Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) recently appeared at the summit of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group alongside Jonathan Cahn, a pastor who blames ancient gods and “demons” for furthering the LGBTQ+ rights movement. Their appearance coincided with a report detailing Johnson’s links to Christian dominionism, a movement that sees the U.S. as a Christian nation that must be governed by Biblical law.
Johnson and Cahn both attended the Family Research Council’s (FRC) National Gathering for Prayer and Repentance on Wednesday, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SLPC) reported. FRC is an SPLC designated hate group.
At the event, Cahn described pro-abortion and -LGBTQ+ activism as a form of demonic “repossession” spread by three ancient deities: Ba’al, Ishtar, and Moloch. These deities seek to “drive God from public life, seduce the culture through ‘sexual revolution’ and compel parents to ‘sacrifice their children,’” he said.
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Cahn linked LGBTQ+ Pride month and the transgender fight for access to gender-affirming to Ishtar, an ancient Mesopotamian fertility goddess who was both male and female. Cahn said Ishtar and other ancient deities returned to Earth because the 1969 Stonewall riots opened a portal to another realm.
“[Ishtar] was connected with” the rainbow, Cahn said, “[and was] the goddess of parades, parades that celebrated the alteration of gender.” Cahn claimed Ishtar would “possess the culture” in “one month of all months: the month of June,” which is Pride month.
“It is written in the Bible that the pagan world exchanged natural affections for unnatural ones. We know that in many pagan cultures, homosexuality or bisexuality was widespread,” Cahn has previously written. He has also spoken extensively against the expansion of LGBTQ+ civil rights, calling them a sinful threat to children.
Johnson spoke at the FRC’s event immediately after Cahn. The House speaker was one of 16 congressmembers who attended the event. Together, they prayed to stop feminism and homosexuality, abortion rights, and “alternate lifestyles,” the SLPC wrote.
While the FRC describes itself as a church and, previously, as an educational non-profit, it’s foremost an anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion organization.
The same day that Johnson and Cahn attended the event, The Daily Beast published an exclusive report detailing Johnson’s link to Christian dominionists.
The report noted that Johnson has praised David Barton, a Christian nationalist who, according to the SLPC, has repeatedly “demonized LGBTQ persons and communities, arguing that HIV and AIDS are god-given consequences for living out one’s LGBTQ life.” In December 2021, Johnson said that Barton had “a profound influence on me, and my work, and my life, and everything I do.”
Barton, whose website once published an in-depth defense of biblical slavery, said that he has been advising Johnson on who he should hire to staff his congressional office.
In 2019, Johnson gave the keynote speech at an event held by the Council for National Policy. The council was founded by Gary North, a Christian dominionist who endorsed slavery. In Johnson’s speech, he praised FRC president Tony Perkins and Mat Staver — both of whom support the criminalization of same-sex relationships.
Johnson has also praised pastor Jim Garlow, a leader of the New Apostolic Reformation, a movement that says Christians need to dominate the “Seven Mountains” of family, religion, education, media, entertainment, business, and government in U.S. social life. Johnson called Garlow “a profound influence on my life and my walk with Christ, brother,” and Garlow has said Johnson has “worked with us very closely.”
Johnson has worked for the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). While there, he argued that gay sex should be illegal. He has said that same-sex marriage will lead to “chaos and sexual anarchy,” people trying to marry their pets, and “pedophiles” seeking legal protections for having sex with kids. He has said, “Homosexual relationships are inherently unnatural… ultimately harmful and costly for everyone.” He is also a proponent of debunked attempts to turn gay people straight.
As a member of Congress, he introduced a federal version of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, claimed that President Joe Biden broke federal law by flying the Progress Pride flag outside the White House, and said that parents don’t have the right to help their children obtain gender-affirming healthcare.
Johnson serves on the board of a Christian publishing company that says MPOX is the “appropriate penalty” for being gay. His wife runs a counseling service that compares LGBTQ+ identities to bestiality. Johnson has also said that America is “dark and depraved” because there are too many LGBTQ+ people.