Mike Johnson’s 'Christian Zionism' is 'fueled by fantasies of a cataclysmic war': analysis

To many liberals and progressives — including those who identify as Catholics or Mainline Protestants — the religious right's views on Israel are a major contradiction.

Far-right white evangelicals consider themselves very pro-Israel and pro-Zionist, but they also believe that Jews will face eternal damnation unless they convert to evangelical fundamentalist Christianity before they die. The left often attacks Christian nationalists as antisemites, yet the evangelical far right believes that according to the New Testament's Book of Revelation, Israel will play a key role in Jesus Christ's return to the Earth.

Much has been written about House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-Louisiana) far-right Christian nationalist views. But in an article published by The New Republic on November 8, journalist Audrey Clare Farley zeros in on a specific aspect of the new speaker's fundamentalism: the radical form of Zionism he embraces.

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Johnson, Farley notes, shares the ideology of Christian nationalist Pastor John Hagee, who opposes a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

"Johnson and Hagee appear to be run-of-the-mill Christian Zionists, fueled by fantasies of a cataclysmic war in the Middle East that brings about the second coming of Christ, wherein all Muslims — and Jews, for that matter — either convert or face eternal damnation," Farley warns. "It would be easy to dismiss these evangelicals and their apocalyptic fervor, but that would be a mistake, as their conceptualizations of Judaism and Israel are shared by many who are not so overtly eschatological, nor even Christian."

Farley adds, "In recent days, narratives of Jewish and Israeli exceptionalism have proliferated, as conservatives frame Hamas' October 7 massacre as a blow, more fundamentally, to the West. These narratives go to show, rather paradoxically, the extent to which Jews remain an alien 'other' in the minds of those working so assiduously to retro-fit them into their story of 'Judeo-Christian' civilization.'"

The journalist points out that Hagee and other "Christian Zionists" are vehemently anti-Islam — a view that countless Jews reject.

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"Many Jews, for their part, prefer to stand with the people in Palestine," Farley observes. "They realize that their struggles are interlocking, and that they can support safety and liberation for both."

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Audrey Clare Farley'sfull article for The New Republic is available at this link.