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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ed Pilkington

Speaker Mike Johnson calls separation of church and state ‘a misnomer’

The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said in a TV interview: ‘The separation of church and state is a misnomer.’
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said in a TV interview: ‘The separation of church and state is a misnomer.’ Photograph: Michael Brochstein/Sopa Images/Shutterstock

The speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, has delivered his verdict on the separation of church and state: it is a “misnomer”.

The second-in-line to the presidency informed Americans on Tuesday that their time-honored conception of one of the founding principles of the country was a “misunderstanding”. Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box, he tried to turn the conventional wisdom about the founders’ intentions on its head and claimed what they really wanted was to stop government interfering with religion, not the other way around.

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