Newt Gingrich's Religious Overhaul

Washington Post: Former House Speaker, Possible 2012 GOP Hopeful Is Now Talking More and More About Religion

(Washington Post)  This story was written by Dana Milbank.

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It says much about the transformation of the Republican Party that even Newt Gingrich is now carrying the cross.

When Gingrich came to power 15 years ago, his Contract With America was a document of fiscal conservatism that mentioned God only in passing. When he led the impeachment of Bill Clinton a decade ago over the Monica Lewinsky affair, Gingrich was involved in his own longtime extramarital relationship with a former aide, who is now his third wife.

New Gingrich Continues to Discuss 2012 Run

"Newt," Christopher DeMuth put it gently as he introduced the former House speaker Monday to a forum at the American Enterprise Institute, is "a politician who in his private life is a seriously religious man but who does not make religious belief an upfront part of his political platform."

His first two wives might have quibbled with the description of Gingrich as a seriously religious man in private. But after Monday's performance, nobody will ever again say that he "does not make religious belief an upfront part of his political platform." His talk was titled "The Victory of the Cross: How Spiritual Renewal Helped Topple the Berlin Wall."

The former speaker, his eye on a 2012 presidential run, said that as he thought more about the felling of the Wall 20 years ago Monday, he began "to understand a message of faith, a message of salvation, the centrality of the cross in this whole fight."

And it wasn't just about 20th-century Europe. "I am tired of secular fanatics trying to redesign America in their image," he announced. Further, he said, "I believe the most important question in the United States for the next decade is: 'Who are we?' Are we in fact a people who claim that we are endowed by our creator with certain unalienable rights?" Or, are we "just randomly gathered protoplasm -- and lucky for us we're not rhinoceroses -- but that in the end our power is defined by politicians and their appointees? Once you decide on this, almost everything else gets easier."

Gingrich is calculating that everything will get easier for him politically as a religious conservative.

He has never been particularly close to the religious right. The iconography in his office was more paleontological than prayerful. He followed the New Age philosophy of Alvin and Heidi Toffler. And though a promoter of traditional values, he didn't push the point, in part because doing so would invariably cause people to remind him that he had sought a divorce from his first wife while she was recovering from cancer surgery.

But as his presidential aspirations swelled in recent years, Gingrich took the road to Damascus. He went on James Dobson's radio show to talk about his adultery. He spoke at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. He appeared on GodTV. He converted to Catholicism. He wrote a book, "Rediscovering God in America," and produced two related films. He's at work on a documentary about Pope John Paul II's role in defeating communism.

But he still has a way to go to convince religious conservatives that he has changed. At this fall's "Values Voters Summit," a straw poll found Gingrich in the single digits, well behind fellow potential candidates Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Sarah Palin.

Gingrich's piety hasn't changed his style, thank God. He was still talking Monday about the "stunningly wrongheaded" elites, about his wish to shut down the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, and about President Obama's decision not to attend the ceremony commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling: "It doesn't involve embracing Hugo Chávez, it doesn't involve appeasing Ahmadinejad. . . . It doesn't involve any of the patterns of appeasement and avoidance which are the heart of this administration."

But Gingrich, a historian by training, supplemented the insults with nuggets about faith. Lech Walesa "wears an icon of the black Madonna every day." A novena by the late Polish cardinal Stefan Wyszynski created "a countervailing culture of belief to offset the secular culture of the dictatorship." He spoke of a television tower in East Berlin that, during certain hours, appeared to show a cross because of the sun's reflection.

From there, the speaker turned from faithless communists to godless liberals. "There is a secular-left model of reality which cannot tolerate the thought that state control fails, that tyranny is evil and that a liberated human being whose rights come from God is the centerpiece of the human future," he said. In fact, he added later, he felt so strongly about this that "I'm trying to get a poster done. It's going to have a series of Polish crosses that form a cross."

A man in the audience stood up to say that over the past nine months, the Berlin Wall "is being reconstructed right here" by Obama and congressional Democrats. "At the end of four years, is it not likely that a lot more people will be rediscovering God through tyranny?"

"The underlying move toward a secular socialist worldview has been going on now at least since the early '90s," Gingrich answered. "The great Reagan Revolution defeated communists overseas, but it didn't defeat the left here at home."

Of course, now that Newt and God have joined forces, that could all change.

[pjk12354]

Let's see.........Gingrich & Sanford.........two RepubliKKKan putz's.

[stupidrules3]

Unfortumately for Newt, the American people are not as forgiving as Jesus.

[OregonJames]

Gingrich has always been a self-serving jack-ass and now he figures he can whip up some support from Christians by claiming to be one. It is simply pitiful, but without a doubt and without question fools will support him. There is a sucker born every minute.........

[babooph]

I fully understand-when I had my 90th birthday,I stopped cheating on my wife....

[mensarino]

Gingrich is nothing more than a political opportunist.His cynical attempt to con people into believing him,yet again, is a sad commentary on the memory and judgment of the general public.

[YourVeryWrong]

A secular republic has no place for these kooks. The electric utility works fine with or without the power of prayer.

[proudmilvet]

Watch when he goes to a heavily Jewish area like New York, he'll try to start talking in Yiddish. What a Phony Sc*mb*g this guy is!

[proudmilvet]

Newt Says: "The Great Reagan Revolution defeated Communists overseas,but it did'nt defeat the left here at home." Very good Newt, very Christian of you! Sorry, but the old B.S. ain't gonna work anymore. The only thing you worship at is the Alter of St. Ronald of Reagan & he was as big a BullShi**er as you!

[diamruby]

Please save us from all the religious nuts running around in politics, this has proven to be a perfect way to hide your true self, we should all be very afraid of all the religion that is being forced upon us in government, schools & work. You can go out & commit the worst crimes, tell the biggest lies, cheat people out of their money & life etc then claim religion to free yourself of all blame & set yourself above everyone because you got religion!!!! You will notice that all of them never stopped commiting their wrong doing until they were caught, then they are so sorry, never meant to hurt anyone, loves their wife & children, hope for forgiveness (lots of money being brought into the picture). The only thing they are worried about is losing all the money that they make in their life long government position. These are adults, supposedly extremely smart people that are running our country & they cannot stop themselves from cheating on their wives, etc. Why are they making important decisions for the American people when they cannot make any for themselves. It would seem that they only make decisions that better their lives, salary & positions in government with great disregard to the people that elected them. We all need their wonderful lifetime health & employee benefits, retirement benefits, massive salaries & guaranteed employment. But we know that these things are only available to those that play their game, not the every day working class person.

[pjk12354]

Newt.......you may be religious.......but you're no Christian!

[armyoftwelve]

A smart man, yes. A good man, okay. NOT presidential material methinks....

[ibsteve2u]

lolll...gives me this visual of Newt at St. Peter's gate, and God saying:

"Who in the hello are you to think you can come here?

Do you think you can play ME, too?"

[stn_sage]

If anyone truly believes that he has 'found God'...then they are more deluded than Newt!

If that story doesn't work, watch for meetings with religious figures, and then watch for him to start wearing a big six-inch cross on a silver chain around his neck!

Anything to fool the 'rubes'!

[DennisinSF]

A Poem For Newt - T - Pie:

"It's Jesus This, and Jesus That;
Why are So-Called Christians Fat?"

[U_S_Drug_Addict]

He has to come out swinging that cross if he wants to compete with Failin Palin in the Religious primary....

[bcpats]

The left does not like Newt..... justified by parroting his mis-deeds of the past. Only people like Obama, Franken, Pelosi, Frank, etc., etc. can do things that are less than "ethical" and be forgiven by the left. Intolerance/bias epitomized.

[Omnivorous]

As an Independent conservative with libertarian leanings, I can tell you Gingrich is what is wrong with the Republicrats.

Calling Newt a "fiscal conservative" is a joke.

The Contract With America was nothing more than product marketing applied to politics, the same tactic the Dems had been using for years. Spending the the programs Newt's was supposed to eliminate or cut back, instead rose by 13% under his watch.

Newt simply refuses to grasp that the turn around in congress was due to public outrage over what Clinton was trying to do with his policy agenda. The reaction was the self styled "Gingrich Revolution".

Newt needs to crawl back under his rock, he is neither conservative, honest, or trustworthy and I would not vote for him even as bad as Obama is doing.

How about just one honest canidate from either party?

Washington is so far out of touch with reality it is becoming frightening.

[USA_is_back]

Newt:
I cheated on my wife, been married 3 times, attacked president Clinton over his affair while I was doing the same thing, Involved in money scandals that made me give up my seat, but if it gets me elected, I'll "pretend" to be a good Christian. This way too funny!