Originally published at: Speaker Mike Johnson Is Living In A DC House That Is The Center Of A Pastor’s Secretive Influence Campaign
This story first appeared at ProPublica. ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox. In 2021, Steve Berger, an evangelical pastor who has attacked the separation of church and state as “a delusional lie” and called multinational institutions “demonic,” set…
3 Likes
"Recently, the pastor scored a remarkable coup for a political influence project that has until now managed to avoid public scrutiny. He got a new roommate.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has been staying at the home since around the beginning of this year, according to interviews and videos obtained by ProPublica."
Considering how corrupt the entire government has become, this is just a small blip. Of course if Johnson was a Democrat, Fox News would be screaming that they are gay lovers.
18 Likes
“Recently, Johnson has described his conversations with Trump to the pastor, according to Berger. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Berger said in a sermon that he’d advised ‘some congressmen’ to see the conflict through the lens of Ezekiel 38 and 39, parts of the Bible some see as prophesying a great war before the Second Coming. He did not specify what that meant from a policy perspective.”
What it means “from a policy perspective” is that Closeted Ned Flanders aims to get us all killed in the GOP’s very own global version of Jonestown.
18 Likes
Didn’t Jesus say something about hypocrites? I’m pretty sure he wasn’t that fond of them.
12 Likes
The South, bubbling up again through the influence of their churches, founded on the belief that you can sell children for profit, depending on skin color. Responsible for a hundred years of de facto apartheid, and sucking down Fed dollars as fast as they can.
Jesus Wept.
12 Likes
Four women thought this guy was a good idea?
18 Likes
What part of “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” do these numbnuts not understand? Honest to goodness, I think they would like to repeal the Bill of Rights. I call people like that Fascists.
9 Likes
A spokesperson for Johnson said that the speaker “pays fair market value in monthly rent for the portion of the Washington, D.C. townhome that he occupies.” He did not answer a question about how much Johnson is paying. House ethics rules allow members of Congress to live anywhere, as long as they are paying fair-market rent.
How much rent is he paying? Do tell. I’ll betcha he’s not paying any rent, in violation of IRS law.
Oh shit, “the law.”
Forget it Jake, it’s Congress.
7 Likes
Is that “fair market value” for DC or Shreveport, LA?
6 Likes
Homeboy doesn’t even have a checking account.
6 Likes
Are you experienced is all they want to know.
Rubbing up against the money and power.
2 Likes
They take credit cards. And rough trade in return.
3 Likes
Yes, and if he’s gonna use the resources of his church as part of a lobbying effort [and, yes, pursuing WW 3 is a policy goal,] then he should have to pay taxes like any political interest organization.
5 Likes
Trump will tell us what Jesus said and his Christians will agree.
4 Likes
What are these folks’ connection to the Ku Klux Klan…anyone know?
2 Likes
Always wanted to know. Where does Congress deposit his salary?
5 Likes
See, “establishment” is key. Don’t pass a law that makes a specific religion the Federal one, anything goes. And don’t pass a law that bans Pastafarianism, again, anything else goes.
What I don’t grok is how this preacher reconciles gutting the EPA, or making it easier to fire federal workers without cause, with his fake Christian principles.
4 Likes
Religion is a fucking mental illness. One day, a fanatic with a nuclear weapon will prove it by wiping out civilization in the name of a fucking fantasy character.
It also solves Fermi’s Paradox.If a civilization cannot shake off the shackles of superstition and religion before gaining nuclear weapons, both will wipe out that planet. That’s why no one is out there. The stupidity of religion eventually destroys all civillizations.
1 Like
He did not list ONE asset? Does he own a home in Louisiana? Where does he live when he goes home to his district? Does anyone own a car? Does little wifey walk to the grocery store and lug the groceries home?
True to his deep “christian” belief…the man is a damn liar!
4 Likes
The spokesperson added that Johnson “has never once spoken to Mr. Berger about any piece of legislation or any matter of public policy.”
And I have a bridge to sell you.
4 Likes