Mike Johnson’s Biblical Beliefs Brutally Mocked by Late-Night TV

Stephen Colbert has made fun of new House Speaker Mike Johnson and his use of the Bible for “any issue under the sun.”

Colbert, who is a devout Catholic himself, roasted the speaker over his religiosity in his opening monologue on Monday’s Late Night With Stephen Colbert.

“If the Bible is his worldview on any issue, I don’t know why progressives are nervous,” said Colbert. “He’s clearly gonna ask the rich to sell all their possessions and give the money to the poor.”

“Good for him,” Colbert continued to loud cheers from the crowd.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) leaves a House Republican conference meeting October 24, 2023 in Washington, DC. Stephen Colbert mocked Johnson’s religious beliefs. Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America

“Being biblically faithful is not easy for a guy from Louisiana ‘cuz now he has to give up shrimp, crab, oysters and barbecue pork,” he said. “And I’m sure he’s gonna miss his wife when she has to be cast out of town during the time of her blood, only to be allowed to return when she brings two turtledoves to the tabernacle for the priest to sacrifice.”

Colbert then shared a clip of Johnson speaking on the House floor which the comedian described as a “crazy interpretation of the separation of church and state,” and that “Johnson wants to slip a little church tongue in your state hole,” including by “taking rights away from gay people.”

The TV host then spoke about how Johnson attempted to get funding to build a life-size Noah’s Ark encounter where “children can learn that dinosaurs were passengers on the ark.”

“Yes, many early humans had dinosaurs as pets. It’s right there in the ‘Book of Hanna-Barbera’,” Colbert joked, referring to The Flintstones, before offering up a fake reading of the book.

Colbert poked fun at Johnson’s literal interpretation of the bible and that its events “are actual historical events”, before cutting to trailer for the fake film Jurassic Ark.

The 51-year-old lawmaker from Louisiana, who was first elected in 2016, became House speaker this month after three weeks of voting.

Johnson has been accused of having strong ties to Christian nationalism, a movement that believes the U.S. is a solely Christian nation and that its laws and government should be focused on the religion’s values.

Before entering politics he worked as an attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, formerly Alliance Defense Fund or ADF, a Christian advocacy group the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group over its calls to re-criminalize sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S.

MSNBC columnist Sarah Posner described the ADF’s ambitions as wanting to “eviscerate the separation of church and state.”

Other anti-LGBTQ+ expressed by Johnson came in 2004 while working for the ADF where he described homosexuality as “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” in an editorial for The Shreveport Times. He wrote that gay marriage in the U.S. would lead to similar rights being offered to pedophiles.

In a 2005 opinion piece, Johnson wrote: “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

“);jQuery(this).remove()}) jQuery(‘.start-slider’).owlCarousel({loop:!1,margin:10,nav:!0,items:1}).on(‘changed.owl.carousel’,function(event){var currentItem=event.item.index;var totalItems=event.item.count;if(currentItem===0){jQuery(‘.owl-prev’).addClass(‘disabled’)}else{jQuery(‘.owl-prev’).removeClass(‘disabled’)} if(currentItem===totalItems-1){jQuery(‘.owl-next’).addClass(‘disabled’)}else{jQuery(‘.owl-next’).removeClass(‘disabled’)}})}})})