Washington, D.C. | The new Speaker of House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has a long history with Southern Baptists. The U.S. Representative from Louisiana is a member of Cypress Baptist Church in metro Shreveport. He served as a trustee for the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission for eight years, 2004-2012.
“He deserves and needs our prayers, as do all leaders, for the challenging days ahead,” ERLC President Brent Leatherwood tweeted at the time of Johnson’s election.
Johnson, 51, is the second consecutive Southern Baptist to helm the House. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, California was also a member of a Southern Baptist church. He served 10 months in Republicans’ highest post, and was third in line for the presidency behind Vice President Kamala Harris, before his ouster on Oct. 3.
“I’m thankful that the Speaker takes his ERLC experience to the Capitol in this new way,” said IBSA Church Health Director Scott Foshie, who is also an ERLC trustee. “The ERLC’s advocacy work and its clearly articulated positions will help him as he shapes an agenda that reflects a biblical world view. Illinois Baptists should unite in prayer for Speaker Johnson as he represents Baptists in the public square.”
“He deserves our earnest prayers, along with all of our political leaders,” Leatherwood posted, “as many significant decisions lie ahead about America’s future and its role in the consequential events occurring across the globe. Clear-eyed leadership, based in reality, that works to build consensus around these issues is needed now as much as ever from the Speaker’s chair.”
Leatherwood met with Johnson after his election as ERLC President. It was Leatherwood’s first appointment on Capitol Hill. “It was clear to me he carries an abiding devotion to our convention of churches, subscribes to our principles that are dear to so many Southern Baptists, and has a deep pride in our nation,” Leatherwood said.
“My faith is very real to me,” Johnson told the Louisiana Baptist Message when he first ran for Congress in 2016, “and God is ever present in my life. I’m a committed Christian and my faith informs everything I do.
“My values follow the model of our Founding Fathers, I believe, and I think this is important” he said. “We were established as one nation under God. We are perilously close to forgetting that principle now—and we desperately need to return to this fundamental understanding.”
Johnson repeated some of these commitments from the House dais in a speech moments before he was sworn in.
Prior to his tenure in Washington, Johnson was a practicing attorney. He successfully defended a 2004 bill to protect marriage before the Louisiana Supreme Court. As the Louisiana Baptist Message reported, Johnson was a pro-life champion in his state. Johnson and his wife, Kelly, were married in 1999 and have four children.
The couple launched a podcast in 2022 called “Truth Be Told” that addresses issues of religious liberty, politics, and faith. The most recent episode was posted Oct. 8.
Johnson was the fourth nominee put forward by Republicans in the House, and the only one who could muster enough support to meet the 217-vote minimum. Johnson was the number five ranking Republican, and leader of the party conference. As USA Today reported, “The Louisiana Republican now has a monumental task ahead of him: mending the deep divisions that has plagued the House Republican conference since it took control of the House in January.”
Johnson will also have to navigate funding the government as a Nov. 17 deadline nears. He told the Washington Post he has a plan. Also at issue, the funding support for Israel in its war against Hamas terrorists. Johnson promised to bring a bill supporting Israel within minutes of his election. Funding for Ukraine is also pending, but that is less popular among his fellow Republicans. He also promised to bring action to fix “the broken border” along with a string of other issues including economic decline, whose consequences he called unbearable.
“We will defend our core principles to the end,” Johnson said.
–IB Staff