'They don't deal with Jesus': Christian minister lays down a challenge to Mike Johnson

Addressing far-right white evangelicals and Christian nationalists, President Donald Trump repeatedly attacks Democrats, liberals and progressives as anti-Christianity. But it isn't hard to find Trump critics who are known for being devout Christians, from Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock (a Baptist minister) to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (a Catholic) to former Transportation Secretary Pete Butigieg (an Episcopalian).

Another critic of Trump and the MAGA movement is Bishop William J. Barber II, who chairs the NAACP's legislative political action committee. Barber is a member of the Disciples of Christ, a Mainline Protestant denomination. And during an interview with Religion News Service (RNS) published in Q&A form on February 9, Barber described the role that faith can play in activism this midterms year and laid out some things that MAGA evangelicals — including House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) — get wrong about Christianity and scripture.

Barber told RNS interviewer Amanda Henderson, "In every battleground state, there should be a massive gathering in the state capitol where the clergy and impacted people and other moral activists come together. No politicians taking the stage…. It's not what I'll fight for because Trump's in office, it's what I will fight for, what I believe in regardless, and what I'm calling this government and nation to be about, irregardless. We're trying to follow that kind of moral Holy Spirit vision of mobilization."

During the interview, Henderson noted that Johnson said, "What's also important in the Bible is that assimilation is expected and anticipated and proper…. Sovereign borders are biblical and good and right. They're just, because it's not because we hate people on the outside. It's because we love the people on the inside."

Barber told Henderson he would be "proud to host" a debate with Johnson about immigration and other subjects.

Barber argued, "First of all, he reveals that he doesn’t know the Bible. He reveals that he certainly doesn't know Jesus. There’s no Jesus in anything he just said. They don't like Jesus. That's why they never call his name. They don't quote Jesus. They don't like Jesus. Jesus undermines them. They would call Jesus a socialist, a communist. They would crucify Jesus. Let's be up front. They don't deal with Jesus…. To do what he's talking about doing, you literally have to take about 2000 scriptures out of the Bible and tear them apart and throw them away — and the Bible, of course, would fall apart."

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