Jefferson Prayer
“Almighty God, Who has given us this good land for heritage; We humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of Thy favor and glad to do Thy will. Bless our land with honorable ministry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion, from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way.
Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitude brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endow with Thy spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy Name we entrust the authority of governments that there may be justice and peace at home, and that through obedience to Thy law we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth. In time of prosperity fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in Thee to fail; all of which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”
The Speaker
On Friday, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana won a second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives. In his victory, he showed the political adroitness that past Republican Speakers, including Kevin McCarthy and John Boehner, were unable to muster. Johnson needed 218 votes to win the office. There are 219 Republicans currently in the Congress (215 Democrats), so Johnson could only lose one vote of his own party and still reach the requisite majority.
That’s no easy task. There are no “moderates” in the Republican Party anymore, not in the real sense. There are “regular” conservatives (like my Congressman from the 12th District of Ohio, Troy Balderson). Then there are the “very” conservatives, like the Speaker himself. Then there are the “extreme” conservatives, the members of the “Freedom Caucus”, who are willing to burn down the government (figuratively, I guess, on this day of the anniversary of the Insurrection of 2021). Jim Jordan of Ohio’s 4th District is a leader of that group, but he is often outflanked even farther to the right by his fellow “Caucusers”.
Wrangling Cats
So Johnson had to “wrangle cats” to gain his majority, and at the end of the first roll call was two votes short. A third vote, the “one” that Johnson could do without, was from Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He’s known for his family Christmas card with his wife and children all holding AR-15 style rifles pointed “carefully” away from the camera – Happy Holidays!!! (Forbes). He literally swore he would never vote for Johnson.
In the end, with the help of well-placed phone calls from the President-elect in Mar-A-Lago, the other two holdouts signed on. Mike Johnson won the gavel, 218 Republican votes to 215 Democratic votes for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. (Massie voted for Tom Emmer, and the seat previously held by Matt Gaetz of Florida is now vacant). It was a positive sign for the incoming Republicans, though the “devil will get his due”. Trump now holds the cards against any Johnson aberrations from the MAGA plan. On the other hand, he already had that influence, so the phone calls just emphasized his control.
The Speech
Democratic Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries gave a gracious but pointed concession speech, and Johnson picked up the gavel to administer the oath of office to the 120th Congress. The newly minted Speaker then gave a speech full of the MAGA “talking points”: close the border, deconstruct the “Deep State” (the bureaucracy of the United States government), and “return” Christian morals to American life. Johnson takes his Christian role and duty seriously. He sees his Speakership as a “mission” from God. In his first speech as Speaker last year, he intoned: “I believe that Scripture, the Bible, is very clear: that God is the one who raises up those in authority.” He is raised up.
He concluded his speech by quoting the Jefferson Prayer, it’s full text in the sub-title of this essay. It clearly defines Jefferson’s view of America as a gift from God, one that Americans can only continue to enjoy through their faith to God and his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen. As I listened to the prayer, it struck me. Everything I know about Thomas Jefferson, from years of study in history and even more years of teaching history to students from sixth to twelfth grade, clashed with the “Jefferson Prayer”. The Jefferson I know would NEVER have said it.
Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States, and, as he himself worded for his tombstone, “ …author of the Declaration of American Independence (and) the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom…”. He was, like many of the intellectuals of the Enlightenment Era, a Deist, who saw God as the great “watchmaker”, who created the world and then stepped back to watch it go. Jefferson believed in the teachings of Jesus, but was unconvinced of his divinity.
But most importantly of all, Jefferson believed that government and religion should not “mix”. He specifically said: “I consider the government of the US. as interdicted by the constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises” (Monticello). The famous phrase “separation of church and state” is Jefferson’s own description of what the First Amendment to the US Constitution means.
Add to that the fact that Jefferson as President didn’t speak to the US Congress directly. He even delivered his State of the Union messages by messenger (one was Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark Expedition fame), to be read by the Clerk of the House. So he never stood at the familiar podium where Franklin Roosevelt said, “Yesterday, December, 7th, 1941…”.
Provenance
So what is the “Jefferson Prayer”? It’s not a prayer by Thomas Jefferson. In fact, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation says: “We have no evidence that this prayer was written or delivered by Thomas Jefferson. It appears in the 1928 United States Book of Common Prayer, and was first suggested for inclusion in a report published in 1919 (Monticello)”.
Mike Johnson’s staff are likely just as capable of doing internet research as I am, so why wrongfully attribute the prayer to Jefferson?
This isn’t about governing; it’s about Christian Nationalism. Mike Johnson believes the American “dream” is a Christian dream, founded in his Christian ideology. We are, as Reagan said, the Biblical “ shining city on the hill”, with the shining faith that the “Jefferson Prayer” explains. This ideology requires the re-writing of the faith of “our Fathers”, making them all high-priests in the founding of a Christian nation. They were not.
The clearest example of the Founders devotion to keeping government and religion separated is Thomas Jefferson. So if you’re going to re-write history, you might as well “go big”. And portraying Jefferson as humbly beseeching God and Jesus in front of the Congress is a big an historic lie as there is.
It’s a clear signal of the kind of Speaker Mike Johnson intends to be. It doesn’t matter what the past was, he is intent on changing our present into the “Godly Nation” he wants – come Hell or High Water.
Notes:
Jefferson – “Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.” (National Archives).
What Jefferson believed: Like other Founding Fathers, Jefferson was considered a Deist, subscribing to the liberal religious strand of Deism that values reason over revelation and rejects traditional Christian doctrines, including the Virgin Birth, original sin and the resurrection of Jesus. While he rejected orthodoxy, Jefferson was nevertheless a religious man (PBS).
