MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell Chortles: Christianity Was 'Invented' for Forgiveness -- of Newt

December 10th, 2011 8:42 AM

Christians believe that God loved the world and sent his only son to found a church. Atheists think man invented religion to bring some meaning (or rationales for power) to their lives. Guess which Lawrence O'Donnell sounded like on Friday's Morning Joe.

O’Donnell claimed “Republican voters hate Mitt Romney, can’t stand Mitt Romney,” and since he’s at 25 percent in the polls, 75 percent of Republicans are apparently placed in the white-hot hater category, which O’Donnell found amusing since Gingrich is the bigger sinner against that invented Christian notion of God. Video and transcript below:

 

O'DONNELL: Now Newt is that survivor of the who-else-you-got thing and it’s – they simply are prepared and they’re a predominantly Christian group these voters. Their Christian religion guides them to forgiveness. Christianity was invented for forgiveness.

Religions weren’t great at forgiveness before Christianity, and we came to the point that we realized, ‘Hey, everyone’s going to go to Hell if they can’t be forgiven at some point here, and so Christianity came along and said you can be forgiven.

So everything Newt is being forgiven for by these voters is a violation of one of the Ten Commandments. They simply cannot bring themselves to forgive an individual mandate in health care. That is not in the Ten Commandments. There is no provision in Christian forgiveness for enacting an individual mandate for health care in Massachusetts, and so Mitt Romney is condemned by these voters to his 25 percent.

O'Donnell can't conceive that a Christian conservative voter might have concerns about the Mitt Romney who favored abortion and the gay agenda when he was running against Ted Kennedy for the Senate and serving as governor of Massachusetts. (He probably does imagine that some conservative evangelicals aren't eager to vote for a Mormon president.)

Of course, Christians can find forgiveness for a candidate's past sins, and some Gingrich backers have been effusive in expressing their forgiveness for Gingrich's adultery and three marriages, including adultery during the Clinton impeachment (over perjury on accusations of adultery and sexual harassment). That does not mean that Christians have to express forgiveness by nominating a man with a moral glass jaw.

[Hat tip: Mark Finkelstein]