Mike Johnson is evil and controlled by the devil, says Christian minister

Despite a long track record of anti-LGBTQ+ comments and advocacy, he has insisted he can’t be a hateful person because he’s a Christian.
I think he's got it backwards. He can't be a Christian because he's a hateful person.
- Right, this "not a real Christian" bullshit that Christians use to brush away the hateful people and teachings within your religion.
  Own up to these people, they're your fellow Christians no matter how much you claim they aren't. Own them and fix them, instead of sweeping them under the rug and claiming they aren't real
  
  If they have to tell you they are Christian, they are not. If they have to tell you they are honest, they are not. If the have to tell you that they don't watch porn, they do.
  
  In many cases, they created these monsters
  
  If they're not following the teachings of the founder of the religion, they're not part of the religion. It's not the No True Scotsman fallacy, because being a part of the religion requires them to do something (repent and love others) which they refuse to do.
  Incidentally, I'd love to "fix them," but they don't think that I'm a Christian because I don't worship Trump.
  
  I have mixed feelings about that instinct. Calling out and distancing from the religious hypocrites is a Jesus thing to do. But also when non Christians fear Christians they need to understand why we feel that way and many Christians don’t seem to understand that I’m even scared of Christianity at it’s best.
  So in short, do they just disavow or do they adamantly oppose as well? If they do the latter I’m happy they do the former, but I’ve seen far too many think the former is enough before they start shit talking atheists
  
  Right, this “not a real Christian” bullshit that Christians use to brush away the hateful people and teachings within your religion.
  You literally are acting against the teachings of Christ if you act like Johnson, which is the entire point of the op-ed you didn't read.
  He isn't "sweeping them under the rug" but rather calling them out as heretics, and calling out Christians to do the same.
  Before writing a big emotional response like this, I'd recommend reading the linked content.
  
  No True Scotsman.
  
  and fix them
  Maybe you should set an example and "fix" all the edgelord atheists.
- No True Christian
  
  I totally get your point, but I think there is validity in calling into question your right to identify as a member of a given religion when you go directly against your religion's teachings.
  
  "No True Scotsman" is when you attempt to protect your generalized statement by placing counterexamples outside the bounds of the statement. But in the case of Christianity, people who don't love are self-selecting out of that group by the words of the founder himself, who said "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
  I'm not saying they aren't a Christian, and the OP isn't saying that either. The person who is hateful is saying that they aren't a Christian, as surely as a person who kicks puppies for fun is saying that they aren't a dog lover. They could swear up and down later that they can't be a puppy kicker because they're a dog lover, but the fact that they're kicking puppies self-selects them out of that group.
  
  Technically, yes. It's a fallacy to call all of the hateful christians "not real". Since there's just so many that identify and are identified as christians that are hateful, it's mostly an academic distinction.
  It IS interesting that so many christains don't follow their own faith. For it is true that to be an overtly hatefuly or bigoted person is to ignore the core teachings of christianity.
  
  I think the people downvoting you might not be familiar with the "No true Scotsman" fallacy.
- Maybe he doesn't hate and he just loves killin'

Important to understand that there's also a form of civil war going on within the Church in the US between the more liberal churches, which this pastor represents, and the conservative, evangelical churches, which Mike Johnson represents.
- Can confirm.
  In my town, a lot of the churches are more about peace and love and helping the community. They fly lgbtq+ flags. Their biggest outdoor events involve feeding homeless, or cleaning the parks.
  They absolutely hate these mega church types, and often get lumped into the shit.
  
  That sounds a lot more Christ-like (feed the hungry, give as much as you can to the poor etc) than whatever mutation the evangelicals are worshipping.
  
  There's a church near me that flies a pride flag. Now, I'm not Christian (or LGBTQ) so I wouldn't go to pray there, but I was happy to see it. Too many places of worship make the news for how hateful they are. It's nice to see one advertising how inclusive they are.
  Again, I'm not Christian and thus not an expert on Jesus, but from what I know his message was a pretty good one. Help the poor, the sick, and anyone else who needs assistance. If more churches actually followed Jesus instead of screaming that the Bible says you should buy more guns, assault immigrants, hate people different from you, and worship Trump while giving the pastor as much money as possible, then maybe they would be in better shape.
- Important to note that the sides are in like a 5:1 ratio and Johnson is on the larger side.
  Also the liberal churches are far older and are shrinking; denominations and mega-churches who act like Johnson's are growing.
  Young people see it all as a bunch of bs, except the radical ones, which drives religion to greater and greater insanity.
  
  It's also a simple matter of funding.
  The megachurches preaching prosperity gospel, cramming 10,000 people into a building, and hoarding their wealth (most don't pay apportionments to a larger denomination that is used to fund service projects) find it easier to keep the doors open than the little churches that focus on compassion and community service.
- The divide falls between small churches that help their community, and large churches that help themselves...
- So if theres a break between the churches... again. How long till we get some christian anarchist type beheading random pastors or some other John Brown type shit.
- It just dawned on me that evangelicals are the evangélicos in South America. Let me tell you, South America being 90% Catholic, we see evangelicals as crazy fanatics. If someone told me that an evangélico was part of the government in the country I grew up with, most people would immediately dismiss whatever they have to say about people going to hell or whatever.
  I guess the only difference with this guy is that he's wielding too much power, which makes him dangerous. But other than that, anything he has to say will be met with "sure, sure, old man, praise the lord whatever, go pray somewhere far away from me."
- You know, watching religion decline in the west largely as a result of the more fanatical like Johnson, I kinda hope their side wins so we can be done with it. There are few things that are more of a cancer on society (globally as well) than religion and the dogmatic approach to the world that it espouses.

It's worse than that, he's a Republican

The Devil having found no traction with drug addicts, thieves & prostitutes, and perl programmers has decided to use Christian leaders.
It would be believable if the first groups didn't entirely compose last one.
- I agree that the devil would go after perl programmers, as sloth is a sin.
  
  Something something who doesn't remember Black Perl?
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Perl
  
  then python programmers came and literally made a hash out of everything
- | Linux kernel 6.6.6 released
  Coincidence?! I think not

Matthew 7:15-20
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
- 16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
  "I'll take 'Metaphor Translations' for $100, Alex."
  
  What is made up bullshit?
- To define "fruit," reference Galatians 5:22-23 - "... the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

If I believed in God or the Devil, I'd find claim that he's controlled by the Devil more believable than Johnson's claim that he's working for God.
- Though these days I associate "Christianity" more with hate than with love.
  
  Welcome to the club. Hateful is 90% of the Christianity queer people experience.

While I am mightily amused to see the God Squad fighting amongst themselves...
- You should read the op-ed. It's actually very good

Mike Johnson worships himself, like a lot of ignorant people who call themselves Christians right now.. calls himself Moses and so on, because he's full of pride.. and yeah, that is the same as worshipping Satan, or "being controlled by the Devil" or however else you want to say it..
- His behavior seems consistent with someone who has delusions of grandeur. I'm not sure a religious explanation is necessary or verifiable.
  
  I think when a Christian minister is making a statement about a guy who is VERY vocal about how his every action is influenced by his being a Christian, then a Christian denounciation feels adequate.
  
  I’m not sure
  that's great news.. your inability to comprehend descriptions that sound religious to you is uninteresting..

This just in: superstitious con artists engage in slapfight.
Film at 11.

Mike Johnson controlled by the Devil...so the Devil IS the reason we can't have a nice government to meet our needs.
As an Atheist, I think it is awful that Mike Johnson works with the Devil.

I don't know if this weird little man is controlled by the xtian devil, but I do know that like so many of today's cons/GOP, he is one creepy weirdo. A party filled with creepy weirdos.
Imagine thinking your god (note the lack of a capital g the provincial xtians love to use) gives you a right to poke around in others' lives.
- Xtians? Are we serious? Good grief lol
  
  I can't tell what that means ?
  
  deleted by creator
  
  I just want to pause here and say that this kind of thing, much like basically any bumper sticker ever, is stupid as fuck and I hate it. Whether it's my dumb fucking cousin saying "Killary" or equally annoying mouth breathers talking about "Drumpf." Like, I'm as atheist as the day is long, and holy shit does it make the parent comment annoying to read. Your super great "hillary lied, people died" bumper sticker, the "honk if Trump should go to jail," just all of it. It sucks, I hate it, it's the laziest form of persuasion (spoilers, it's persuading no one, it's just pissing off the people you want to convince.) Oh you didn't capitalize the 'g'? Well fuck it's me the pope, let's peace out and go get tacos this Jesus thing was dumb anyway.

He supports the Antichrist, of course he is evil.
- Just in case you are unaware the entire concept of the anti-christ was supposed to be Nero. The last book of the Bible was very controversial partially because of this reason. Other stuff you can argue about but to me at least this is a proven false prophecy and really should not be part of Christianity. However, I am a non-believer so maybe you shouldn't follow my advice.

This is just an op-ed piece that links to another op-ed piece.
Seriously.
Does anyone know if there are any political communities that don’t consider op-ed pieces to be news? For example, a community that has strict rules that news must be free of journalistic bias and only cite news that factually happened with no agenda?
Because that would be cool.
- free of journalistic bias and only cite news that factually happened with no agenda
  Does such news even exist anymore?
  
  I mean, Reuters. AP News, BBC, PBS news… there plenty of non biased news sources that don’t tel you have to fee about what they’re shoveling.
- Ground News may be what you are looking for. On top of claiming to you the story straight, they show you stats of whether it’s getting more press on the left or right. They have a bunch of stats in their paid tiers, I think.
  I don’t know the reputation of the people behind it, and I don’t use it heavily, but I like to hit their site/app from time to TMNT.

Christians have had years to see that Trump is not what they’d call a “godly” person. It baffles me how segments of the population who claim to uphold Christian ethics can so overwhelmingly support him, but of course by definition they are not objective or logical people.
- What makes you think he doesn't support Christian ethics? I strongly associate his behavior and words with the Christianity I grew up with. He is vengeful, bigoted, childish, treats everyone he sees as weaker with contempt, prideful, and demands loyalty to himself over all other considerations. What part of that isnt things associated with a follower of Christ?
  
  It’s the difference between their professed beliefs and their actual behavior. One could deduce that they like Trump because he’s like them. If people claiming to be devout Christians actually understood and followed the principles Jesus preached they’d be amazing people, but sadly it’s quite rare.

The devil has seen better days. You would expect a devil controlled human to be some sorta uber-human ultimate fighter. Zipping around the battlefield, single handedly committing whole outrages. Not some schmuck in a suit who got his job because of political stalemate.
- I mean the devil is literally the great deceiver. in all biblical portrayals the only thing devil does is lie essentially. the lies sow doubts and people lose their faith.
  what you're describing is more along the lines of demons. and they're technically easier to deal with because it's so obvious.
  I'm not religious but the devil really is a clever construct in Christianity, and highlights the best "feature": salvation is based on faith and faith alone and everyone can be saved.
  it is so much more effective at brainwashing than materialistic control
  
  The devil never lies in the Bible. In the garden of Eden story (yes retrocon) he is the only one telling the truth. In Job he got something wrong but didn't lie.
  In any case there is no god so you can move on with your life.

"Controlled by the devil" - that's silly. I think the real debate is whether he's controlled by Godzilla or Mothra.
But we can be sure he's not controlled by Gamera because Gamera is a friend to all children. (and he's really neat)
- Mitch is full of turtle meat.
- Those old Godzilla documentaries have higher production values than the bible dramatizations I saw as a kid.

Despite a long track record of anti-LGBTQ+ comments and advocacy, he has insisted he can’t be a hateful person because he’s a Christian.
Oh, what a relief.

This little slapfight would be quite funny to watch from the sidelines if they weren't fighting it with out rights.

Oh…. The irony

How about, you’re both lunatics and religion is a scourge on society?

Nope. He's just stupid and scared then someone gave him a taste of power. He has the same smooth brain as the minister saying he's being controlled by the devil.

Funny how these 2 are so special they know God's will.
- Mike Johnson is claiming god spoke to him and told him when the right time to step up to be speaker was, and so he was chosen by god to do this.
  This minister is saying that the devil works by fear and division and that is what Mike Johnson is doing.
  I'm not sure how you got from the latter that he is claiming to know God's will.
- Con artists gonna con.

What a twist!

🤦🏻‍♂️ I don't think this helps...
- Yeah. He could've just went with "Mike Johnson is possessed by EVIL and left it at that. Would've been 100 percent accurate, no need to bring my boi Lucifer into this

A christofascist not being a christofascist, good luck with that..