Shortly after being reelected as House Speaker, Mike Johnson read a prayer that he claimed was from Thomas Jefferson, despite there being no evidence the third president ever said it.
In fact, the quotation has been falsely attributed to Jefferson so often over the years that the Thomas Jefferson Foundation has debunked it.
“I was asked to provide a prayer for the nation. I offered one that is quite familiar to historians and probably many of us,” Johnson said.
“It is said each day of his eight years of the presidency and every day thereafter until his death, President Thomas Jefferson recited this prayer,“ he continued, reading aloud from that day’s House program.
It’s unclear who wrote the House program, and if Johnson was aware of the falsely attributed quotation ahead of time.
A spokesperson for Johnson didn’t respond to a request for comment.
“I wanted to share it with you here at the end of my remarks not as a prayer per se right now,” Johnson continued, “but really as a reminder of what our third president and the primary author of the Declaration of Independence thought was so important that it should be a daily recitation.”
Johnson then read aloud the “National Prayer of Peace,” the text of which can easily be found on The Thomas Jefferson Foundation’s website as an example of a “spurious” quotation.
“We have no evidence that this prayer was written or delivered by Thomas Jefferson,” it states.
“It appears in the 1928 United States Book of Common Prayer, and was first suggested for inclusion in a report published in 1919,” the site continues.
It goes on to say that Jefferson, an advocate for a strong barrier between church and state, likely wouldn’t have crafted such a prayer to be delivered publicly.
“He considered religion a private matter,” the foundation notes, “and when asked to recommend a national day of fasting and prayer, replied, ‘I consider the government of the US. as interdicted by the constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises.’”
