How Mike Johnson became 2023’s 'most disturbing and influential Christian nationalist': analysis

When Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-California) was ousted as speaker, some liberal and progressive pundits feared that House Republicans would pick someone even more to the right. And that's exactly what happened.

After three weeks of chaos, House Republicans unanimously voted to confirmed Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) as speaker. Johnson, a far-right Christian nationalist, was among the MAGA Republicans who favored overturning the 2020 presidential election results and keeping Donald Trump in the White House despite the fact that he lost to now-President Joe Biden.

The fact that Johnson is a practicing Christian isn't the thing that troubles his Democratic critics. President Joe Biden and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) both consider themselves devout Catholics; the Rev. Raphael Warnock (D-Georgia) is a Protestant minister, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg isn't shy about being a churchgoing Episcopalian.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to hold office again?

Rather, it's the type of Christianity Johnson embraces that worries his critics. Johnson has been up front in his view that the United States should be governed according to a severe and extreme form of Christian nationalist fundamentalism.

In an article published on December 20, The New Republic's Melissa Gira Grant describes Johnson as "the most disturbing and influential Christian nationalist of 2023." And the "salient question" about the speaker, she argues, is, "How did so many people — including myself, to be honest — not see Mike Johnson coming?"

"The answer is that Johnson went this long passing as yet another Republican because many of us didn't pay enough attention to the warnings from those who track the rise of Christian nationalism and who have been deeply troubled by it for a long time," Grant writes. "Johnson has not moderated his Christian nationalism with his political ascent…. Johnson is not the only member of Congress who seeks to rule the United States according to 'biblical values,' but he is the one most clearly groomed for this role by the Christian Right."

Grant elaborates, "He spent years moving in secretive circles. He found mentors and future supporters among those on the right who have been pushing the mainstream conservative movement, urging its members to unleash their most extreme tendencies. Johnson was made by those groups and networks; now, they have a powerful ally third in the line of presidential succession. They made him powerful, and he owes them."

READ MORE: Mike Johnson wants Dems to condemn James Carville for comparing 'Christian nationalism' to al-Qaeda

Melissa Gira Grant's full article for The New Republic is available at this link.