This week’s theocrats are Vice President JD Vance and House Speaker Mike Johnson for their zealous religious appeals at this year’s March for Life in justifying the Trump administration’s aggressive anti-abortion efforts.
The annual March for Life took place in Washington, D.C., last week on what should have been the 53rd anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Vance and Johnson both appeared at the rally, addressing an audience of tens of thousands of anti-abortion attendees. Both of their speeches contained blatant religious rhetoric, using Christianity to energize the anti-abortion movement.
Vance underscored: “Under this administration, again, from the president of the United States to the vice president, you have an ally in the White House.” He touted anti-abortion victories such as President Trump’s Supreme Court justices securing the Dobbs decision, reinstating the global gag order and “undoing the evils we saw under” the Biden administration.
The vice president crowed, “Let me just say, my friends, that we have to be clear: We cannot be neutral. Our country cannot be indifferent about whether its next generations live or die. Because think about it, what ultimately gives meaning and life to the United States of America? This is not a new question.”
“Every civilization has been forced to answer it,” he continued. “We march today because you have an answer to this question about what kind of civilization we are and about what kind of civilization we are going to become in the future.”
Vance is, of course, talking of a civilization ruled by Christianity.
While claiming that Americans “grew up in a Christian culture and were formed by religious values,” Vance argued that “the mark of barbarism is that we treat babies like inconveniences to be discarded rather than the blessings to cherish that they are.”
“But the inheritance of our civilization is something else,” Vance concluded. “As Scripture tells us, each life is fearfully and wonderfully made by our Creator. The March for Life, my friends, it’s not just about a political issue. As important as all this politics stuff is, it is about whether we will remain a civilization under God or whether we ultimately return to the paganism that dominated the past.”
Johnson’s remarks echoed Vance’s sentiment on the “foundational truth of America.” He told the audience, “We celebrate the self-evident truth. That all people, every single person, is made by God. We are made by our Creator.”
“The Founders understood that we are made in the image of our Creator, and that He is the one that gives us our inalienable rights, the rights of life and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” Johnson professed. “Our rights do not derive from the government. They derive from God himself. And we need to remind everybody of that.” Johnson described these supposed religious foundations as “what makes America unique and special.”
Both Vance and Johnson’s remarks highlight the blatant religious underpinning of the anti-abortion movement in the United States — endangering our secular democracy and the constitutional separation between government and religion.
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