BYLINE SUPPLEMENT: The Unchristian — ‘Mike Johnson’s Bad Bones’
BYLINE SUPPLEMENT: The Unchristian — ‘Mike Johnson’s Bad Bones’
An excerpt from my Byline Supplement investigation into the creepy world of Mike Johnson
***Thank you for supporting my work with a paid membership.***
There have been a few times in recent years when the work I do — often in the dead of night — causes a chill in my bones.
The first time was when I was threading the parallel operations between Robert Mercer and Vladimir Putin.
The second time was when I was writing up my first interview with Dave Troy — ‘The Network’ — for Byline Times. I could see the direct lines between the religious extremists/fossil fuel fascists dominating the GOP and the Kremlin.
The third time was my first interview with Anne Nelson — End Game — which did a deep dive on the shadowy dark money group, the Council for National Policy, which revealed not only a threat to democracy but also earth itself.
“There was never a day when the majority of Germans woke up and voted for Hitler,” said Nelson, in that interview. “It didn’t happen. The fault lines in their system were manipulated and exploited by bad actors. And then they ended up with a dictatorship. And I don’t want to see that happen here.”
I recall calling my daughter to brace her for what was coming — an all out war on gay rights.
I have written dozens of reports on the cynical fake culture wars to push people away from humanity and into fear and loathing.
But it was in the wee hours Friday morning, as I was writing my investigation into the dark and twisted world of Mike Johnson, that the coldest chill came over me.
Johnson is a cynical CNP production, with funding from Koch and Mercer and the Russians — the network — likely their greatest achievement to date.
For very little money, they got a weapon of mass democratic destruction in one man.
I have been looking beyond the mild-mannered exterior of the US Speaker of the House to find connections to election denialism, the extremist of religious extremism — including depriving women of health care rights and depriving all gay rights — Russian and US oligarchs, violent rhetoric, and myriad sexual assaulters.
Below is an excerpt from my report on Johnson, which ran this morning in Byline Supplement. As always I ask if you can support Byline with a subscription, it helps a small global team of investigative reporters. If you are unable to do so at this time and wish to read the report, I am authorized by Byline editors to send the report on request. Please send a request to bettedangerous/gmail.
Bad Bones excerpt:
“The kingdom of God allows for aggression, and there’s a time to every purpose under heaven. From the time of John the Baptist until today, the kingdom of God has been advancing by forceful men and forceful men take hold of it, that’s what the New Testament says.”—Mike Johnson
In watching archival videos of Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican second in line for the presidency, I notice some curious tics. Although a seasoned lawyer with a polished delivery, he sits tightly hunched in his chair, toes repeatedly pointing skyward, heels remaining on the ground. He tilts his head coyly, side to side, while smoothly creating a house of mirrors — homophobes as victims, Christians as the persecuted. His mannerisms give the appearance of a child who really doesn’t want to be there, like a boy in church when the sermon drags on. He seems forced to perform, but for whom?
The video is from 3 February 2015, before the collective cash from billionaire Trump backer and democratic wrecking ball Robert Mercer and a trio of connected Russian oligarchs aimed to secure him a seat on Congress. By then, he’d cut his teeth as the go-to lawyer for defending religious extremism, and aiming to criminalize being gay. He was closely tied to two Council for National Policy presidents — Tony Perkins, an avid homophobe, and Paul Pressler, trailed by four decades of child sexual assault allegations and a $450,000 settlement in 2023.
Watching and listening to Johnson, pre-Speaker, I am reminded of Jeff Sharlet’s The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War. He goes to the places we rarely see, to try to document and record the Trumpocene, to understand the coordinated attacks on human rights and the simmering violence. And wherever he goes , there are traces of Mike Johnson’s handiwork.
Despite Johnson’s coy boy head tilts, he is a deepening threat to America and our allies. Currently, he is withholding aid to Ukraine in fealty to Trump, while attacking Biden on X/Twitter each day by shitposting of immigrant boogeymen. He attempted Constitutional sleight-of-hand to prevent the certification of the 2020 election — and when that failed, he voted against certification, thus attempting to deny Americans their rightful vote.
‘The Warrior Christ Tradition’
While watching a video of him from a decade ago, I feel like I have entered an alternate reality. The subject matter of the 2015 video is a lawsuit against the state of Kentucky over a creationist theme park, initially denied a tax rebate due to discriminatory hiring practices. The museum boasts a giant Noah’s ark and promotes biblical mythology as real history, while ensuring guests are reminded that a vengeful God will damn all sinners to eternal hell.
“God will judge this wicked world once again, but this time it will be by fire … God always keeps His promises – judgment will come,” notes the Ark Encounter website. Unrepentant sinners will be treated to “everlasting, conscious punishment in the lake of fire.”
Employees must abide by a 46-point faith statement, ensuring anti-gay propaganda is adhered to.
Bad Bones
At the Ark Encounter, as part of creationist beliefs, small dinosaurs comprised of fake bones were added to the ark — imagining that people and dinosaurs lived together at the same time. According to Answers in Genesis, the fundamentalist organization that created Ark Encounter, the museum’s aim is to “expose the bankruptcy of evolutionary ideas.”
And just when I feel I’m descending into flat earther hell, I’m rescued by a comment from a sane person on X/ Twitter:
“The Ark Encounter in Kentucky is absolutely incredible because it’s hard to believe someone would make something so stupid,” wrote an unenchanted visitor.
This, in a nutshell, is Mike Johnson’s very creepy world.
In an interview on 9 September 2015, as the chief counsel for Freedom Guard — a legal firm that offered pro bono services to homophobes — Johnson breezily defended a county clerk from Kentucky who was jailed for refusing to issue marriage licenses to gay nuptials. Again, he deftly creates an upside-down world where the clerk is the victim — not those whose rights she is denying.
In the interview, he says “the kingdom of God allows for aggression… the kingdom of God has been advancing by forceful men and forceful men take hold of it.”
Again, I hear echoes of Sharlet’s Undertow. He calls it the “warrior Christ tradition.”
“On January 6, 2021, we enter the age of martyrs with the death of Ashli Babbitt, and that centrality of martyrdom, what the Nazis called ‘blood witnesses.’ And that unleashes a whole new level of violence,” Sharlet said. “And we're seeing it in Trump's rhetoric, which has grown actually more violent. And I don't want to diminish how violent it was all along.”
As Trump now talks of ‘bloodbaths’ and mild-mannered Johnson has gone on record saying the Bible applauds violence, I think about the Church of Glad Tidings in Yuba City, California, where there are no crosses, where former Trump national security advisor Mike Flynn was gifted an AR-15 and said, “Maybe I’ll find someone in Washington, DC.”
“They've decided that the cross is weak tea,” said Sharlet in an interview. “It's too wimpy. Instead, you have a pulpit made of swords, this is war time theology, right? What's dropping out in these churches is Jesus. They don't talk about Jesus too much. There is a warrior Christ tradition that they can tap into and right now, we see the surge also in a very poisonous masculinity.”
So is mild-mannered Mike a wolf in sheep’s clothing, delivering us to evil in the form of a poisonous toxic masculinity?
“The kingdom of God allows for aggression… the kingdom of God has been advancing by forceful men and forceful men take hold.”
And if so, how did he become the anointed wolf?
In the report, I delineate the culture of virulent homophobia and sex abuse that is repeatedly in his orbit, as well as the network that funded him into office, with ties to a PAC funded by Mercer that paid Cambridge Analytica, as well as the Koch cadre, Russian oligarchs, and climate and science denialism.
This is not a man who represents the American people. He is a dangerous extremist, roll playing a mild-mannered politician.
Every alarm bell is ringing. I just hope we hear it in time.
We need to demand answers — I sent questions to Mike Johnson’s media representatives if he has denounced the sex abusers and culture of abuse in organizations he was involved in — as well whether or not he has denounced Russia’s malign influence on US election — and denounced the homophobic policies he has backed and the anti-human rights efforts of his past work. I have been asking him to respond on Twitter, as well, but all I have gotten back is radio silence.
The silence is as deafening as the alarm bells.
I will leave you with some sound advice from Dean Obeidallah, who wrote this morning about MAGA Taylor Greene’s latest maneuver to oust Johnson:
“Don’t catch a falling knife… My advice to Democrats is: Don’t catch a falling Republican. Instead, hope the GOP keeps plummeting in value to the point of bankruptcy. (After all, the GOP Is already morally bankrupt.)”—Dean Obeidallah
These are not Christians. These are un-Christians. They are dangerous, and an un-Christian man such as Mike Johnson should not be this close to the presidency.
****
Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. Some of you prefer making subsidizing donations via venmo, and it’s always greatly appreciated. Thank you to everyone who pitches in with a monthly membership - each time they come in, it always feels like pennies from heaven.
A private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous@gmail.com. 🥹
More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
🤍🤍
“Begin each day with a grateful heart.”
🤍🤍
