House Speaker Mike Johnson Sets the Record Straight

Have you ever mentioned God in a secular setting or closed a public prayer with the words “In Jesus’ name”? You may have gotten away with the former, but I can almost guarantee that someone in the audience complained about the latter.

“You can’t say that” they whine before arrogantly – and quite incorrectly – insisting that the separation of church of state prohibits such a thing.

Enter House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), a former lawyer and professor, who is ready, willing, and able to set the record straight.

Addressing the 2026 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast last week, Johnson 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.

“It 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’s in the DNA of our nation and who we are,” Speaker Johnson said.

“I’m often criticized for invoking my faith,” Johnson added. “That’s 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’s a phrase that’s often repeated, as we know, but very rarely understood.”

Johnson then went on to educate his audience about the phrase’s origins.

"The term 'separation of church and state' first appeared in a personal letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association rather than in the United States Constitution [or any of our other founding documents],” Johnson told his audience. “And in that letter, he explained that because ‘religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God,’ the First Amendment is a vital safeguard for our rights of conscience.”

“Jefferson 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,” the Speaker added.

Johnson insisted that “Jefferson clearly did not mean that wall to keep religion from influencing our government and public life.”

(As an aside, when Jefferson was president, the largest church in the United States met in the U.S. Capitol building and Jefferson was a regular attendee. So much for not wanting organized religion to impact or influence matters of state.)

“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 maintained, telling the audience that “our 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.”

“The Founders wanted a flourishing of faith in the public square,” Johnson asserted, “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.”

Johnson concluded his remarks by stressing the need to “rededicate ourselves to the cause of our Founders” and “turn toward prayer again, just as they did.” He described prayer as the force that “strengthens and fortifies this grand experiment in self-governance and liberty [and] repairs the foundations that … undergird the republic.”

Way to tell it like it was – and still is – Mr. Speaker!

Editor’s Note: Large portions of this article were excerpted from Speaker Mike Johnson: Separation of church and state is 'misunderstood' by Ryan Foley of The Christian Post, March 19, 2026.