Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson offered praise to God in a news conference after his caucus passed Trump’s budget bill that cuts $250 billion from Food Stamps, $700 billion from Medicaid that will cause 13.7 million people to lose their health insurance, including millions of children via the CHIPS program, while giving Americans $4.5 trillion worth of tax cuts, most of which will benefit the wealthiest of the wealthy. In addition, because of the rise in the deficit it will cause, the bill will likely trigger $500 billion automatic cuts to Medicare.
And that is only the monetary damage the bill will do.
But Johnson offers praise to God. Really? Got on his knees, he said, the week before to ask God to help him get this bill that declares war on the poor. Again, really?
What kind of Christianity does Mike Johnson believe in? Oh, I know what kind, the one we’ve had for centuries that is embodied today in evangelicalism.
It’s the kind of Christianity that insists beliefs about Jesus perpetuated by flawed human beings are more important than the actual life and teachings of Jesus.
If Mike Johnson is an example of the kind of person being that kind of Christian makes you into, count me out.
That, by the way, was the title of a book I read many years ago (Count Me Out) by British clergyman Colin Morris written while he was the President of the United Church of Zambia.
It was a call to the church to stop being focused on institutional maintenance that had side tracked it and focus instead on its primary mission of caring for the poor. As far as Morris was concerned, as long as the church refused to do that, it could count him out.
Colin Morris was talking about the difference between being a Christian and being Christian (see my new book, The Faithful Skeptic: In search of a Humble Christianity).
Being Christian means shaping your life based on the values Jesus taught. Being a Christian means believing in Jesus even when it makes little difference in how you live.
Colin Morris was Christian. Mike Johnson is a Christian.
If Mike Johnson understood the difference, he wouldn’t be talking about praising God for his Republican caucus taking money away from the poor in our country in order to pay for tax cuts for the rich.
Making matters worse, Johnson and Trump are lying about what they’re doing. They insist they are only cutting waste, abuse, and fraud out of Medicaid which Johnson dares to say is why the morality of the bill is right.
That is simply not true, as the chart below shows that was cited by both Matt Bruenig in a NY Times article and also noted by economist Paul Krugman:
The Trump/Johnson bill isn’t saving waste, abuse, and fraud. That would affect only 3% of those on Medicaid, and there may even be extenuating circumstances in their story we don’t know about.
The long and short of it, then, is that the Budget Trump wants and Johson pushed through the House takes essential help from people who most need it. Far from being right, its morality is as wrong as it can be.
Mike Johnson wears his faith on his coat sleeve, but his words and actions tell us that inside at the core of his being he is more Republican than he is Christian.
Democrats may not be any better, but they don’t go around telling people they are.
Mike Johnson should follow their example, not only for the sake of the country, but for the integrity and credibility of the Christian faith he claims means so much to him.
linnposts.com 