527

Mike Johnson: 'Depraved' America Deserves God's Wrath (www.rollingstone.com)

submitted 9 months ago by jeffw@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

150 comments fedilink hide all child comments

He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ youth — the fact, Johnson lamented, that “one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.”

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 37 points 9 months ago

Talking to pastor Jim Garlow on a broadcast of the World Prayer Network, Johnson spoke ominously of America facing a “civilizational moment.” He said, “The only question is: Is God going to allow our nation to enter a time of judgment for our collective sins? … Or is he going to give us one more chance to restore the foundations and return to Him?”
The segment was filmed Oct. 3, just weeks before Johnson’s unexpected rise to become speaker of the House. Garlow pressed the clean-cut Louisiana congressman to say “more about this ‘time of judgment’ for America.” Johnson replied: “The culture is so dark and depraved that it almost seems irredeemable.” He cited, as supposed evidence, the decline of national church attendance and the rise of LGBTQ youth — the fact, Johnson lamented, that “one-in-four high school students identifies as something other than straight.”
Discussing the risk of divine retribution, Johnson invoked Sodom, the Old Testament city destroyed by God for its wickedness with a rain of burning sulfur. Johnson is a polished orator, but in a closing prayer with Garlow he grew tearful. Johnson intoned, “We repent for our sins individually and collectively. And we ask that You not give us the judgment that we clearly deserve.”

Oh no, gay people aren't being persecuted and people don't believe in my brand of absurdity. My imaginary friend hates that!

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 14 points 9 months ago

Funny enough, he doesn't exactly get why Sodom was destroyed. They wanted to take a guest in their town and rape them. Lot offered his daughters instead of the guest, who was an angel, and they refused. (And for some reason, God said Lot was alright despite that.)

What brought down the divine retribution itself wasn't being gay, but hostility and violence to guests. It wasn't even sexual assault, since God found Lot to be upstanding and he was going to offer his daughters.

I feel like this interpretation jives pretty well with what Jesus actually said, and ironically enough for Johnson, that places him and his party squarely under God's wrath. I mean it's no surprise, but the dramatic irony is hilarious.

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 4 points 9 months ago

Yeah the story of Sodom is a pretty clean example of a hospitality myth. Basically don't be an asshole to those showing you kindness.

I wonder if the reason these myths seem relatively universal in the eastern Mediterranean is due to the bronze age collapse and raiders. Basically raiders pretend to be refugees to get into a city which that cant easily take from without.

[-] assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world 2 points 9 months ago

It's definitely interesting, because the message is to be kind to guests, which runs counter to what you've described. Could be this is well enough after that early society has started to see it as unnecessary caution.

Now that I think about it, the story feels like a complete myth, you're right. The people who refuse to be hospitable are from the worst town ever and they want to do horrible things to the guest, and so God destroyed them all -- but spared the person who was kind to the guest. Everything is so exaggerated that it fits perfectly.

[-] archomrade@midwest.social 11 points 9 months ago

Johnson doth protest too much.

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

One doesn't do this unless they have an unhealthy relationship with sexuality and porn:

he and his teenage son monitor each other’s every keystroke in an effort to make sure they don’t expose themselves to pornography.
This was recently revealed in a clip that was posted by the user Receipt Maven on X. Last year, Johnson spoke on a panel during a “War on Technology” conference sponsored by a Baptist church in Benton, La. In it, Johnson enthusiastically endorsed a surveillance app called Covenant Eyes. The app, which is promoted by churches and other conservative religious groups such as Promise Keepers, has users designate “accountability partners” to hold them to task in the event they stray into illicit digital outer space. Often the accountability partner is a pastor or fellow church member.
Covenant Eyes, which costs about $15 a month, takes one screenshot per minute, Wired reported last year in a story about what it called “anti-porn shameware,” which is a multimillion-dollar industry.
Johnson’s accountability partner, he said, was his teenage son Jack. Once a week, he said, he and Jack receive a report of what the other has been doing on his phone, laptop or tablet.
“If anything objectionable comes up, your accountability partner gets an immediate notice,” Johnson said. “It looks for keywords, search terms and also images. It’s really sensitive.” Johnson said he once got an alarm about Jack’s questionable internet usage involving a blurry image of two women. “I had to zoom in on it and unblur it,” Johnson said, “and it’s two middle-aged teachers.”

I suspect the only way he can stop looking at that sweet sweet man-flesh on the internet is knowing his son is looking at his screen over his shoulder at all times.

[-] Pandemanium@lemm.ee 4 points 9 months ago

I sure hope he isn't able to access any government documents on that phone. Think about how much information that app gathers by taking a screenshot every minute.

[-] reptar@lemmy.world 3 points 9 months ago

Holy shit.

Even if Covenant Eyes is honest in their (batshit) intentions, all that eavesdropping and compromised devices makes them a juicy target.

[-] TechyDad@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

If he referenced Sodom and Gemorah then he doesn't really know why the Bible says those cities were overthrown. It wasn't because they had gay sex. It was because they abused travelers.

The modern day version of the travelers are immigrants. Remind me which party is a fan of abusing immigrants again?

[-] AdamHenry@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 9 months ago

I find it curious that they described Johnson as "cleancut." It's an odd adjective to use for a fifty plus guy.

[-] DarkGamer@kbin.social 1 points 9 months ago

Total square would have been more accurate

this post was submitted on 16 Nov 2023

527 points (98.2% liked)

politics

18645 readers

2914 users here now

Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

Rules:

Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive.
Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.

That's all the rules!

Civic Links

• Register To Vote

• Citizenship Resource Center

• Congressional Awards Program

• Federal Government Agencies

• Library of Congress Legislative Resources

• The White House

• U.S. House of Representatives

• U.S. Senate

Partnered Communities:

• News