House Democrats question Johnson's invitation of far-right preacher known for anti-LGBTQ views

More than two dozen House Democrats in a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and the Office of the Chaplain are demanding answers as to why the Speaker was permitted to sponsor a guest chaplain known for his anti-LGBTQ views and inflammatory rhetoric late last month.

Democrats in a letter sent Thursday to Johnson and House Chaplain Margaret Kibben denounced Johnson’s sponsorship of Jack Hibbs, a far-right preacher who has embraced the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen and once said the acceptance of LGBTQ people is evidence that humanity is living in “the last days.”

Hibbs, who has also been accused of making disparaging remarks against Muslims and Jewish people, was invited by Johnson to deliver the opening prayer that marks the beginning of each legislative day on Jan. 30.

Democrats in Thursday’s letter characterized Hibbs as a “radical Christian Nationalist who helped fuel the January 6th insurrection and has a long record of spewing hateful vitriol toward non-Christians, immigrants, and members of the LGBTQ community.”

“He should never have been granted the right to deliver the House’s opening prayer,” 26 House Democrats wrote in the letter, which was led by Reps. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and Mark Pocan (D-Wis.).

Hibbs should have been easily disqualified from being a guest chaplain, Democrats argued in Thursday’s letter, if not for his previous comments on LGBTQ people — including a claim that transgender people are part of a “sexually perverted cult” — than for the fact Hibbs, the founding pastor of a Southern California megachurch, is not from the district Johnson represents.

Guest chaplains must be from the sponsoring member’s district, according to guidelines set by the Office of the Chaplain. Johnson also did not deliver a welcoming speech, and Hibbs’s opening prayer was not given on the last legislative day of the week, in violation of the office’s rules concerning guest chaplains.

Hibbs’s prayer — in which he spoke of “holy fear” and “national sins” — also violated the Chaplain’s stated expectations for a prayer from a guest chaplain to be “mindful of diversity” and express “a common aspiration to a just and peaceful society,” Democrats wrote in the letter.

“It appears that Speaker Johnson – with the tacit approval of the House Chaplain – decided to flout the Chaplaincy guidelines and use the platform of the Guest Chaplain to lend the imprimatur of Congress to an ill-qualified hate preacher who shares the Speaker’s Christian nationalist agenda and his overriding antipathy toward church-state separation,” Democrats wrote in the letter.

Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kibben, who has served as House Chaplain since 2021, declined to comment on the letter.

Johnson’s views and past actions on LGBTQ rights have come under the microscope since he was elected Speaker in October.

Johnson in the early aughts published op-eds that advocated for the criminalization of gay sex and suggested legalizing same-sex marriage could lead to people marrying their pets; during a House subcommittee hearing last year, Johnson said children are being coerced into believing they are transgender and “mutilated” by doctors; he also voted against passing the Equality Act and the Respect for Marriage Act and has co-sponsored bills to bar transgender women and girls from female school sports teams and ban gender-affirming health care for trans minors.

In a December fundraising email, Johnson said he worries too many high school students are identifying as LGBTQ and suggested schools might be to blame.

Johnson has also aligned himself with conservative Christian organizations, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, which is his former employer, and the National Association of Christian Lawmakers, a group that aims to “restore the Judeo-Christian foundation” of the U.S.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.), who signed Thursday’s letter to Johnson and Kibben, said she was deeply troubled by Johnson’s sponsorship of Hibbs.

“As a woman and as a queer person, I want to feel like when I go into the chamber of the House of Representatives, I am not going to have to be exposed to someone that says vile, hateful things about other Americans — that is not spiritual guidance, and I am a deeply spiritual person,” said Balint, who is Jewish.

Balint, the first woman and first openly LGBTQ person to represent Vermont in Congress, said Democrats have to be vocal in pushing back against attacks on LGBTQ people and others by elected leaders.

“These are not normal times,” she said, “and we have to stop normalizing it by staying silent.”