It makes sense that the Republican speaker of the House would lead a GOP retreat meant to discuss how to keep and expand the chamber's majority. What didn't make sense to some in attendance at the Miami event last weekend, however, was the tenor of Mike Johnson's speech, which sources tell Politico took on a "surprisingly religious tone." At one point, those sources say, Johnson, a Christian, tried to pump up the group by talking about moral decline in the US, citing Bible verses and claiming that people who don't have God in their lives become reliant on the "state."
Raw Story notes that Johnson's remarks didn't resonate with some in the audience. "I'm not at church," one attendee described the presentation to Politico, calling it "horrible." Another noted that they got what Johnson was trying to do ("bring us together"), but he "failed on the execution of it. ... The sermon was so long he couldn't bring it back to make the point."
Charles Pierce writes for Esquire that Johnson "is surely the most obvious theocrat to occupy a space in the presidential line of succession in two centuries," and there are incidents to back that assertion up. Johnson has made religious references before in public, including saying he'd been ordained by God to be speaker and comparing himself to Moses. He also used to conduct church seminars in which he promoted the idea of the US as a "Christian nation." (More Mike Johnson stories.)
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