 I'm not trying to establish Christianity as the national religion or something that's not what this is about at all. If you truly believe in the Bible's commands and you seek to follow those, it is impossible to be a hateful person because the greatest command in the Bible is that you love God with everything you have and you love your neighbor as yourself. You just heard Republican Speaker Mike Johnson address concerns about him being a hateful bigot towards gay people, allegedly. Now he didn't say he was talking about queer people there but to bring up hate, I mean that was clearly a reference to all of the articles that have come out since he's become speaker about him not really being a big fan of members of the LGBTQ Plus community but according to him we can be relieved to learn that he does not indeed hate gay people and that is very reassuring to me as a member of the LGBTQ Plus community myself because I was beginning to worry admittedly a little bit especially after learning about his advocacy for gay conversion therapy for example and his work with an organization doing gay conversion therapy and his wife's counseling services that compared homosexuality to bestiality and his long-time opposition to gay marriage and his national don't say gay bill and his advocacy for the criminalization of gay sex and his comparison of homosexuality to pedophilia or fears that homosexuality could literally destroy our entire democratic system but thank goodness I have nothing to worry about as a gay man. You know as somebody who was indoctrinated into fundamentalist Christianity myself at a very young age I've experienced nothing but hate and vitriol from American evangelicals but it is so nice to know that we have a speaker who is one of the good Christians not one of the hate mongers not one of the individuals who spread hate really happy about that. Now I'm also very thankful that he cleared up the confusion around him possibly wanting a Christian theocracy because as an atheist that's also something that I was a little bit worried about too specifically after he suggested a religious litmus test for politicians as raw story explains in one 2019 video Kelly Johnson this is his wife reportedly told seminar participants that biblical Christianity or a literal interpretation of the bible including the belief that the earth is just 6,000 years old was the only valid worldview you better sit down any candidate who says they're going to run for legislature and say I want to know what your worldview is I want to know what you think about the Christian heritage of this country I want to know what you think about God's design for society have you even thought about that if they hadn't thought about it you need to move on and find somebody who has Mike Johnson reportedly said in 2019 see that right there gave me pause but hearing him say that he definitely doesn't want to establish Christianity as the national religion makes me feel so much better we can all breathe easier now knowing that um it's not what it seems it's it's not a duck even though it's quacking now sarcasm aside the new speaker of the house obviously is an absolute fucking lunatic and in that interview he was responding to critics concerned about his hateful past and present but it was framed as an attack on his religion when in actuality um there are reasons why critics have been as fierce as they have been but regardless here's some more from that interview you know I want to highlight and and this is truly outrageous some of these things that have been said but I'm just very curious about to your point a faith that is based on love that is Jesus Christ that was what he lived for can be characterized in such a way the daily beast called you a Christo fascist that is the first I've ever heard that term yeah they said you're the most extreme example of a dangerously empowered religious fanatic but here's the line that really stood out to me they go on to say that your desire to institutionalize your faith is the way of the Taliban and the molas in Iran and then Bill Maher who we know is not a similar worldview as ours he went so far as to bring up the main shooter and he said we don't know much about the guy yet but apparently he heard voices and I thought is he different than Mike Johnson I mean degree yes but it's thinner than you think how what is it like to be compared to the moles of Iran the Taliban and the main shooter it's just disgusting I mean that is absurd of course our religion is based on love and acceptance so to compare that worldview with the Taliban who seek to destroy their enemies or with you know some deranged shooter who murders people is absolutely outrageous and I think everyone who follows and believes in a Judeo-Christian worldview should be just terribly offended by that I'm okay I'll take the arrows understand it comes with leadership and when you step into the fray that's what you take him but but what what really hurts me is that it really is a statement about everyone who believes in this that the country was built upon our Judeo-Christian foundation is the heritage of our country no it's not and to be clear I don't think anyone is saying that they have a problem with him being Christian the problem arises when people like him try to use their power to institutionalize their religion right we have the separation of church and state to the chagrin of Christians who don't want to acknowledge that but it is in the constitution look it up and they just pretend like that doesn't exist and then they try to use their religion as a justification to pass certain policies as a justification to be bigoted against LGBTQ plus people and the problem is that's what he's doing that's why people are criticizing him and calling him a Christ of fascist the problem is him using his religion as a driving force behind policy decisions of major consequence case in point as a as a as a Christian I know and we believe that the Bible teaches very clearly that we're to stand with Israel that God will bless the nation that blesses Israel that we're to take peace of Jerusalem exactly and therein lies the problem he is basing policy at least in part on religiosity and as someone raised in the church I promise you evangelical support for Israel is deeply problematic to put it mildly jack been explains the basis of the Israeli evangelical relationship and so too evangelical support for using Israelis to dispossess Palestinians is a belief that God gave Palestine to the Jews and so Jews should be in Palestine so far so simple but the yikes moment of the Israeli evangelical love is that the Jews being in Palestine is seen as a precondition for an Armageddon to rain down on earth exterminating Jews and other non-converts to evangelism while bringing the return of Christ in the apocalyptic second coming found in revelation the final book of the Bible to understand that when evangelical basis their support of Israel on religiosity it is a means to an end and they are implicitly acknowledging that all Jewish people and non-Christians will either be converted or killed in the Armageddon which is something that they want to happen as soon as possible but it's impossible for him to be hateful he's a Christian yeah so when he offers 14 billion dollars an hour tax dollars in aid to Israel for their genocide against Palestinians it's not just because he's beholden to the Israeli lobby it's not just because he doesn't care about the suffering of innocent Palestinians it's because Israel is laying the groundwork for Jesus's return according to him now as more troubling revelations about him and his wife continue to emerge they're both going out of their way to hide the most alarming aspects of their Christo fascism for example his wife Kelly Johnson nuked her counseling website where she compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest and on top of that as LGBTQ nation explains Johnson also removed 69 episodes nice of his and his wife's podcast truth be told with Mike and Kelly Johnson from his website the pair dedicated June of 2023 to praising anti-transgender activist Matt Walsh who blamed the club Q mass shooting on men who cross-dressed in front of children and said that he called for several boycotts of brands selling rainbow products this year in order to make the concept of Pride toxic the Johnsons also got mad at Disney for forcing a radical woke agenda and openly satanic programming on children now just for clarification sake when an evangelical says satanic programming there's a very good chance that they're saying LGBTQ plus affirming programming for children so if there's like a rainbow flag in the background or if a cartoon features a child with two moms or two dads well that is tantamount to Satanism literally ask an evangelical they will tell you that so you know if he really believed that he hasn't said anything hateful the question is why delete so many episodes of their podcast what if we wanted to go back and listen to it I mean I for one have been a long time fan of truth be told with Mike and Kelly so I'm disappointed to know that they removed so many podcasts but the question is why not stand by your conviction especially if it's not hateful I mean it's a good question isn't it now when it comes to his history of bigotry which is undeniable he's playing dumb LGBTQ nation continues before he was elected to congress Johnson was senior legal counsel for alliance defending freedom an SPLC designated hate group in his position at ADL he filed briefs asking courts to allow states to criminalize homosexuality and argued against allowing same-sex couples to marry Johnson has previously said that same-sex marriage will lead to chaos and sexual anarchy and place our entire democratic system in jeopardy by eroding its foundation he claimed legalizing same-sex marriage would lead to pedophiles seeking legal protections for having sex with kids and people trying to marry their pets he has also said homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural ultimately harmful and costly for everyone he has sought to criminalize private gay sex between consenting adults called gay marriage the harbinger of chaos and said gay people should not be a protected class because they are capable of changing their abnormal lifestyles Johnson recently said that such extreme statements were so banal to him that he doesn't even remember them in other words after a comprehensive history of anti-gay advocacy he's pretending to not remember any of it okay well if you're having memory problems do you remember last year when you voted against the codification of same-sex marriage or your don't say gay legislation any of that ring a bell see the reason why this all seems banal to him is because he genuinely is deluded enough to think that he's not hateful when he advocates against civil rights for LGBTQ plus people this is the go-to tactic for evangelicals in one breath they'll argue against our civil rights but in another breath they'll qualify the previous statement with an ostensibly tolerant caveat for example in a 2004 column he wrote he warns quote experts project that homosexual marriage is the dark harbinger of chaos and sexual anarchy that could doom even the strongest republic but right after that he adds to be pro-traditional marriage and conscientiously opposed to all deviations from it is not to be anti-homosexual how tolerant of him as he wrote about how same-sex marriages would literally doom the republic he made sure to point out that he's definitely not anti-gay it's amazing isn't it you see you shouldn't have civil rights and you are definitely going to spend eternity in agonizing pain perpetually burning in the lake of fire and hell but jesus loves you and because jesus loves you i love you because we don't hate anyone we hate the sin not the sinner you know there really is no hate like christian love and what he said in 2004 which is not that long ago is really no different from the rhetoric that we heard from homophobes in the 1970s case in point well first of all i would love them and not disown them because they're my children and i would tell them that god loves them and that i love them very much and i would try to deal with that problem in the life that god does that he loves us as as sinners but he hates our sin and that he cannot abide by sin he cannot tolerate sin in our lives so loving she'd maybe lovingly enroll her gay child in counseling by kelly johnson to teach them that they're comparable to animal fuckers and try to get them to pray with a gear or something i mean after all of these years they're still saying the same bullshit nothing has changed and now all of the things that they said about gay people they're copying and pasting that and saying it about trans people but mike johnson can try to downplay or run away from his extremism but we all know where he stands he is a genuine danger to american democracy not just because of his theocratic views but because he is an insurrectionist supporting election denier who tried to overturn the 2020 election and if american democracy fails which is possible unfortunately it's not going to be because of gay people loving each other it'll be because of christofascist election denying lunatics like mike johnson trans rights are human rights it is necessary to push trans on the kids pride