House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is urging Americans to reconsider the meaning of “separation of church and state,” calling it widely misunderstood. Speaking at the 2026 National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., Johnson reflected on the nation’s Christian heritage ahead of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. “Religion in the public sphere happens to be one of my favorite topics,” Johnson said, adding, “I’m convinced it’s one of the most misunderstood issues in American public life.”
“It is from the very birth of our nation that America has always been sustained by prayer and been reliant upon our foundation of religion and morality and it’s in the DNA of our nation and who we are,” he said, explaining that the phrase originated from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, not the Constitution, emphasizing that it was intended to protect religious expression rather than remove it from public life. “Jefferson clearly did not mean at all to keep religion from influencing our government,” Johnson said, arguing that “the founders wanted to protect the Church and the religious practice of citizens from an encroaching state, not the other way around.”
Johnson concluded by encouraging Americans to return to prayer as a foundation for the nation.
