House Speaker Mike Johnson drew support from the SBC president and ignited discussion on social media Wednesday when he said at a news conference it “must have been God's will” for Joe Biden to be president.
Johnson, an outspoken Christian and a former attorney for the faith-based legal group Alliance Defending Freedom, made the comments when a reporter asked him if he believes if “Joe Biden presidency is God's will?”
Johnson, smiling, said he assumed the reporter was referencing the speech he gave the day he was sworn in as speaker.
Mike Johnson says Joe Biden becoming president was "God's will":
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) January 17, 2024
"God allows people to be raised into authority, it must've been God's will then." pic.twitter.com/tyNH8gbgER
“I said in my speech before I took the gavel that, look, I'm a Bible-believing Christian, right? Bible-believing Christians believe what the Bible says,” Johnson responded. “The Bible says that God is the one who raises up people in authority. I believe God is sovereign. By the way, so did the Founders. I quoted the Declaration of Independence. They acknowledged that our rights don't come from government, they will come from God, and we're made in His image -- everybody's made the same. We all are given equal rights and value, and that's something that we defend. So if you believe all those things, then you believe that God is the one that allows people to be raised in authority.
“It must have been God's will, then,” Johnson said of Biden. “That's my belief.”
Steven Bannon, a strategist in the first year of the Trump White House, criticized Johnson, calling Biden an “illegitimate president” and adding, “I don’t need a theologian. I need a Speaker of the House.”
Bart Barber, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, said on X (formerly Twitter) that he supports Johnson’s comments.
It is important to learn to accept from God's hand both the outcome you wanted and the outcome you did not want. The political aspect of this is unimportant—this is Christian discipleship.@SpeakerJohnson is 100% right. Bannon is 100% wrong. https://t.co/eRs7hN75o4
— Bart Barber (@bartbarber) January 17, 2024
“It is important to learn to accept from God's hand both the outcome you wanted and the outcome you did not want,” Barber wrote. “The political aspect of this is unimportant -- this is Christian discipleship. @SpeakerJohnson is 100% right. Bannon is 100% wrong.”
Johnson, in his comments Wednesday, also looked forward to the November election.
“I think that a nation makes a decision collectively because we're given free will to do that,” he said. “And I think we're going to make a much better choice as a country coming up in this election cycle. We're very much looking forward to that regime change.”
Theologians often cite Romans 13:1 when discussing the issue. It reads, “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God..”
Image credit: ©Getty Images/Joe Raedle/Staff
Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.
