Mike Johnson deeply linked to 'dangerous, anti-democratic' extremists: scholar

Newly elected House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) may come across as “mild-mannered,” “soft-spoken,” but don't be fooled – he has deep and abiding ties to some of the most anti-democratic extremists in U.S. politics, according to one scholar on American religion.

The back-bench Louisiana Republican managed to take over the gavel from ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) following three weeks of chaos, and his lawyerly efforts to help Donald Trump overturn his election loss in 2020 flow from his ties to a broad nondenominational network of religious extremists working to end American democracy, wrote expert Matthew D. Taylor in a new column for The Bulwark.

"Politically extreme conservative Christians were some of the foremost leaders who bought into and bolstered Trump’s 2020 election lies, who used theology to justify their own authoritarianism, and who have brought their extremist theologies into the heart of right-wing politics," wrote Taylor, a scholar at the Institute for Islamic, Christian, and Jewish Studies. "Mike Johnson can be located in this group."

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Johnson, a Southern Baptist himself, has spent years working with the leaders of New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) and praises Jim Garlow and Mario Bramnic, two of the movement's most influential apostles in promoting the profoundly anti-democratic "Seven Mountain Mandate" aimed at transforming the nation into a Christian theocracy.

"After the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden, Garlow and Bramnick organized a series of 'Global Prayer for Election Integrity' calls where they gathered like-minded Christians (predominantly others who were on board with the 'Seven Mountain' paradigm) to pray and organize for Trump’s reinstatement as president," Taylor wrote. "Political schemer Steve Bannon, future far-right Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano, Christian nationalist worship leader Sean Feucht, and former general (and current conspiracy theorist) Michael Flynn all joined at least one of these calls, making them a central interface between the grassroots Christian nationalist forces angrily mobilizing on Trump’s behalf, on the one hand, and the planners and orchestrators of January 6th who intended to channel their rage towards specific objectives, on the other."

Garlow and Bramnick are still leading those calls, although they're now called "World Prayer Network" calls, and Johnson is a regular and enthusiastic participant.

“You’ve been a profound influence on my life and my walk with Christ, brother,” Johnson told Garlow during one World Prayer Network call.

Johnson also has close ties to the Christian Center Shreveport back home in Louisiana whose pastor Timothy Carscadden spreads the extremist theology of Dutch Sheets, a major apostles in the movement who claims the Bible teaches that the government should do the church's bidding – and who had a direct line to the Trump administration.

"[Sheets] is an influential activist, and he was a core — though covert — adviser to the Trump administration, helping to coordinate prayer and spiritual warfare efforts," Taylor wrote. "This he did not only along with Garlow and Bramnick, but also in concert with Mike Pence and Paula White-Cain (Trump’s closest religious adviser). I have previously reported on a bizarre multi-hour meeting at the White House that brought Trump administration officials together with Dutch Sheets, who was accompanied by a team of his most trusted apostles and prophets. It took place on December 29, 2020 — eight days before the attack on the Capitol."

Johnson echoes the NAR's language of spiritual warfare to describe his role in Congress, and that's the same language its leaders used to whip Christian conservatives into a frenzy heading into Jan. 6, 2021.

"There is no contradiction in observing that Mike Johnson is both a mild-mannered, courteous, conservative evangelical Christian and a politically extreme ideologue," Taylor wrote. "He has surrounded himself with some of the most dangerous, anti-democratic Christian leaders in the country — the same people who theologized the January 6th insurrection — and offered them his public support and praise. Is there any doubt about the flock to which he belongs?"