MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Mocks the Bible & Urges Obama to Exclude it From the Inauguration

Atheist activists aren't the only ones looking to nix the Bible and references to God from President Barack Obama's inauguration. MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell also took aim at the holy book today, dismissing its purportedly heinous contents and urging the president not to include it in his Jan. 21 inaugural ceremony.

After discussing Pastor Louie Giglio's recent decision to remove himself from Obama's choice of benediction speakers, O'Donnell launched into a tirade against the Bible and its presence at the historical event. In addition to defending the gay rights movement against Giglio's nearly-20-year-old sermon, the MSNBC host dismissed the Bible as an antiquated book that virtually nobody can agree with in its entirety.

MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell (H/T: MSNBC)

"No one accepts all of the teachings of the Bible -- no one," O'Donnell proclaimed. "There are no literal followers of the word of God as presented in the Bible left on earth. If there were any, they would have to be burning people at the stake all day, every day."

The host noted his belief that the Bible mandates that prostitutes be burned at the stake and that those who commit adultery and fail to keep the Sabbath also deserve death.

"The Bible has more death penalties in it than Texas law," he added, urging Obama to simply put his hand on one of his daughter's shoulders, rather than on a Bible, when he takes the oath (Obama is actually planning to place his hand on two Bibles -- one that was owned by Martin Luther King Jr. and another by Lincoln).

On the subject of slavery, O'Donnell framed the Bible as a book that condoned the horror that Michelle Obama, as a descendent of slaves, would have been forced to endure:

“This time, as it was last time for the first time in history, the book will be held by a First Lady who is a descendent of slaves. But the holy book she will be holding does not contain one word of God condemning slavery. Not one word. But that same book, which spends hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pages condemning all sorts of things and couldn’t find one sentence to condemn slavery, does indeed find the space to repeatedly condemn gay people, as the now banished Louie Giglio said it does. And as the First Lady is holding that book for the President, sitting someone near them will be a pastor who the Inauguration Committee will make sure is much more adept at hiding what that book actually says than Louie Giglio was.”

Watch O'Donnell's commentary, below:

(H/T: Mediaite)

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Related:

• Obama Puts Another Twist on His Upcoming Presidential Oath (This One Involves the Bible)
• Atheists Petition Obama to Nix ‘God’ & the Bible From Presidential Inauguration Oath: ‘Religious Rhetoric Is Empty’