If God Raises Up Leadership, Why Do Christian Republicans Oppose Biden?

The Christian hypocrisy of the new House Speaker

Third round of voting for Speaker of the House | C-SPAN via Wikimedia

God’s choice for House Speaker

After three weeks without a House Speaker, several failed votes, and four different nominees, the Republican House majority has finally elected a Speaker of the House. While the new speaker has only been in Congress for six years and has no experience in House leadership, according to him, he has been “raised up” by God “for this specific moment in this time.” After being elected as House Speaker, Mike Johnson told his fellow Representatives,

I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night. I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a matter like this. I believe that scripture — the Bible — is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief. I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country, and they deserve it.

According to Johnson, “God is the one that raises up those in authority,” and God has “ordained” ALL of the current House members “for this specific moment in this time.” He emphatically stated,

This is my belief.

Biden, therefore, must be God’s choice as well

According to Johnson’s logic, God must have raised up Joe Biden (and Johnson’s Democratic colleagues) as well “for this specific moment in this time.” If this is Johnson’s belief, why did Johnson tweet the following on January 6, 2021, as Congress prepared to certify Biden’s win and just before Trump’s supporters overran the Capitol?:

We MUST fight for election integrity, the Constitution, and the preservation of our republic! It will be my honor to help lead that fight in the Congress today.

Suppose Johnson’s God is the one that raises up those in authority. Why did Johnson lead the Republican Congressional push to overturn the 2020 U.S. Presidential election results after every state had certified Trump’s loss and several courts had rejected the former president’s challenges?

Over a year later, on “Truth Be Told,” the Christian podcast Johnson hosts with his wife, Kelly, Mr. Johnson continued arguing that he and his colleagues had been right to object to the election results. Despite evidence to the contrary, Johnson continued to assert a falsehood that “The slates of electors were produced by a clearly unconstitutional process, period.” Mr. Johnson refused to accept his now-professed belief that:

“God is the one that raises up those in authority.”

Johnson declined to answer when asked about the 2020 election at a news conference immediately after his nomination for House Speaker. Other Republicans who flanked him booed the reporter who asked the question. Standing next to Johnson, North Carolina Representative Virginia Foxx yelled, “Shut up!” to the reporter asking the question.

Before voting for Johnson as Speaker, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said she wanted assurances the candidates would pursue impeachment inquiries into Biden and other top Cabinet officials. Greene voted for Johnson because he provided such assurance.

But, If Johnson’s God is the one that raises up those in authority, then his God must have raised up Joe Biden. Is Johnson disregarding his God’s selection of Biden because Johnson prefers Trump over Biden, or does Johnson’s God only raise up Republicans who are in authority and not Democrats?

Johnson told his Democratic colleagues in the House that God “raised up each of you, all of us. And I believe God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.”

Using the Bible to justify oppression

When Johnson says, “The Bible is very clear: that God is the one that raises up those in authority,” he seems to be referring to the Christian New Testament passage, Romans 13:1, which reads:

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.

If Johnson honestly believes God is the one that raises up those in authority and that God has established the existing authorities, he would gladly accept the authority of Joe Biden as divinely ordained. Johnson, however, is engaging in a typical Republican tactic of invoking God and using the Bible to defend oppressive legislative practices.

On June 14, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border by referencing Romans 13. “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13,” Sessions said, “to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.”

By appealing to “the purpose of order,” Sessions invoked the argument of 18th-century Loyalists who opposed the American Revolution and all resistance to Britain. Loyalists taught unconditional submission to British governance to preserve law and order. On the other hand, the Patriots did not believe the Bible supported submission to evil or tyrannous authorities that violated God’s moral law.

Ironically, after the American Revolution, the Patriots — who initially opposed the Loyalist position of unconditional submission — quickly adopted the position by demanding absolute submission to America’s new colonial government.

While the Patriots fought for “freedom” from British governance, Romans 13 quickly became the Patriots’ linchpin for denying freedom to enslaved black people. It served as a basis for enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave teeth to a provision in the U.S. Constitution requiring any individual who escaped enslavement be returned to slavery.

Religiously conservative Trump supporters like Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene often identify as “patriots.” They even identify the January 6 rioters as “patriots.” US Representative Clay Higgins, also from Louisiana, praised Johnson as a “patriot,” saying,

Our country is at a critical juncture, and Mike Johnson is the right man to unify and lead our Republican Majority. He’s been a Brother to me since we came to Congress in 2017. We have stood shoulder to shoulder, battling for conservative principles and working to advance Louisiana’s interests. He is a true and dedicated Patriot who will lead our Republican Conference with strength, intellect, and determination.

Romans 13 is often a go-to scripture invoked by so-called “patriots” and religious conservatives to promote oppressive social and legal practices. Romans 13 was recently given as a reason why innocent black people should stop resisting when police accost them. In an attempt to disparage the Black Lives Matter movement, a Christian pastor from Dallas, TX, asserted,

The New Testament says in Romans 13:4 that law enforcement officers are “ministers of God sent by God to punish evildoers.”

Unfortunately, most of the time, when conservative Christian politicians like Johnson invoke God and the Bible, it’s to give divine legitimization to oppressive policies and practices.

Here’s how Johnson has used his “God-given” gifts

At the end of his address to his House colleagues after being voted Speaker, Johnson said,

I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country, and they deserve it.

Since being elected to the House of Representatives, Johnson has consistently opposed a woman’s right to abortion. After Roe v Wade was overturned, he posted on Twitter (now known as X) that in Louisiana, “we will get the number of abortions to ZERO!!”

He also argued that if women were forced to give birth rather than choosing to have an abortion, there would be more “able-bodied workers” in America, and the GOP wouldn’t have to cut Social Security.

Johnson also opposed legislation last year that would require states to recognize same-sex marriages that were legal where they were performed.

Here are other ways Mike Johnson has used his “gifts”:

Working so hard to lead the House Republicans’ amicus brief backing a Texas lawsuit to the Supreme Court that sought to overturn the 2020 election that he was identified as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections”;
Rejecting the certification of the Pennsylvania election results in the 2020 election (a vote that came after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol);
Attacking abortion rights — including calling for providers to be “imprisoned at hard labor for 1–10 years;”
Promoting the criminalization of homosexuality, calling it “inherently unnatural” and a “dangerous lifestyle” and linking it to bestiality;
Voting against protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law;
Leading a bill in the Louisiana State House that would have protected discrimination against same-sex couples;
Introducing a bill that prohibited using federal funds for providing education to children under ten that included L.G.B.T.Q. topics — a proposal that critics called a national version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law;
Challenging climate science, opposing clean energy, and receiving more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry in 2022; and
Voting against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed after the tragic school shooting in Uvalde, TX

It’s difficult for me to understand how Representative Johnson perceives the actions above as serving “the extraordinary people of this great country” unless he has a very narrow understanding of who those “extraordinary people” are.

While it would be nice if Mr. Johnson’s faith empowered him to recognize and appreciate the God-given talents and gifts of his Republican and Democratic colleagues and to serve “the extraordinary people of this great country,” his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election, his continued willingness to promote “stolen election” lies, his willingness to deny inalienable human rights to people based on race, gender, and sexual orientation, and his utter disregard for the environment, reveal deep-rooted hypocrisy that makes it difficult for me to accept the sincerity of his professed belief.

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