House Speaker Mike Johnson is FFRF Action Fund’s “Theocrat of the Week” for his prayer spectacle at Sunday’s Rededicate 250, the Christian nationalist rally held on the National Mall.
Johnson, a prominent speaker at the rally and one of the most rampant Christian nationalists in the Trump administration, appeared in person to deliver an interminable prayer at the event. “It is such a blessing to welcome you all here to the nation’s capital. My humble assignment here today is to bring us straight to the Lord in a prayer of rededication,” Johnson began.
“Our heavenly Father, we thank you,” he declared. “Thank you so much for this great day that you’ve given us here, as we remember that your mighty hand has been upon our nation since the very beginning. Since Christopher Columbus set sail in the New World, since the settlers at Jamestown planted the cross at Cape Henry, and since the pilgrims at Plymouth made a covenant to give you the glory, in all that time, you guided us at every pivotal moment.”
“In those early days, you safeguarded George Washington and his ragtag army as they defeated the mightiest of empires,” he went on, misconstruing American history as based in biblical dogma. “And you gave our fathers the wisdom and faith to establish this new nation premised on the biblical and foundational principle that all men are created equal and free before you. Through your divine providence, our Founders acknowledged and boldly proclaimed the self-evident truth that every single person is created in your image, and that we are endowed by you, our Creator, with our inalienable rights to life and liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Johnson credited all of the United States to his god, saying, “Lord, today, our people gather once again in your name. We have humbled ourselves before you. We acknowledge that the miracle of our founding, and the countless miracles that have followed, are your doing. We remember that we owe our nation – every victory, every hero, every good deed she has brought forth – to you, Almighty God.” He attributed not only the American Revolutionary War to God, but also the Union’s victory in the Civil War, global liberation from fascism, the civil rights movement and the heroism of first responders during 9/11.
“Every day since, over each of our 250 years, America has been a land of hope and liberty, a place of miracles, and the ‘light and glory’ of all nations because of you,” Johnson continued. “Now as we approach the 250th anniversary of American Independence, we face a new set of challenges in a new era. In recent years, we’ve seen sinister ideologies sow confusion and discord among our people. We’ve witnessed attacks on our history, on our heroes, and on the cherished moral and spiritual identity of this great nation. Those voices have sought to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well, and that our founders boldly proclaim in the Declaration: that our rights do not derive from the government, they come from you, our Creator and Heavenly Father.”
Johnson asked for divine guidance to combat the alleged “attacks” on America’s supposed Christian identity and history, praying “to deliver us from the forces of evil oppression and justice and tyranny.”
“We ask that you hear these solemn petitions just as we in the beginning dedicated this land to your most holy name today,” Johnson concluded his prayer. “Here Lord, in this 250th year of American Independence, we hereby rededicate the United States of America as ‘One Nation, Under God.’”
Read Johnson’s full prayer here.
Johnson’s lengthy prayer zealously purported the myth that we were founded as a Christian nation and framed every facet of American history to be “under God.” To Johnson, Christian is synonymous with American, and Christian influence is the driving force behind everything in our country. Johnson, of course, did not acknowledge the constitutional separation between state and church during his prayer and has repeatedly demonized those who criticize his un-American theocracy. During a Fox News interview over the weekend, Johnson said, “The naysayers who have created this new term ‘Christian nationalism’ as a pejorative, a derogatory term, are trying to silence the influence and voices of Christians, and I think that’s wildly inappropriate.”
Following Rededicate 250, Johnson took to X to further promote its Christian nationalist ideas, writing, “The Founders acknowledged in the Declaration the self-evident truths that all men are created equal, and that God gives all men the same inalienable rights. As we approach the 250th birthday of our great nation, it has never been more important to defend truth on every front.” Attached to the post was a graphic of an American flag with the tagline “God Given Rights.”
In another post, Johnson attached a photo of himself leading prayer at the Sunday rally and wrote, “America stands alone as a nation founded upon a creed — articulated in our Declaration 250 years ago —that has been the greatest force for peace, justice, and innovation the world has ever known.”
“For two and a half centuries, America has been a land of hope and liberty, a place of miracles, and a light to all nations — because we are a nation based in faith,” the post continued. “May God continue to bless this great nation, and may we remain a people of prayer.”
The FFRF Action Fund chastises Speaker Johnson for peddling pseudohistory to further his Christian nationalist agenda. Rededicate 250 was a state-sanctioned Christian nationalist prayer rally that completely disregarded the foundational truth of state/church separation — and it should not have occurred.
FFRF Action Fund is a 501(c)(4) organization that develops and advocates for legislation, regulations and government programs to preserve the constitutional principle of separation between state and church. It also advocates for the rights and views of nonbelievers, endorses candidates for political office, and publicizes the views of elected officials concerning religious liberty issues.