Everyone knows House Speaker Mike Johnson is an empty suit. That’s why he got the job in the first place! Still, sometimes he fancies himself as a true political force, and to buttress the image he wants he said (and convinced lots of RWNJ groups) that God told him he’s modern Moses. As such, he apparently feels he’s bigger, has more ‘religious authority’ than the Pope. So he decided to give Pope Leo a lesson on scripture and what Jesus “really meant” when it comes to welcoming the stranger, immigration etc.
Vance, who is Catholic (or at least still attends Mass) took a shot at the Pope last fall on the issue, but to date Vance hasn’t claimed the mantle of being the reincarnation of a major biblical figure. Also, Vance’s pushback on the Pope’s criticism of our immigration policy and treatment of immigrants wasn’t much more than a social media post and a comment or two to journalists. Johnson however is, in his own mind more than a mere elected official high in the line of succession to the Presidency. He is freaking MOSES! So, as this article from The Mirror US tells us Johnson penned a 1600 word treatise on why Pope Leo just doesn’t understand scripture or Jesus’ teaching.
Put bluntly, Moses Mikey wasn’t content to chide the Pope, he went and condescendingly wrote an extensive “MAGAsplain”, like HE (Johnson) was the real authority on Christianity and the teachings of Christ and the Pope was just some dude over in Rome serving as caretaker of the Vatican. Call me crazy, but let me point out a couple of things. Moses was in fact a major part of the OLD Testament. Then Jesus came along and HIS ministry established the NEW Testament which became the basis for Christianity as we know it. The whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry was to teach people that following a bunch of rules that had little or nothing to do with helping their fellow man was NOT the path to the Kingdom of Heaven. Moses and others were the old way. Jesus was the new. Too many people I think forget that.
Let’s backtrack to how all this got going. In his first term Trump’s immigration policy was intentionally cruel. From the beginning his second term has set out to make the stuff that went on during the first term a cakewalk in comparison. As it happens, Leo is the first Pope ever who was born, raised and educated in the U.S. While most of his time a priest before becoming Pope was abroad he still has plenty of friends here and knows his home country. Since so many self-professed Christians so often do the opposite of what Jesus taught it’s got to bother him. On the subject of immigration, given what’s been going on and having seen and dealt with those seeking refuge in places most of us don’t think about Pope Leo spoke out:
Last November, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued an uncommon statement criticizing Trump’s immigration policies and announcing a support initiative for immigrants living in the United States.
“We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people,” the statement declared. “We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, whether directed at immigrants or at law enforcement.”
Leo had earlier pointed out that biblical teachings focus on the ultimate question humanity will face: “How did you receive the foreigner, did you receive him and welcome him, or not? I think there is a deep reflection that needs to be made about what is happening.
“We have to look for ways of treating people humanely, treating people with the dignity that they have,” Leo XIV told reporters on November 18. “If people are in the United States illegally, there are ways to treat that. There are courts, there’s a system of justice.”
As I said, J.D. Vance clapped back at that. I keep waiting for him to start showing up at some RWNJ Evangelical church instead of Mass. Johnson of course has always been one of those ‘Prosperity Gospel’ types. The folks who redact parts of the Gospels where Jesus talked about wealth, giving to the poor etc. Oh, and added their own language about how good, “moral” Christians should seek wealth and celebrate it. As for those who don’t have it, they say it’s fine to not just look down on them but to put a boot on their neck!
For Johnson and his ilk if you aren’t well-off it’s because you don’t deserve to be no matter how hard you work and how much you help others. It naturally follows that he’d think anyone not lucky enough to have been born in the U.S. (and WHITE with a couple of generations of WHITE ancestors who were U.S. citizens) should f**k off. Johnson believes himself to be a modern biblical figure, and therefore knowledgeable enough to give lessons to others, including the leader of the largest (when you consider the number of Catholics around the globe) denomination. A leader who like predecessors had to serve a lifetime to even be in the College of Cardinals and be elected to the Papacy!
You know what? I’m quite certain the Pope knows a whole lot more about the bible, the teachings of Christ and most importantly how it relates to geopolitics and how people get treated by governments and their fellow man. Pope Leo has been out there in the world in small parishes making a difference while Johnson has lived a relatively bland and sheltered existence. Pope Leo is highly educated. Johnson? Not so much. Pope Leo, as he’s risen in church leadership gained lots of practical experience in international relations and diplomacy. Johnson? Again not so much. Yet Moses Mikey presumes to lecture THE POPE like Leo is some miscreant schoolboy speaking out of turn:
“Sovereign borders are biblical and good and right, and they’re just… it’s not because we hate the people on the outside, it’s because we love the people on the inside,” Johnson said during a press conference on Capitol Hill.
“We should love our neighbors ourselves as individuals, but as a civil authority, the government has to maintain the law,” he added.
Johnson wasn’t done, he squeezed out one more sentence, calling on the Bible as his defense.
“And that is biblical, and it’s right, and it’s just.”
There’s more about Johnson’s essay in the linked article and I urge you to read it. I for one find it appalling that some twerp like Johnson would presume to lecture a true spiritual leader who’s spent a lifetime in the service of God and Christianity on the teachings of the Savior Moses Mikely CLAIMS to worship and follow. Jesus and his family were illegal immigrants. After his death some of his followers including Mary fled to Gual (southern France) where there was a significant Jewish population they could assimilate into. One last thought. The Holy Land was under a brutal Roman occupation during Jesus’ time. The Romans were well practiced in carrying out brutal punishments to those who challenged their authority. I wonder what Moses Mikey has to say about THAT?
It will be interesting to see if the Pope, or the Council of Bishops respond to Johnson’s nonsense. Perhaps they will choose not to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed person. Alas, one of the most dangerous things is someone who thinks they know more than they do. Trump is the ultimate, but as Speaker of the House Johnson wields enormous power. He’s in way over his head and it worries me he doesn’t seem to realize it. Now we have him preaching to the POPE! Things just keep getting weirder.
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Bad enough he tries to lecture a priest on Christianity, but to lecture the POPE?
It’s like a ditch digger with a spade lecturing Frank Lloyd Wright on proportion.
I wonder what all the prosperity types would think of someone who swore off the affluent, corporate life and spent all their disposable income helping the poor? Someone who lived humbly, despite their means, like Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter?
I think given all the potshots conservatives took at the Carter’s you have your answer. I’d also like to mention someone else. Andrew Carnegie vowed to beat John Rockefeller. The latter made it a point to drive Carnegie’s mentor and benefactor/supporter Tom Scott into an early grave by destroying not just his finances but his ability to recover. The battle between Carnegie and Rockefeller went on for decades but for all his Carnegie’s success with U.S. Steel Rockefeller was more rich and by a significant margin. Carnegie, who started out poor as dirt himself and got his big break being picked by Scott as a lowly assistant/errand boy. Impressed by Carnegie’s energy and intelligence Scott took him under his wing. But it seems Carnegie began thinking of his early life and what he’d put his own workers through to build his empire. He wanted out but couldn’t bring himself to walk away, not with Rockefeller out there. Then along came J.P. Morgan offering to meet whatever price Carnegie wanted. Carnegie wrote down a ridiculous sum assuming Morgan would politely try to negotiate. Morgan took one look and told the intermediary (Carnegie’s top aide) to tell him he had a deal. If memory serves the amount was around $635 million but keep in mind this was over a century ago. Today that amount would transfer to hundreds of billions.
What did Carnegie do once he’d become the richest man in the world? He gave most of it away! He built libraries and schools and set up charitable trusts and so on. Oh, he kept a nice amount for himself to leave his own family but MOST of it was given away and for worthy causes. Bill Gates as I recall gave away a chunk of his fortune at one point but by percentage it was nowhere near close to what Carnegie did.
Imagine a world in which people worth upwards of fifty billion were to donate say 75% of it to worthy causes. They’d still have a shitload of money and live lives of luxury you and I can’t imagine in our wildest dreams.
Or, if they find it difficult to get around to giving it away, have a progressive tax system that helps their endeavour! That allows for the “Oh, he kept a nice amount for himself to leave his own family”. As the failure of Trickle Down Economics has shown, not a lot trickles down after the first $ m/billion.