Des anyone really know the inside of newts marriages? I am sick of hearing it. Newt at 17 was seeing his 26 yo high school teacher, anyone see something wrong here?. They married when he graduated from hs and he had a child at 19. Yet, he completed college, grad school, went on to become a congressional rep and speaker of the house. I find this to be very impressive. I think the record is quite clear that his second wife was a very vindictive and controlling woman. They were separated for 4 years and during that time she was viscous in interviews. Yet, they reconciled for a brief period before they divorced. This could be a mirror image of millions of people. Just one question, how do we know his wives were faithful?
While in high school, Gingrich began a relationship with his geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, who was seven years (or nine years, depending on who is talking) his senior. (According to Gingrich’s second wife, the relationship with Battley began when Gingrich was just 16.) They married in 1962, when Gingrich was 19.
In other words, in HS Gingrich was overweight - probably an outcast, bullied, made fun of, super smart, and likely all alone in many ways.
An Ohio teacher was just thrown in jail (Stacey Schuler) for the same thing that happened to 16 year old Newt Gingrich. Schuler got 4 years.
One of the mothers in the Schuler case on TV was crying because she said the woman had injured her son in ways that wouldn’t be known for years.
There is no good reason for a high school teacher to be carrying on in secret with a minor.
The Journal of Child Psychiatry notes that “there is a tendency among boy victims to recapitulate their own victimization, only this time with themselves in the role of perpetrator and someone else the victim.”
Bill Watkins and Arnon Bentovim, “The Sexual Abuse of Male Children and Adolescents: A Review of Current Research,” Journal of Child Psychiatry 33 (1992); in Byrgen Finkelman, Sexual Abuse (New York: Garland Publishing, 1995), p. 300.
In other words, he worked through his abuse subsequently, and it was not pretty. And then married and has been involved in a stable relationship for more than 11 years. He also has said he asked God for forgiveness and has worked at reconciliation. What more does a flawed sinner do?
Nothing Newt does to repent and put his past behind him will ever be enough for some of the people on FR. It is truly amazing some of the hate on display here, especially by so-called Christians and family-value conservatives. There might be more understanding of the psychological dynamics at play and tolerance for the victim at DU than here of FR, and that’s saying something...
Thank goodness Jesus Christ sees Newt as a new creature in Him. We are all sinners saved by grace... it’s sad some hearts can’t get hold of that... but that doesn’t change the Amazing Grace available to believers, that I, for one, dip into every day of my sinfilled life.
http://www.mediaite.com/online/newt-gingrich-really-married-his-high-school-math-teacher/
I don’t think anyone knows the inside skinny of anyone’s marriage. And I, for one, don’t really want to, lol.
Newt has said he sought forgiveness from God for his past. I have no reason to doubt him. If he is not sincere he will face a far larger problem than those condemning him at the electoral level. If people think we have ever had a spritiually pure president, I’d like to know who it was.
Most people do things that they wish they hadn’t done in their lives. Some things are big...some not so big. I will not be the one to judge anyone. Not my job, thankfully.
I think Newt is the one to take on “The One”. Until he drops out..I think I’ll stay that way.