaker Mike Johnson is on a pace not to be known as a great leader in the House. The last three Republican House Speakers will not be mentioned in the same breath as Tip O’Neill when one looks at how they let the inmates take over the asylum. Those Speakers may have tried to be “a voice of reason”, but when Donald Trump decided to take on Barack Obama by questioning his birthright, it was over for the Republican party. Mitch McConnell and other Republicans like Rafael Cruz and Lindsey Graham mounted a half-hearted effort to keep Trump from becoming a force within the party but soon learned that Trump was who conservatives had been waiting for a long time. How else could one explain how someone with no political experience goes from zero to becoming president of the U.S. if he wasn’t saying what other experienced political candidates wanted to but dared not say because of repercussions in the press? As we learn more of Johnson’s history before he rose within the ranks of the Republican party, he was already known as a conservative whose views were that of a changing conservative voter base that wanted to inject more religious views into new laws that they believe would return America to a time when religious views were hardly questioned. Perhaps that is why, at a recent event, Speaker Johnson “elevated” his credentials as someone who became Speaker at the right moment in time to make America great again. At an event sponsored by the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), Johnson was “honored” with the group’s American Patriot Award for Christian honor and courage, recognizing his “statesmanship, bold Christian leadership, and faithful service to our Lord Jesus Christ.” The group is also strongly anti-LGBTQ and is about “exposing the ungodly effort to undermine our culture by Leftists.” Ah, just the way Jesus would have written it. At that moment, Johnson then gave them a revelation that they didn’t see coming.

Johnson said that as Republicans were going through the debacle and turmoil of electing a new speaker, he heard from God. Now, this reporter is not about to mock Johnson as the late-night comedians have, but let us also remember that God is not mocked. Johnson would go on to say that God would “tell” him to wait before entering his name to be Speaker, as Johnson said that he “assumed” that God was going to “choose a new Moses” as he also “believed” that he would be the Aaron to whomever Moses would be. Then, Johnson said, God “told him to wait…wait…wait” and then at the end of the last votes, he said that God told him to “step forward". Johnson would say that he “was surprised” telling the audience that he “was supposed” to be Aaron, not Moses. And the rest, as they say, is history. Since Johnson gave that speech to the “faithful,” he has not gone inside a church and said the same thing. He is not a pastor who is supposed to be forbidden to preach political messages from the pulpit, leaving one to wonder where he wants to take America. Anywhere Donald Trump as president would tell him. In Johnson’s speech, he did not specifically say that God told him he would be the next Speaker of the House. He left that up to those who were listening to him when he mentioned Moses and Aaron. This leads to the following question: Who will be the “Aaron” to Johnson’s “Moses”? Johnson didn’t tell us who God said would walk with him as he gets ready to “save” America from His wrath and vengeance. Also, true to form, Johnson said that he believes that “far-right” Christians will prevail. Is the phrase “far-right” in the scriptures? No. However, one should be aware of what false teachers will say in the final days. God will not have us guessing as to what he wants us to do for the kingdom. We are not to “assume” anything, especially if we say this is what God wants us to do. One other thing that Johnson didn’t mention in his speech is that Moses didn’t lead God’s people into the Promised Land. Johnson’s journey might be that of a “wilderness” one. Nonetheless, he said what his audience wanted to hear. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.