The National Catholic Reporter reports how House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) believes that religion in the public sphere is “one of the most misunderstood issues in American public life.”
Speaking to the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast on March 19, Johnson says the phrase “separation of church and state,” which is not found in the Constitution, is not meant to keep the church from influencing government, rather the exact opposite.
“Jefferson clearly did not mean that wall to keep religion from influencing our government and public life. To the contrary, the founders wanted to protect the church and the religious practice of citizens from an encroaching state, not the other way around,” Johnson says.
The phrase itself was put in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association, assuring them that the government was not going to dictate how they worshipped.
“And in that letter he explained that because, quote, ‘religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, the First Amendment is a vital safeguard for our rights of conscience’,” Johnson states.
Johnson says Democrats have turned this concept on its head and are quite passionate about it.
“There are some very angry voices out there trying to convince us breathlessly that there must be a rigid separation between church and state,” Johnson says.
And he mentions it wasn't just Jefferson that held to a correct interpretation of the phrase.
“John Adams came next, our second president. He said, ‘our Constitution is made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other’,” Johnson states.
This is not the first time Johnson has spoken against Democrat interpretation of religion in government. On July 12, 2025, a press release announced that he published an op-ed on X titled “The True Meaning of ‘The Separation of Church and State’.”
