Leap of Faith

A Deeply Religious House Speaker Chooses a Side in the Battle for the Soul of Republican Foreign Policy

On Saturday, April 20, the United States House of Representatives finally approved, with a commanding 311-112 vote, a $95 billion assistance package to first of all Ukraine, but also to national security priorities in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific, including allies Israel and Taiwan.  All the No votes came from Republicans, a remarkable departure from the party’s historical character as the stalwart of national defense.  With an aggressive axis of China, Russia, and Iran threatening the United States and its allies overseas, the time for bold American leadership to maintain global security is now.  For Ukraine, the aid has come just in the nick of time.  Ukraine has been suffering with a nearly 10-1 artillery disadvantage, a manpower shortage, and major holes in its missile defense.  After Kyiv’s largest power plant was destroyed by Russian airstrikes, CIA director William Burns starkly warned that Ukraine risks complete collapse by the end of the year without American military aid.

Enter House Speaker Mike Johnson.  Johnson, a devout Evangelical Christian, has been trapped between Ukraine and other allies’ desperate need for military assistance and his own political survival.  Due to his delay in moving forward the aid package, conspiracy theories online have claimed Johnson is just a puppet of Donald Trump, or even more outlandishly, a Russian asset.  The real reason for Johnson’s skittishness is something much simpler- Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, and her threat to topple him from the speakership.  Greene, already one of the most controversial members of congress, is clearly no fan of either Johnson or Ukraine.  Immediately following the successful vote on the House floor, Greene trashed Johnson as a “traitor to our country” wasting tax dollars on a “foreign war.”   Greene has even gone so far as to repeat Russian propaganda verbatim by labeling Ukrainian officials “Nazis” who discriminate against Christians.  To Greene and her America First followers in Congress and across the country, Johnson has committed a heinous betrayal, and must pay with his head.

Following the defenestration of Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy by hardline anti-Ukraine Republicans last October, then-unknown House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to solve the Ukraine problem by linking further funding for the country with strict security measures at the US southern border with Mexico.  After that arrangement collapsed in February following criticism from Donald Trump, Johnson was plunged into in a catch 22.  With Marjorie Taylor Greene threatening to vacate the chair, as the speaker removal process is formally known, and reports of Ukraine’s defenses growing ever bleaker by the week, Johnson’s balancing act could no longer continue.  Mike Johnson is a man whose Evangelical Christian faith, in the words of an anonymous Republican congressman, “guides him in every decision he makes.” 

It was ultimately the Johnson’s strong faith, and the facts he received during intelligence briefings, which led the speaker to see the light.

After assuming the speakership, Johnson was invited to a meeting with four men who not only have tremendous knowledge and experience with national security, but also all happen to be named Michael (former Secretary of State Pompeo and congressmen McCaul, Rogers, and Turner).  In this 5-Mikes meeting of divine coincidence, Johnson received a sobering lecture on Ukraine that began to turn the new speaker away from the isolationist position he held as a backbencher.   Johnson also met with multiple European officials, all of whom strongly urged him to bring Ukraine aid to the house floor.  The critical event that finally spurred Johnson to act, however, was his encounter with Ukrainian Evangelical Leader Pavlo Unguryan.  Unguryan has, for the past several months, been traveling around the United States to meet with Evangelical leaders to expose widespread persecution of Protestants in Ukrainian regions under Russian occupation.  For a man of deep faith like Johnson, such persecution of his fellow Evangelicals must be deeply unsettling.

While radicals in the Republican congressional caucus such as Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz continued to laugh off the intelligence, ignore European officials, and make superfluous equivalences between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and American border crisis, Johnson has consulted with both the human and divine to prevent even greater catastrophe in Eastern Europe.  Those meetings, along with weeks of intense prayer, convinced Johnson that funding Ukraine was not only the moral decision, but the strategically wise decision: “I really do believe the intel, I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed.  I think he might go to the Baltics next… (or) have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.  I would rather send bullets to Ukraine than American boys.”

The argument that Vladimir Putin and his paranoid, vengeful regime would continue marching through Europe has been the strongest argument for proponents of giving military aid to Ukraine.  And shockingly (or not shockingly,) people like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Matt Gaetz don’t care.  Rather than act like principled conservatives who have learned the lessons of history, Greene, Gaetz, and their band of merry pranksters seem most devoted to hogging media attention and reflexively opposing everything.  Instead of following this destructive course, Johnson has risen to the occasion and proved himself as the adult in the room with a comprehensive picture of global security threats.  With the guidance of both historical experience and his deep Christian faith, Speaker Johnson has definitively earned a place on what he would call the right side of history.