Baptist minister and author Brian Kaylor is taking House Speaker and evangelical Christian Mike Johnson to task for parading his religion to the press.
The “way he has sought to publicize his faith … violates the founding spirit of a sacred space in the United States Capitol,” writes Kaylor in Religion News.
In 2023, Kaylor pointed out that Johnson took Fox News cameras and contributor Kayleigh McEnany into the congressional prayer room, promising to “us[e] it every morning … [to] seek the Lord’s guidance for what we do each day.”
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As President Donald Trump’s controversial budget bill roiled Congress a few weeks ago, Kaylor says again Johnson was inside his prayer room, this time with an Associated Press reporter, so he could pose “for a photo and brag[g] about his prayer life.”
“Been here a lot this week, right there on my knees. Just praying. … That’s what the founders did,” Johnson said.
However, in the 1950s, Kaylor said U.S. Rep. Sam Rayburn (D-Texas) proclaimed his personal hope that the congressional chapel would not end up being exploited for political points.
“I do trust that there will not be a show made of this thing and that there will be no motion pictures of what takes place in this room,” Rayburn said. “If it is going to be sacred … I do trust that never will any motion pictures be taken of members in this room who want to be alone with their God. I trust whoever is in charge of it will not make a showplace of it.”
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U.S. Rep. Karl LeCompte (R-Iowa) quickly signed on with Rayburn against members using the room for public display. But the new speaker “quickly ignored the expectations and trust of his predecessors.”
“The whole performance came as [Johnson] cast himself as holy and his political opponents as anti-Christian,” complains Kaylor. “He weaponized what was intended as a nonpartisan, nonsectarian, private prayer room,” while he works “to tear down the wall separating church and state that colonial Baptists sought to build.”
“But the prayer room isn’t his space to use as he pleases. Nor was the nation designed just for his brand of Christianity,” Kaylor insists. “Jesus warned about hypocrites who love to pray where they can be seen by others. When Jesus said to go pray in a closet, he didn’t mean you should then show it off to Fox News or The Associated Press.”
Read Kaylor’s full column at the Religion News link here.