One cannot say for certain that Rep. Mike Johnson was deliberately lying during his acceptance speech to return as Speaker of the House. He read what he claimed was a prayer recited by President ...

we may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the earth,” Johnson said, reading from a piece of paper. Historians do know the quote — because it has been falsely attributed to Jefferson ...

Johnson told the lawmakers, it is “quite familiar to historians and probably many of us.” As it turns out, however, if the Jefferson prayer is “quite familiar to historians,” it’s ...

Whatever deliberation Johnson used in his mendacity, however, what matters is that by using a fake "Jefferson prayer," he was nodding to and advancing one of the primary tactics of Christian ...