Johnson says that he can’t be a hateful person because of his Christian values. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson is evil and being controlled by the devil in his mission to create “division through fear”, a liberal Christian minister has said.
Johnson was elected as speaker of the House of Representatives in October, after House minority leader Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic first, and has a record of airing extreme right-wing views on LGBTQ+ rights, the climate crisis and abortion.
In an op-ed for Salon, titled ‘Mike Johnson claims to hate the devil. Maybe he should look in the mirror’, Reverend Nathaniel Manderson hit out at “hypocrites” among evangelical Christian leaders and Republican politicians.
“For many years, the evangelical church has pointed to the devil outside in the world, but the devil is the one doing the pointing … the devil is always up to the same thing: creating division through fear,” his scathing takedown began.
Manderson claimed that he sees the devil “much more at home within the evangelical movement than in most liberal causes”, adding: “It is well understood in Christian history that the best place to disrupt goodness is through the church itself.”
The reverend wrote that he believes the evangelical political movement is “led by the devil and his followers”, before going on to state that Johnson is advancing the “evangelical agenda”, which involves supporting Donald Trump and “ignoring the needs of the poor, the sick and immigrants from foreign lands”.
“The devil isn’t about issues. He wants to control and mislead people and get them to do evil things,” the minister wrote, in reference to progressive causes being pushed aside.
Manderson also argued that Johnson, indicted former president and GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and “the evangelical leadership that supports these evildoers” are being controlled by the devil, before arguing that Trump “should be enough evidence the devil is real”.
“The devil has many followers. He sells many books. He runs for president. He misleads God’s people,” he wrote.
The liberal minister added that “people who loudly claim to be pure and good” are more likely to actually be evil.
Mike Johnson – who previously worked for the influential and strongly anti-LGBTQ+ conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom – has also come under fire this month from the Human Rights Campaign for repeatedly attacking LGBTQ+ rights “rather than doing his job”.
Just weeks before he was voted in as House Speaker, Johnson said that LGBTQ+ youth have turned American culture “dark and depraved”.
In 2022, Johnson allegedly “applauded” suggestions that gay sex should be made illegal in the US, and reportedly said calling for a ban would not be “radical”.
Last year, Johnson also wrote the foreword for a political book packed with debunked conspiracy theories and homophobic slurs, and confirmed that he endorses the book and its message on an episode of his podcast.
Despite a long track record of anti-LGBTQ+ comments and advocacy, he has insisted he can’t be a hateful person because he’s a Christian.