Last month, Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana replaced Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House of Representatives, making him third in line to the Presidency. Since his election, experts have weighed in on the role religion plays in the Speaker’s life and political views, and his embrace of many ideas associated with White Christian Nationalism.

Last week, Meanings of Democracy Lab Director Dr. Ruth Braunstein contributed to this conversation with a focus on the Speaker’s longtime concerns about Christian persecution, and how a mounting sense of embattlement has contributed to the radicalization of many white evangelical Christians in the US.

Mike Johnson embodies evangelicals’ embattlement strategy. It may be backfiring, by Ruth Braunstein

Interested in learning more? We’ve curated 10 additional articles featuring experts on religion and politics diving deeper into who Johnson is and why this matters.

1. A Q&A with historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez on the Christian nationalist ideas that shaped House Speaker Mike Johnson
2. Of Little Faith, by Kevin Kruse
3. The Christian Nationalism of Speaker Mike Johnson, by Andrew Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry
4. Mike Johnson Isn’t Just Your Average Christian Right Avatar — He’s Influenced by Fringe Movements Unfamiliar to Most Political Analysts, by Annika Brockschmidt
5. ‘The Embodiment of White Christian Nationalism in a Tailored Suit’, by Thomas B. Edsall
6. Mike Johnson, theocrat: the House speaker and a plot against America, by Marci A Hamilton
7. How Christian Nationalists, Big Oil and the Big Lie Seized the Speaker’s Gavel, by Anne Nelson
8. Opinion |  Mike Johnson is a pro-gun Christian nationalist. Yes, be afraid, by Kate Cohen
9. The Influence of Christian nationalism in American politics, by Hilary McQuilkin amd Meghna Chakrabarti, featuring Mark Ballard, Philip Gorski, and Anne Nelson
10. White Christian Nationalism, Now with a Gavel in a Tailored Suit, by Robert P. Jones

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