Pat’s been pretty tough on Newt here and he’s gotten some pretty nasty hate mail in return on that. But we’re cool with that. You want to see hate mail, check out the times that Pat said nasty things about Ron Paul. Whew.
But I must say. I’m completely with Pat on the Newt thing. I get a little tired of hearing that all that infidelity occured before Newt became a Catholic. Hooray. I’m all for Newt’s conversion. But when did conversion become an eraser of worldly consequences?
You can’t tell people you’ve done horrible things but that was before you became a Christian so all those things don’t matter. I think they do. And to weigh the fact that Newt has been a serial philanderer when choosing a President is not out of bounds. And it’s not un-Christian to bring it up.
Maggie Gallagher wrote:
The great pro-Newt meme now floating is that Christianity is all about forgiveness. Yes, it is. But isn’t there something…oh forgive me, I’m Catholic, this scripture quoting is so hard. Something about, “First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (True, it says nothing about ex-wives, a harder case.)
Truthfully, it’s not about forgiveness. Gingrich did not injure me, he doesn’t require my forgiveness. It’s a judgment about his character and trustworthiness with power that each voter will have to make.
Look, I’ve known some alcoholics and junkies in my life. There were a few times where I spoke to them and they said they rediscovered their faith and they seemed clean. They told me they were clean. They told their wives they were clean. And you know what…they were. For a while. And then they slid back and became worse than ever before.
I’m not saying that Newt’s conversion isn’t real. I’m saying that all Christians fail at times. We’re all sinners. Christianity is not an innoculation against bad behavior and it certainly isn’t immunity from the past. I hope Newt Gingrich is a better person than I think he is. I don’t believe he is. Hey, part of me wants to. But I don’t.
Just last year, Newt told David Brody on CBN that he cheated on his wives because he loved his country so much.
“There’s no question at times of my life, partially driven by how passionately I felt about this country, that I worked far too hard and things happened in my life that were not appropriate.
That was last year.
Even to think something like that is weird. Saying it is weirder. And saying it on camera is way too weird for me. A shfiting of responsibility is not what I want to hear. He doesn’t have to convince me. I’m not asking him for anything. He’s asking for my vote. He’s asking me. And at this point, I remain unconvinced.
January 23, 2012 at 12:43 am
Anonymous,
Church proceedings are confidential in this area but one can surmise pretty easily. The second wife of Gingrich was married prior to marrying him and so that second marriage to Newt would be annulled by the Church because she was married spiritually to another….like the Samaritan woman at the well whom Christ told she was with a man who was not her real husband.
The Church may well have annulled Newt's first marriage because Newt himself was defective in terms of moral maturity wherein he for years didn't grasp what marriage really is in Christian terms and so his vow was probably rejected by God.
Annullment asks this question: did God accept the vows of these two people regardless of whether the Church accepted their vows. If John Paul II trusted Macial Maciel Delgollardo for years and was wrong, you can see how the Church can often marry people who secretly are incapable of a vow morally. Since God sees the heart and nothing is hidden from Him, he rejects some marriages that the Church ok's at the time but later sees were a hidden problem
January 23, 2012 at 1:01 am
@Elliot Blu. CONGRESS DECLARES WAR. CONGRESS MAKES LAW. CONGRESS ACTS ON THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE. Obama has committed treason against our Constitution and our Declaration of Independence. Obama has redefined the human being as property of the state, no rational, immortal soul, no unalienable civil rights, only from whom to extort taxes to fund Obama's orgasms and orgies. HV Observer wrote: “We will not pay our own money to have babies executed without trial.” …because every member of the human species is guaranteed the right to trial by jury. Those members alive today have benefitted from this civil right and must, in Justice, extend the right to trial by jury to every member.
January 23, 2012 at 1:11 am
God bless
January 23, 2012 at 1:09 pm
As someone who made a horrible mistake in a first marriage (annulled) and learned enough from it that my second marriage worked (25 years, three kids), I find this pious "I just can't trust Newt" commentary disingenuous. Judge not, lest ye be judged, I seem to recall. I'm not all that crazy about the guy, but why is it so hard to take his word on his conversion? His first two marriages were prior to becoming Catholic.
Most of the arguments against Newt can be boiled down to, "I'm Christian and believe in forgiveness, and I want to be able to wear my forgiveness on my sleeve, but in Newt's case, I want to be able to demand perfection." Or something like that.
Meh…
January 23, 2012 at 4:18 pm
As a Catholic, I want to be able to demand more from Newt by way of evidence he is a changed man. But also my faith informs me that I too am a sinner and it is not my job to judge him, that is for God to do.
As a pragmatist looking for more moral leadership of this nation however, I must also consider whether this quest that discards the good in search of the perfect will actually ultimately leave us further from where we want to be, in the re elected personage of President Obama. It is true that our leaders are fallible, but it also true that the other side simply will not hold their leaders to anything resembling a personal moral standard so long as their views fall into line. At the same time we are condemning Newt for having three marriages over 30 years, Bill Clinton appears to have been bedding 3 new women per week with antics which qualify him for the Adultery Hall of Fame, and there will be no admission from him much less remorse or contrition.
God uses us who are imperfect for His own purposes. That certainly describes Gingrich it would seem. Notwithstanding his numerous unmentioned weaknesses, is it still possible that Gingrich is the best (electable) candidate for people who want to see Christian values returned to our highest office?
January 23, 2012 at 6:14 pm
Newt has converted, he has entered into the Church, this assumes sacramental confession, confirmation and first communion (don't know if he were baptized). He had any prior marriages annulled, and has sacramentally married his current wife. If Saul of Tarsus could turn it around, why not Newt?
That having been said…
Most likely Jesus has forgiven him. But he still has to pay the temporal punishment for his prior infidelities. It may be that that punishment is that he loses the nomination.
I don't think it's un-Christian to distrust Newt, we'll have to make up our own mind about that.
January 23, 2012 at 6:59 pm
OK, so Newt was bad. And now is converted, and in charity, we must grant that he is learning and practicing the Catholic faith. Or we can sit here, with little to no real knowledge, and judge him. That would suit the Dems just fine, as we'd find ourselves going to the polls in November to vote for Romney, who is far from conservative, hasn't (and perhaps cannot) earn my trust, and comrade Obama. Oy!
We have seen a sequence of front runners, each of them, in turn, all but destroyed by the media, and to some degree, to the degree we lap it up, we are complicit.
I'd love to see the race come down to Santorum vs. O. But I don't think it will, and am unsure Santorum could win.
My worst nightmare is that Ron Paul will run on a third party ticket, and we get 4 more years of O, from which I doubt our country will ever recover.
January 24, 2012 at 3:42 pm
If that is your worst nightmare, perhaps you should work on helping Paul win the Republican nomination, so that practicing Catholics will have an acceptable candidate to vote for in good conscience. It would be nice for a change to be able to vote for a non-liar, non-thief, non- murderer, non-idolater for the first time in my adult life.