{"id":23326,"date":"2026-03-22T16:42:54","date_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:42:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=23326"},"modified":"2026-03-22T16:42:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-22T16:42:54","slug":"speaker-mike-johnson-separation-of-church-and-state-is-misunderstood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/?p=23326","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Mike Johnson: Separation of church and state is ‘misunderstood’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Reading Time:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

(THE CHRISTIAN POST) \u2013 House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling on Americans to embrace the true meaning of the term \u201cseparation of church and state,\u201d which he said is \u201cone of the most misunderstood issues in American society.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Let the IFA community know how to pray for you<\/span>.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 2026 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast took place at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center on Thursday, with concluding remarks from Johnson, who reflected on the role that the Christian faith has played in U.S. history ahead of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is from the very birth of our nation that America has always been sustained by prayer and been reliant upon our foundation of religion and morality and it\u2019s in the DNA of our nation and who we are,\u201d he explained.\n<\/p>\n

Johnson, a former professor and lawyer, emphasized his expertise in \u201creligion in the public sphere,\u201d calling it one of his favorite and most misunderstood topics.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m often criticized for invoking my faith,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThat\u2019s not some innovative thing. There are some very angry voices out there trying to convince us breathlessly that there must be a rigid separation between church and state. It\u2019s a phrase that\u2019s often repeated, as we know, but very rarely understood.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Touching on the origin of the phrase, Johnson added that \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d first appeared in \u201ca personal letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association\u201d rather than the United States Constitution. \u201cAnd in that letter, he explained that because \u2018religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God,\u2019 the First Amendment is a vital safeguard for our rights of conscience.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cJefferson wrote that he revered that act of the American people, which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state,\u201d he added.\n<\/p>\n

Referring to atheist and nontheist organizations and advocacy groups who often use the phrase \u201cseparation of church and state\u201d when criticizing religion in the public square, Johnson lamented that \u201cnow, they take that phrase and they turn it around.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Johnson insisted that \u201cJefferson clearly did not mean that wall to keep religion from influencing our government and public life.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the contrary, the Founders wanted to protect the church and the religious practice of citizens from an encroaching state, not the other way around,\u201d Johnson maintained, telling the audience that \u201cour Founders understood that a free society and a healthy republic depend upon religious and moral virtue [to] help prevent the abuse of power [and] make it possible to preserve our essential freedom.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThe Founders wanted a flourishing of faith in the public square because they knew that religion and moral virtues strengthen our nation by encouraging and inspiring things like individual responsibility, self-sacrifice, civility, family and community, the dignity of hard work, the rule of law and the sanctity of every human life. Without those virtues indispensably supported by religion and morality, no nation can endure.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Johnson concluded his remarks by stressing the need to \u201crededicate ourselves to the cause of our Founders\u201d and \u201cturn toward prayer again, just as they did.\u201d He described prayer as the force that \u201cstrengthens and fortifies this grand experiment in self-governance and liberty [and] repairs the foundations that \u2026 undergird the republic.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. It\u2019s not even close. It\u2019s free, most successful, most powerful, most benevolent nation that\u2019s ever been, and it is because we are built on those foundations. And in order for us to keep this, you and I know it\u2019s a spiritual battle,\u201d he proclaimed.\n<\/p>\n

Share your prayers for the Church below.<\/h4>\n

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.<\/em>
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: 3 minutes (THE CHRISTIAN POST) \u2013 House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is calling on Americans to embrace the true meaning of the term \u201cseparation of church and state,\u201d which he said is \u201cone of the most misunderstood issues in American society.\u201d Let the IFA community know how to pray for you. \u00a0 The<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[82,2205,4094,4966,5971,5008,557],"class_list":["post-23326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-prayer","tag-church","tag-johnson","tag-mike","tag-misunderstood","tag-separation","tag-speaker","tag-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}