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麥克．強生出生於美國路易斯安那州，是一位美國律師、政治人物和前談話電臺主持人。他在當選議長隨後的宣誓就職演說中強調，其職位是上帝命定：「我相信《聖經》非常清楚表明：上帝是興起掌權者的那一位。」
他並提出美國保守主義，也是美國最本質的核心原則：個人自由、有限政府、法治、透過強大獲得和平、財政責任、自由市場和人的尊嚴。
身為美南浸信會的會友，他也曾多次表明，美國成功作為領先國家，歸功於其建立在「宗教信仰聲明」的基礎上。
以下，就讓我們一起欣賞這場十分激勵人心的中、英文演說內容。
美國眾議院議長麥克．強生就職演說全文譯文：
我想代表在座的所有議員，對美國人民說：我們聽見了你們的聲音。
我們知道你們每天面臨的挑戰，也知道國內、外都出現了很多問題。我們已經準備好，再次努力解決這些問題，而且一定會做到的。我們的使命是服務人民，恢復人民對眾議院這個偉大而重要機構的信心。
我的父親是一名消防員，在位於路易斯安那州西北部什里夫波特鎮的消防部門擔任助理局長。1984年9月17日，當我12歲時，他執行任務時嚴重燒傷，並造成永久性殘疾，在那個決定人生命運那一天的爆炸，他差點死去。我當時的志願是，長大後成為什里夫波特鎮消防部門主管。但父親漫長的康復歷程，改變了我們所有人的人生軌跡。
我在家中四個孩子裡排行老大。父親在接下來幾十年的餘生中，都在與疼痛對抗。在我當選國會議員的前三天，父親因癌症去世，三天！他非常想來我的選舉之夜現場、到我們家第一個大學畢業生的現場，這對他來說意義重大。
幾週後，2017年初，我就任議員的第一年，一天晚上，輪到我登上議長講臺任臨時主席，本以為這意義重大，後來才搞明白，午夜時分的差事，就是派給新任議員的。
如果我記得沒錯，當時傑克遜．李女士正要結束那冗長而雄辯的演講。這並不是說我沒有被她的演說所吸引。
當時我抬起頭，看了看眾議院議事廳的上方。我看見摩西的臉朝下凝視，那一刻，感受到了這個位置責任沉重。在這裡有備受尊崇的過去，還有我們呼召要去創造的未來。
當時我激動莫名，那一刻我才意識到，父親已經離世好幾週了，而我甚至還沒有機會為父親的離去感懷。不知為何，我感覺到他已經知道。
當我眼裡流下了淚水，站在那裡擦拭眼淚，突然想到：深夜的觀眾會不會以為，這位來自路易斯安那州的新任年輕國會議員，出了點問題？很抱歉，我流淚並非是因為被傑克遜．李女士的演講感動了。只是知道那一刻，父親會以為我榮，而且，我們的父母都會因我們被召喚來此所做的事，感到榮耀。
我也認為，所有美國人都曾經以這個機構為傲，但此刻這個機構陷入危機之中，我們現在面臨的挑戰是重建和恢復人民的信任。
這是一個美麗的國家，美國的偉大之處就是她容許像我這樣的消防員之子能夠來到這裡，在這個神聖的殿堂裡為人民服務。
曾經有偉大的男、女眾議員們在此服事，做出榜樣，他們共同努力建立，並維護林肯所說「地球上人類最後、最好的盼望。」
我們正處在一個非常危險的時刻，這是顯而易見的。我們都知道，世界正處於動盪之中，但一個強大的美國對整個世界都有益處。
我們是自由的燈塔，必須維護這偉大的人民自治的試驗地，現在仍需如此。這個宏偉的試驗地只有247年，不知道她會持續多久，但我們確實知道，建國先賢教導，要好好的照顧她。
我想對在座的所有同僚，重複昨晚在這個房間裡對共和黨人說過的話：
我認為，在這樣的事情上不會有任何機緣巧合，我相信經文，即《聖經》非常清楚的表明，上帝才是興起掌權者的那一位。祂興起你們每一個人，我們所有的人。而且我相信，上帝已經命定並允許我們每一個人，在這個特定時刻被帶領到這裡。
麥克．強生及其妻子Kelly。（公有領域）這是我的信念，我相信今天每一個人都有巨大的責任，要使用神賜予我們的恩賜，來為這個非凡國家的偉大人民服務，他們也理應獲得我們的服務。
同時，我們也要確保我們的共和國在一個迫切需要光明、希望和自由的世界中，繼續作為光明、希望和自由的偉大燈塔。
在1962年，我們國家的座右銘──我們信靠神（In God We Trust），被刻在這個講臺的上方。
如果你看看他們給來到眾議院的遊客和選民的指南小冊，翻到第14頁，它會告訴你這段歷史。它說得很簡單，就是刻在我們上面的這字句。將這個座右銘刻在這裡的用意，是譴責冷戰時期的蘇聯哲學；這種哲學就是馬克思主義和共產主義，其思想源自沒有上帝的前提。這是一項關鍵的區別，在我們國家的憲法中也對此作了闡述。
我們都非常熟悉憲法的文字，我們過往在學校要求孩子們背誦這廣為所知的第二段，但現今的學校已不常作此要求，但他們確實應該作如此的操練。
英國著名的哲學家和政治家G. K. 柴斯特頓曾說：「美國是世界上唯一一個建立在信條上的國家。」他說，在《獨立宣言》（the Declaration）中列出的每一項都基於清晰的神學觀念。我們的信條是什麼？下列真理不言而喻：人人被造平等，不是出生平等，而是被造平等。造物主賦予其相同不可剝奪的權利，包括生命權、自由權和追求幸福的權利。這就是使美國自立國以來一直朝氣蓬勃的信條，它使我們成為現在的偉大國家。但現在正處於巨大危機時刻，世界需要我們強大起來，需要我們記住其信條和其中的勸戒。
我們都知道中東和東歐的動盪和暴力事件，太平洋地區的緊張局勢持續加溫。國家要求本機構發揮強而有力的領導作用。我們絕不能飄搖不定。
我們國家在中東的最大盟友（以色列）正遭受攻擊，接下來我即將要提出第一項議案，就是要明確支持盟友以色列，我們早就該完成這項工作了。我們不僅要向以色列，而且要向全世界表明：在電視螢幕上看到的哈馬斯的野蠻行徑，是邪惡和錯誤的。
參議院和白宮也再不能忽視南部邊境的問題了。從德州到紐約，一波又一波的非法移民帶給社區的壓力，已經快到崩潰的臨界點。街道上充斥著吩坦尼毒品，所有社區裡的兒童，甚至大人，都死於這個毒品。面對如此巨大危機而不作為是無法接受的。我們必須團結起來，解決邊境潰破的問題。我們必須這樣做。
我們不能讓生活成本繼續飛漲下去，美國人不應該因為每週負擔不起生活物資，而擔心不能養家糊口。在這個大廳的每一個人都應該思考這個問題。根據數據統計，過去的兩年，物價上漲了17%以上，信用卡利率處於近30年來最高水準；而房貸利率已經達到2001年以來從未見過的高峰。必須藉由約束聯邦支出和降低通貨膨脹，來緩和美國人民的經濟困境。
國家安全面臨的最大威脅是我們的國債。當我們坐在這個大廳的時候，國債已經超過33.6兆美元。在講完這次演講，債務將再增加2,000萬美元。這是撐不了多久的，必須讓國家重回正軌。這不是件容易的事，我們必須做出艱難的決定，但是如果現在不採取行動，將來將無法承受其後果。
我們有責任向美國人說明這一點，使其能夠清楚理解。我們將成立一個兩黨債務委員會，以立即積極應對這場危機。立即！
我們都知道，現在兩黨正處於一個黨派競爭非常激烈的時刻，這個現象今天已經在這裡展現了。
當人民對政府失去信心時，當他們忽略使我們成為世界歷史上最偉大的國家之原則時，我想我們必須全神貫注於此。我們要去戰鬥，要為核心原則展開激烈的抗爭。
因為在這個現代社會，這些原則經常顯得不合時宜。有時候我們必須犧牲自己的偏好，因為這是立法機構所需要的。但我們將為核心原則捍衛到底。
在雷根總統的告別演說中，他解釋了與人相處融洽的祕訣，我一直喜歡轉述他的話：「你們知道，人們稱呼我為偉大的溝通者，但其實我不是，我只是在傳播偉大的信念，這些相同的偉大信念自建國以來，一直指導著我們的國家。」
這些信念是什麼？我稱它為「美國保守主義的七項核心原則」。但我向大家承認，這確實是我們國家最本質的核心原則。我將它們歸納為：個人自由、有限政府、法治、透過強大獲得和平、財政責任、自由市場和人的尊嚴。
這是使我們成為一個非凡國家的基礎，今天你我都是這些原則的守護者，這些原則使我們成為世界歷史上最自由、最強大、最成功的國家，這些原則使我們真正與眾不同。
在這個危機重重的時刻，我們有責任像前幾代偉大的領導者一樣共同努力，面對這些巨大挑戰，並解決這些重大問題。
最後，讓我總結：眾議院院長的職責是為全體議員服務，我會的。我已經向在座的同仁們承諾，本議長將以權力下放而為人所知。在我的辦公室，議員們將更廣泛的參與其中。我們將在議政過程中，在做所有重大決策過程中，為實現可預測的流程和正常程序中，具有更大的影響力。
為了人民，理當這麼做。是的。我想向在座的（共和黨）同仁，以及走道另一邊的（民主黨）同仁，做出這樣的承諾：我的辦公室將以信任、透明度和問責制，作為人民財富的好管家。
這裡作為人民的議院，在座全體都應以合乎眾人期待的誠實和正直而著稱。我們的政府體系並非完全無缺的體系，它面臨著許多的挑戰，但它仍然是世界上最好的體系，現在我們有機會來保守它。
我要說的最後一點是，給世界其他地方的一個訊息：世界已經看到眾議院這齣戲好幾週了，我們從中學到了很多教訓。但你知道嗎？逆境會讓人變得更為強大。也希望世界各地的盟友知道，眾議院的議員們再次回到責任崗位上了，世界各地的自由之敵聽到我們響亮而清晰的聲音：
人民的議院已經又開張了！謝謝！
我們將在此履行職責，為您提供良好的服務，我們將進行良好的治理，將再次讓您為這個機構感到自豪，我們將每天努力，確保這是真的。展望未來，我衷心相信，美國最好的日子仍在前方，願上帝保佑你們！願上帝保佑美利堅合眾國！謝謝！
U.S. Rep Mike Johnson Official Photo。（公有領域）美國眾議院議長麥克．強生就職演說全文原文：
Mike Johnson Delivers Remarks
After Being Elected House Speaker Transcript
Thank you, thank you. Thank you all. First, a few words of gratitude. I want to thank Leader Jeffries. I do look forward to working with you on behalf of the American people. I know we see things from very different points of view, but I know that in your heart, you love and care about this country and you want to do what’s right and so we’re going to find common ground there, all right? I want to express my great thanks for our Speaker Emeritus, Kevin McCarthy. Kevin has dedicated over two decades of his life to selfless public service, 16 of those years in this House, and you would be hard-pressed to find anybody who loves this institution more or has contributed more to it. He is the reason we’re in this majority today. His impact can never be overstated and I want to thank him for his leadership, his friendship, and the selfless sacrifice that you and Judy have made for so many years. You helped build it, Kevin, and we owe you a great debt of gratitude.
I want to thank the dedicated and overworked staff of this beleaguered House. They accept praise so stoically, but Ms. Susan Cole, our House Reading Clerk, and yes, yes, listen, all the clerks and all the staff, you know, they’re terribly overworked. This has been a grueling process, but they have served an integral role in keeping our republic and we thank them for that service. I know we all do.
I want to thank my dedicated wife of almost 25 years, Kelly. She’s not here, we couldn’t get a flight in time. This happened sort of suddenly, but we’re going to celebrate soon. She spent the last couple of weeks on her knees in prayer to the Lord and she’s a little worn out, we all are. I want to thank our children, Michael and Hannah and Abby and Jack and Will. All of our children sacrifice, all of them do and we know that and there’s not a lot of perks to being a member of Congress’ kid, right? And so, I want to thank all of your families as well for what they endure and what they’ve had to endure for the last few weeks, we’ve been here a while. Yeah. I want to thank my faithful mother, Jeanne Johnson, who bore me at the age of 17 and my brothers, Chris and Josh, and my sister, Laura and all their families and all of our extended family. In Louisiana family’s a big deal and we’ve got a bunch of them.
I especially want to thank all the extraordinary people of the great State of Louisiana. We have never had a speaker of the House hail from our State and so they’ve been lifting us up. I thank the people of Louisiana for the opportunity to serve you in Congress and I’m humbled by your continuous support, we will make you proud. To my colleagues, I want to thank you all for the trust that you have instilled in me to lead us in this historic and unprecedented moment that we’re in. The challenge before us is great, but the time for action is now and I will not let you down.
I want to say to the American people, on behalf of all of us here, we hear you. We know the challenges you’re facing. We know that there’s a lot going on in our country, domestically and abroad, and we are ready to get to work again to solve those problems and we will. Our mission here is to serve you well, to restore the people’s faith in this House, in this great and essential institution. My dad, as it was mentioned, my dad was a firefighter. He was an assistant chief in the Fire Department in my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana, a little town in northwest Louisiana. On September 17th, 1984, when I was 12 years old, he was critically burned and permanently disabled in the line of duty. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was the Chief of the Fire Department in Shreveport, but after the explosion on that fateful day, he nearly died and it was a long road back and it’s changed all of our life trajectories.
I’m the oldest of four kids and my dad, he lived with pain all the rest of his life for decades more and I lost my dad to cancer three days before I got elected to Congress, three days, and he wanted to be there at my election night so badly. I’m the first college graduate in my family. This was a big deal to him.
So several weeks after that, it was early 2017, it was my freshman term and it fell to me to be in the rostrum one night to serve here as Speaker Pro-Tem. I thought that was a big deal until I figured out that’s what you do for freshmen late at night and I think, if my memory serves, Ms. Jackson Lee was winding down one of her long, eloquent speeches, and not that I was not enraptured by her speech, but I looked up at the top of the chamber there and I saw the face of Moses staring down and I just felt in that moment the weight of this place, the history that is revered here and the future that we are called to forge, and I really was just kind of almost overwhelmed with emotion.
It occurred to me in that moment it had been several weeks and I had not had an opportunity yet to grieve my dad’s passing and I just had this sense that somehow he knew and I had tears come to my eyes and I was standing here and I’m wiping them away and then it suddenly occurs to me the late night C-SPAN viewers are going to think something’s very wrong with the new young congressman from Louisiana. It wasn’t. [inaudible 00:07:25] speech, I’m sorry. I just knew in that moment that my dad, my father would be proud of me and I felt that he was, and I think all of our parents are proud of what we’re called to do here. I think all the American people at one time had great pride in this institution, but right now that’s in jeopardy and we have a challenge before us right now to rebuild and restore that trust.
This is a beautiful country. It’s the beauty of America that allows a firefighter’s kid like me to come here and serve in this sacred chamber where great men and women have served before all of us and strive together to build and then preserve what Lincoln did refer to as the last best hope of man on earth. We stand at a very dangerous time, I’m stating the obvious. We all know that the world is in turmoil, but a strong America is good for the entire world. We are the beacon of freedom and we must preserve this grand experiment in self-governance. It still is. We’re only 247 years into this grand experiment. We don’t know how long it will last, but we do know that the founders told us to take good care of it.
I want to tell all my colleagues here what I told the Republicans in that room last night.
I don’t believe there are any coincidences in a manner like this. I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority. He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief.
I believe that each one of us has a huge responsibility today to use the gifts that God has given us to serve the extraordinary people of this great country and they deserve it and to ensure that our republic remains standing as the great beacon of light and hope and freedom in a world that desperately needs it.
It was in 1962 that our national motto, “In God We Trust” was adorned above this rostrum and if you look at the little guide that they give tourists and constituents who come and visit the House, if you turn in there to about page 14, in the middle of that guide, it tells you the history of this and it says very simply, “These words were placed here above us.
This motto was placed here as a rebuke of the Cold War era philosophy of the Soviet Union. That philosophy was Marxism and communism, which begins with the premise that there is no God. This is a critical distinction that is also articulated in our nation’s birth certificate.” We know the language well, the famous second paragraph that we used to have children memorize in school and they don’t do that so often anymore, but they should.
G. K. Chesterson was the famous British philosopher and statesman and he said one time, “America is the only nation in the world that is founded upon a creed” and he said, “It’s listed with almost theological lucidity in the Declaration of Independence.” What is our creed? We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, not born equal, created equal, and they’re endowed by the same unalienable rights, with the same unalienable rights, life, liberty, pursuit of happiness. That is the creed that has animated our nation since its founding, that has made us the great nation that we are and we’re in a time of extraordinary crisis right now and the world needs us to be strong. They need us to remember our creed and our admonition.
Turmoil and violence have rocked the Middle East and Eastern Europe. We all know what intentions continue to build in the Indo-Pacific. The country demands strong leadership of this body and we must not waver. Our nation’s greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack. The first bill that I’m going to bring to this floor, in just a little while, will be in support of our dear friend, Israel and we’re overdue in getting that done. We are going to show not only Israel but the entire world that the barbarism of Hamas that we have all seen play out on our television screens is wretched and wrong, and we are going to stand for the good in that conflict.
We have a catastrophe at our southern border. The Senate and the White House can no longer ignore the problem. From Texas to New York, wave after wave of illegal migrants are stressing our communities to their breaking points. We know that our streets are being flooded with fentanyl and all of our communities, children and even adults are dying from it. The status quo is unacceptable. Inaction is unacceptable and we must come together and address the broken border. We have to do it.
The skyrocketing cost of living is unsustainable and Americans should not have to worry about how they’re going to feed their family every week because they can’t afford their groceries anymore. Everybody in this room should think about this. Here’s the stats. Prices have increased over 17% in the last two years. Credit card interest rates are at the highest level in nearly three decades and mortgage rates are now at a peak we haven’t seen since 2001. We have to bring relief to the American people by reigning in federal spending and bringing down inflation. The greatest threat to our national security is our nation’s debt and while we’ve been sitting in this room, that’s right, that debt has crossed almost $33.6 trillion. In the time that it’s going to take me to deliver this speech, we’ll go up another $20 million in debt. It’s unsustainable. We have to get the country back on track. Now, we know this is not going to be an easy task and tough decisions will have to be made, but the consequences, if we don’t act now, are unbearable.
We have a duty to the American people to explain this to them so they understand it well and we are going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately. We all know that we also live in a time of bitter partisanship. It was noted and it’s been on display here today, right, when our people are losing their faith in government, when they’re losing sight of the principles that made us the greatest nation in the history of the world. I think we got to be mindful of that. We’re going to fight, we’re going to fight vigorously over our core principles because they’re at odds a lot of times now in this modern era. We have to sacrifice sometimes our preferences because that’s what’s necessary in a legislative body, but we will defend our core principles to the end.
In his farewell address… Thank you. In his farewell address, President Reagan explained the secret of his rapport with people and I like to paraphrase his explanation all the time. He said, “You know, they call me the great communicator, but I really wasn’t that.” He said, “I was just communicating great things and that the same great things have guided our nation since its founding.” What are those great things? I call them the seven core principles of American conservatism, but let me concede to you all. I think it’s really quintessentially the core principles of our nation. I boil them down to individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets and human dignity. Those are the foundations that made us the extraordinary nation that we are, and you and I today are the stewards of those principles, the things that have made us the freest, most powerful, most successful nation in the history of the world, the things that have made us truly exceptional.
In this time of great crisis, it is our duty to work together, as previous generations of great leaders have, to face these great challenges and solve these great problems. I will conclude with this. The job of the Speaker of the House is to serve the whole body and I will, but I’ve made a commitment to my colleagues here that this Speaker’s office is going to be known for decentralizing the power here. My office is going to be known for members being more involved and having more influence in our processes, in all the major decisions that are made here for predictable processes and regular order. We owe that to the people, that’s right. And I’m going to make this commitment to you, to my colleagues here and on the other side of the aisle as well, my office is going to be known for trust and transparency and accountability, for good stewardship of the people’s treasure, for the honesty, integrity that is incumbent upon us, all of us, here in the people’s House.
Our system of government is not a perfect system. It’s got a lot of challenges, but it is still the best one in the world and we have an opportunity to preserve it. Last thing I’m going to say is a message to the rest of the world. They have been watching this drama play out for a few weeks. We’ve learned a lot of lessons, but you know what, through adversity, it makes you stronger and we want our allies around the world to know that this body of lawmakers is reporting again to our duty stations. Let the enemies of freedom around the world hear us loud and clear, the people’s House is back in business. Thank you, thank you. We will do our duty here. We will serve you well. We will govern well and we’ll make you proud in this institution again. We’re going to fight every day to make sure that is true. I look forward to the days ahead. I genuinely believe in my heart that the best days of America are still ahead of us. God bless you and God bless the United States of America. Thank you. Thank you.◇
