The chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, Republican Michael Conaway of Texas, routinely mixes the language of religious social conservatives into his farm-policy speeches, most recently at USDA’s annual Outlook Forum. The remarks stood out at a conference at which partisanship usually is muffled and in a sector where differences usually are defined by what crops you grow, not by what you believe.
Some of the 1,600 people at the Outlook Forum found the religiously framed comments to be off-topic and deliberately provocative. One said they injected a political tone, noting that Conaway spoke during the time slot ordinarily reserved for the agriculture secretary; the post is vacant at present. But others jeered when a member of the audience used the language of faith to question Conaway’s politics.
“He’s a deeply religious man with strong convictions,” said spokeswoman Haley Graves. “If you listen to his remarks even at committee hearings, you know very well the chairman often speaks of his personal religious beliefs.” When he became chairman in 2015, Conaway began the practice of opening each public session of the Agriculture Committee with a prayer, usually of a Christian orientation. “Congressional historians, House parliamentary experts and civil liberties groups all say such a standardized program of prayer at a committee is without precedent,” said Roll Call newspaper at the time.
Conaway frequently has spoken against abortion, criticized the entertainment industry and worried about a “coarsening” of public discourse during speeches. Those targets were part of the Outlook Forum speech, along with a recent addition: complaints about signs and costumes at the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21. Conaway chided President Trump for remarks about women’s anatomy “which should never have happened” — the inspiration for many of the signs — while deploring at greater length the “foulest, nastiest, crudest, crassest” wording of signs at the demonstration.
“How do we sustain … this self-governance going forward?” said Conaway. “We’ve got to live a moral code. I live a Judeo-Christian model.” Without a religiously based moral foundation, the United States will lose its position as a world leader, he said. “Who’s going to defend liberty and freedom if we don’t? Russia? China? Radical Islam?”
A member of the audience, a man who did not identify himself, complimented Conaway for calling for a more moral country and added, “I think it’s very important when you do that to start with your own sins and then reach out to the sins of the people you want to call out.” The man said his wife, daughter, aunt and mother-in-law participated in the Women’s March, and repeated his suggestion of self-reflection before criticism.
The remarks drew applause as well as a few shouts of, “Sit down.”
“First off, I’m a sinner saved by grace, no better than anybody else,” responded Conaway, who said he was not criticizing all the women at the march. “I’m not sure what I said that offended you.”
During the speech, Conaway said he is from the Bible Belt. “I don’t get a lot of push-back back home,” he said. “But there are growing pushes against the idea that only a moral people can self-govern.” A CPA by trade, Conaway is a Baptist deacon and a deputy Republican whip.
To watch the opening session of the Outlook Forum, including Conaway’s speech and his replies to questions from the audience, click here. Also speaking during the opening session were Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, USDA chief economist Robert Johansson, and Sam Clovis, the leader of Trump’s “beach head team” at USDA.