Rep. Delauro asks: What if we read the Bible carefully?
On key questions such as whether he’ll allow the House of Representatives to vote on aid to Ukraine, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s intentions can be rather mysterious. But when it comes to his religious faith, the Louisiana Republican leaves no doubt.
In his first major public interview last fall after he was elected speaker, Johnson explained to Sean Hannity the roots of his political commitments. “I am a Bible-believing Christian,” he said. “Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview. That’s what I believe.”
Since Johnson’s brand of Christianity is decidedly right-wing, he has since faced much criticism, which is entirely fair for a politician who has chosen to make his religious convictions so central to his public life.
But Rep. Rosa Delauro (D-conn.), whose progressivism on issues related to economic justice is rooted in her Catholic tradition’s social teaching, has another way of approaching the question.
Delauro and I have talked about religion’s links to politics before, so I was not surprised when she recently called me to report that she had been thinking a lot about Johnson’s comment on the Bible. Her purpose, she said, was not to question Johnson’s commitment to Christianity. On the contrary, Delauro went out of her way to be respectful to Johnson’s spiritual life.
“He is a man of faith, I start from there,” Delauro said. “And he says his beliefs are rooted in the Bible, and many of us believe that. … The Bible is replete with guidance, of attention to act as a community, to focus in on the poor,” she said. “And the Bible lays out a faith-based policy agenda. It espouses social justice.”
And off she went, citing Exodus’ command not to oppress the poor or the stranger; Leviticus on setting aside a share of the harvest for the poor; the Gospel of Matthew on the need for a living wage; the letter of James on the obligation not to show favoritism for the rich.
There was much more where this came from because scripture has a lot to say on these matters. But not content to rely on her instincts alone, Delauro also consulted with her friend the Rev. Frederick Streets of the Yale Divinity School, and allies at the Children’s Defense Fund to think through what scripture demands. Their conclusion is that it’s hard to take the Bible seriously and not hear what it teaches about poverty, justice and overcoming oppression.
Delauro is a tough, practical politician accustomed to rough-and-tumble negotiations. She’s capable of playing hardball and not given to softening her public judgments to be polite. As a practical matter, there’s no doubt Delauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, will have battles with Johnson over budget issues, and these might well be influenced by how each of them reads scripture.
But in this case, Delauro wanted to be clear that she was not accusing him of anything. Instead, she wants to invite him to a dialogue on what taking the Bible seriously means. When I asked her what message she was trying to send to the speaker, she offered a sermon, not a screed:
“You are a man of faith. I believe I am a woman of faith. And what our faith traditions, how they guide us, is that we were raised to build bridges, not to divide people. To care for the vulnerable, to feed the hungry, to welcome the stranger, to act as a community. Not use the very important tenets of faith that we adhere to — to use them as a something that is divisive.
“There are only several thousand of us who have ever served in this institution,” she continued, referring to Congress. “Let’s use this opportunity to make government an instrument of peace, an instrument of justice, and of equality in raising all people, in a way that gets people to understand one another, respect one another.”
The spirit of her intervention is a reminder that Christianity is best seen as a challenge, not an identity, and a call to reason together. There’s so little of that happening that it’s a blessing when you run into it.