American culture is so “depraved” that the nation may be punished for “our collective sins,” a fundraising email reportedly said
FILE PHOTO: US Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA). © Win McNamee / Getty Images
A fundraising email reportedly sent by US House Speaker Mike Johnson to supporters has cited a growing number of LGBTQ school students as symptomatic of the “depraved culture” of the country.
The message distributed on Sunday and first reported by Punchbowl News said Johnson feared that “America may be beyond redemption” and wanted to ask voters whether they thought the nation needed “more God.”
It called the dropping church attendance numbers “frightening” and noted: “1 in 4 high school students identifies as something other than straight – what are they being taught in school?”
A report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in April, which was based on 2021 data, said that only 75.5% of high school students in the US identified as heterosexual. Other categories included 12.2% bisexual, 5.2% questioning, 3.9% other, 3.2% gay or lesbian and 1.8%, who said they didn’t understand the question.
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The share of non-straight students went from 11% in 2015 to 26% in 2021, the CDC remarked. It added that the rise may be partially attributed to changes in the wording of survey questions.
A Brown University poll in July said LGBTQ identification had skyrocketed among Ivy League students over the past decade, with 38% claiming to be in the category, compared to 14% in 2010.
Interpretation of such poll data is a matter of political debate in the US, with conservative pundits attributing it to “social contamination” rather than a major shift in the sexual preferences of young Americans. Johnson, a self-described “Bible-believing Christian” appeared to be making the same argument.
“Let’s face it – we live in a depraved culture,” his email read. “I fear God may allow our nation to enter into a time of judgment for our collective sins.”
Critics of the speaker, who was elected to his current position in October, have accused him of holding extreme positions on LGBTQ issues, based on his past writing and legal work for Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian advocacy group.
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Kelley Robinson, the president of the lobbying organization Human Rights Campaign that advocates for equality for sexual minorities, blasted Johnson on Tuesday. She accused the speaker of fundraising “off of his virulently anti-LGBTQ+ ideology” and “leading a parade of hate across the country rather than doing his job.”
