Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) seemingly tied Christianity to U.S. national security during a bizarre speech on the House floor on Thursday, the Huffington Post reported.

“If you were completely areligious, completely atheistic, but you wanted to have a free country, and you wanted to have it safe and protected, then it would sound like, from historical purposes, that it might be a good thing to encourage those who believe in God to keep doing so,” Gohmert said. “Because when a nation’s leaders honor that God, that nation is protected. It’s only when it turns away that it falls.”

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The remarks came during a speech about what Gohmert described as the continued persecution of Christians worldwide. The Tea Party congressman also referred to Israel during his remarks, which came less than a month after he criticized President Barack Obama’s administration for not using Biblical prophecy as the basis for U.S. policy in dealing with the country.

“If the God who protected Israel since its inception through many generations until they stopped honoring the god of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — which, by the way, no country has ever fallen while it was truly honoring the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,” Gohmert argued.

The Post also noted that Gohmert has blamed atheists for the June 2012 mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater and for the increase in suicide among military service members.

Watch Gohmert’s remarks, as posted on his YouTube channel, below.