Long before rising to the position of speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Mike Johnson held a job not usually included in his biography: founding dean of the Pressler School of Law at Louisiana College. The law school never actually opened because of some accrediting problems at the Southern Baptist college. But there’s another reason Johnson might not want to talk about it. Paul Pressler, who died earlier this year, was accused by multiple men of rape and unwanted sexual advances.
While Johnson didn’t stay long at the embryonic Pressler School of Law, he seems to perfectly represent the school today after a fellow Southern Baptist was nominated by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as the next U.S. attorney general.
For years, many Southern Baptist leaders have continued to praise Pressler and ignored or downplayed the allegations against him. They’ve essentially adopted a don’t-ask-don’t-tell policy about one of the two men most responsible for the rightward shift in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. That approach also represents much of the SBC’s response to allegations of clergy sexual abuse within its ranks.
Johnson, a former trustee for the Southern Baptist Convention’s public policy arm, has followed this model of doing nothing in the wake of Pressler’s scandals. Despite helping create a short-lived honor for the Republican activist who turned the SBC more toward Republican politics, Johnson has not addressed the serious and credible allegations against Pressler. Now, he’s taking the same approach to the nomination of former Rep. Matt Gaetz to serve as the nation’s top law enforcement officer.
After his nomination last week, Gaetz resigned from Congress in a move apparently designed to block the release of a House Ethics Committee investigation. Multiple women reportedly testified to the committee that they were paid to have sex with Gaetz and that Gaetz slept with a minor at a drug-fueled party. Allegations of illegal drug use and sex with a minor have swirled around Gaetz for years. But the House investigation might not be made public since he’s no longer a member of Congress. And Johnson not only wants to keep it from the public but also from senators who will vote on Gaetz’s nomination.
President-elect Donald Trump talks to House Speaker Mike Johnson at a UFC 309 mixed martial arts flyweight title bout on Nov. 16, 2024, in New York City. (Adam Hunger/Associated Press)
“It should not come out,” Johnson insisted. “I’m going to strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that is not the way we do things in the House.”
Even worse, Johnson went on to praise Gaetz, whose resume doesn’t rise to the role of AG even without the scandals, as “such an exciting pick” and “one of the brightest minds in Washington or anywhere for that matter.” Johnson is pulling a page from the SBC-Pressler book. Ignore the abuse, protect the abuser, and go for the jugular in attacking those on the other side.
Johnson’s approach matches how Southern Baptists and other conservative Christians have reacted to Gaetz for years. Gaetz describes himself as “an active member” of First Baptist Church in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. Yet, the SBC’s newswire has for years ignored Gaetz’s scandals. They do, however, tout him as a Southern Baptist every two years as a new session of Congress starts.
Gaetz’s fellow Southern Baptists have remained quiet despite speaking against public immorality by other politicians. Like in 1998 when President Bill Clinton, a Southern Baptist, found himself embroiled in a new sexual scandal. The SBC passed a resolution arguing that “tolerance of serious wrongs by leaders sears the conscience, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society, and surely results in God’s judgment.” A newer resolution in 2017 reiterated “the importance of moral leadership.” Lamenting America’s “moral decline” as seen “in such important areas as sex, marriage, money, and power,” the resolution resolved that “we call on all leaders in every walk of life to conduct themselves, to the best of their ability, according to the moral standards set for by God’s revealed truth.”
Moral downgrade comes when character only matters depending on which letter follows a politician’s name. Gaetz has been morally unfit to serve in Congress for years. Resigning in shame ahead of an ethics report would’ve been good if Trump and Johnson weren’t trying to give Gaetz a promotion. Johnson claims the Bible guides his politics. Yet, while a man accused of being a drug-fueled sexual predator is being considered for attorney general, Johnson is actively working to protect the sexual abuser. Just like he learned in the SBC. Maybe he can put on a Pressler School of Law shirt for his next interview praising Gaetz.
Brian Kaylor is editor-in-chief and president of Word&Way. He is also the co-author of Baptizing America: How Mainline Protestants Helped Build Christian Nationalism.
