Evangelicals Beg Newt To “Tell The Truth”
November 30, 2011
Richard Land Asks Newt To "Tell All"
Richard Land, a prominent leader in The Southern Baptist Convention, writes a candid and a slightly painful letter to Newt Gingrich today in The Christian Post asking him to confront NOW the issues of his past extra-curricular behaviors, and his three marriages. Considering the environment for the GOP field, seems like good advice:
“The good news is, as you know Evangelicals are a forgiving people, who having experienced redemption and forgiveness in their own spiritual lives, are most often willing to extend it to others who ask for it. Consequently, a high percentage of Evangelical men are willing to cut you some slack over your turbulent marital history. The bad news is that Evangelical women are far less willing to forgive and let bygones be bygones. There is a large and significant gender gap on the issue of your two previous marriages. My research would indicate a majority of men, but less than a third of Evangelical women are currently willing to trust you as their president.”
Newt Gingrich and 3rd Wife Callista
Even my own mother, a rock-solid Evangelical, was extremely uncomfortable voting for Sen. John McCain until he acknowledged to Rick Warren that the failure of his first marriage was the greatest regret of his life and it was his fault.
Mr. Speaker, if you want to get large numbers of Evangelicals, particularly women, to vote for you, you must address the issue of your marital past in a way that allays the fears of Evangelical women.
Vanity Fair Photo Of Gingrich And Anne Manning, With Whom He Had Relationship
You must address this issue of your marital past directly and transparently and ask folks to forgive you and give you their trust and their vote.
Mr. Speaker, I urge you to pick a pro-family venue and give a speech (not an interview) addressing your martial history once and for all. It should be clear that this speech will be “it” and will not be repeated, only referenced.
As you prepare that speech, you should picture in your mind a 40-something Evangelical married woman whose 40-something sister just had her heart broken by an Evangelical husband who has just filed for divorce, having previously promised in church, before God, his wife and “these assembled witnesses” to “love, honor and cherish until death us do part.”
Focus on her as if she were your only audience. You understand people vote for president differently than they do any other office. It is often more of a courtship than a job interview. I know something of your faith journey over the past 20 years. Do not hesitate to weave that into your speech to the degree that you are comfortable doing so. It will always resonate with Evangelical Christians.
Marianne and Newt Gingrich, one of Former Speaker's 3 Wives
You need to make it as clear as you possibly can that you deeply regret your past actions and that you do understand the anguish and suffering they caused others including your former spouses. Make it as clear as you can that you have apologized for the hurt your actions caused and that you have learned from your past misdeeds. Express your love for, and loyalty to, your wife and your commitment to your marriage. Promise your fellow Americans that if they are generous enough to trust you with the presidency, you will not let them down and that there will be no moral scandals in a Gingrich White House.
Such a speech would not convince everyone to vote for you, but it might surprise you how many Evangelicals, immersed in a spiritual tradition of confession, redemption, forgiveness and second and third chances, might.
Your fellow American,
Richard Land
Read the entire letter: http://www.christianpost.com/news/dr-richard-land-an-open-letter-to-newt-gingrich-63393/
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YOU don’t know what you are talking about and YOU ARE NOT GOD! The Republican Party doesn’t need this crap at this time……Help make music on one page or go elsewhere to Gritch.
YOU are wrong with the facts above under the photo of Newt and Marianne. She was NOT his first of 3 wives.
STOP spreading incorrect facts and go ask forgiveness. You are a sore to the Baptist denomination. You are driving sinners away with your ire.
Richard Land is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, not the president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Johnny Hunt is the president of the SBC.
I am voting for Newt (not Mitt who could have MANY wives, a Mormon belief taught in his faith, not the Bible). Newt is a formidable opponent to the current empty suit in the Oval Office. Voting for Mitt will guarantee the empty suit to win another 4 years and destroy what’s left of America.
There are no perfect candidates, just look who is in the Oval Office, and her husband.
OMGosh! Let him alone or support him, already! Has NOT ONE of them ever SINNED!?
As JESUS said: “Let him that is without SIN, cast the first stone!”
I am so sick of the Evangelicals pretending their “past sins” are gone, yet the sins of everyone else “SHOULD BE BROUGHT TO LIGHT” to show all of us!! Give us all a break! :/
We’ll check that correction and thank you so much! google notes Marianne as one of three wives.
Corrected and thank you so much for your informational help!
Agreed. No one need sit judgment of another. However, shouldn’t it be a concern to conservative women that a candidate is asking for the PEOPLE’s trust, and his own wife hasn’t been certain SHE could trust him?
Gives us pause.
ok bible quoters it also says that the man who CANNOT keep his own house in order should not be over the affairs of others HELLO 3 MARRIAGES AND OTHER AFFAIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NO NEWT yall act like this is not important but it is
This is nothing more than a misguided ploy to stir up some controversy about Newt while the Cain sexual affair scandal is still alive. I definitely feel an agenda in this ridiculous letter – and it is not from God. He married and divorced. This is a far cry from being an alleged sexual offender, and an alleged philanderer.
SHAME ON YOU! You must have gone over to the other side, if this pathetic letter, inspired by only God know what, is any indication.
I support Newt Gingrich as the moral, experienced, right choice for President in 2012. Whom do you support, Mr. Land?
Regards,
The Bass-Malloy Family
Macon, GA
Thanks to you Kris Malloy for caring enough to write, and for being passionate about fairness. You’re right, we generalized by saying Evangelicals instead of Southern Baptists….and we stand corrected there. We challenge you on the issue though. How can Americans and American WOMEN give Herman Cain the boot for his past, and not ask Newt Gingrich to be completely accountable for his? Newt has stated he is changed, and has found faith, but even Penny Nance of Concerned Women of America said today, “there are consequences” for things done even many years ago. Best to be honest, and to be willing to be accountable if you want the top job in the land….and the world. Thanks Kris!