Conservative faith leaders praise Johnson for House’s approval of foreign aid
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., talks to reporters just after the House voted to approve $95 billion in aid for Ukraine, Israel, and other US allies on April 20. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Conservative religious leaders who had been imploring Speaker Mike Johnson to back assistance for Ukraine and Israel in fighting their wars celebrated the House’s passage of foreign aid packages Saturday, clearing the way for the measures to go to the Senate, which passed the bill late last night.
Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, was among those lobbying Johnson, himself a Southern Baptist, on behalf of Ukrainian and American Baptists concerned about the plight of Ukrainian Christians.
“That is why we asked Speaker Johnson and congressional leaders to come together to meet the challenges of this moment,” Leatherwood said in a statement on Monday. “In the House passage of bills relating to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, the Speaker sent a strong message to autocrats and terrorists alike that our nation will take a stand to support vulnerable lives and oppose the tyrants who threaten them.”
