Newt Gingrich’s political life is tragic, because he is very smart and he has a deep understanding of history and of how our government is supposed to function. He should have been an excellent candidate.
Unfortunately, cast in the best light, as a person who was a repeated victim of wicked ex-wives, Newt and his supporters shows him to be unsuitable.
Being sorry and truly repentant for whatever one has done in the past does not fix the flaws that made those past acts possible in the first place.
It is absolutely our place to look at someone’s record as an indicator of future performance. We’re supposed to use history to guide us, just as Newt himself has argued. History is a useful tool.
If nothing was ever his fault because he was too easily swayed by these evil, terrible women, then he lacks the necessary discernment to be president.
Newt’s supporters, saying everything in his history is “not his fault”, and painting him as an innocent, naive victim make the best argument for not voting for him.
What about the transformative, cleansing power of Jesus Christ - who Newt confesses as his Savior. Aren't old things passed away and all things become new in Him, aren't we ALL new creatures in Christ Jesus?
I wrote the following to explain how I see the claims, usually from Santorum supporters, that Newt is ineligible because of his past..
If that is the case, then not only is Newt still exactly who he was back then, then Callista is still an adultress, then Karen Santorum is still a whore fornicating outside the vows of marriage with a known abortionist... and Rick Santorum is still a compromised political hack, who endorsed Specter... That is the Santorum Standard, and apparently yours, but you can apply it selectively, though that seems to be what rick and his supporters do continually.
Somewhere Santorum and his supporters seemed to have decided because he wears his religion on his sleeve that gives them the right to decide who and what is evil or good in this world...
"On Santorum: No, I’ve never met him. I’ve read about him, some of the corruption he is associated with, I’ve watched him, I’ve listened when he was disrespectful to his mentor for political expediency’s sake. I study his voting record. I know a charity of his gathered millions of dollars, and only spent 32% of their funds on the poor, for whose benefit the charity was formed; and that the normative ethical ratio is for most charities to spend 82% of their funds on their targeted constituency - while most of Santorum’s donations went to give his political friends cushy “charity” jobs. Good Neighbor, I think it was called. I listened as this so-called “good” Christian man stood on a stage and said his character was the quality of character that Americans needed in the White House, unlike the character of others who had personal baggage in their past, without once mentioning the forgiving saving transforming power of Jesus Christ, who is the center of the faith Sanctimonium so piously professes to live by... and sets his principles upon...
If you are not a Christian, you can’t really appreciate what is so appalling and galling about the man, in light of true christians, who don’t abrogate the work of Christ with attempts at self righteousness attained by their outside of the cup persona and behaviors..
What you are doing, and why so many sincere Christians have great problems with Santorum, is he, as well as you, overlook how the transformative power an encounter with the True Christ impacts a man’s entire soul and being; he becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus, old things pass away, all things are made new.
Newt has confessed his sins, said he did things he is ashamed of, has sought to make reconciliation with the members of his family, and others he has hurt. He has blamed no one else but himself. He has come to a new and apparently cleansing faith in Christ Jesus and, most importantly, there is no evidence of any of the same behavioral sins in his life since this long journey of his repentance, rebirth, and renewal began.
And, yet, people cannot let the man leave his past behind. After 20 years - think of it - 20 years - there are still a majority of people in the press, politics - Santorum, and a lot of his supporters - who consider Newt the same man he was 20 years ago, and dare he try to take one step away from his past, to step into the new, as his faith promises him he can, they are there loudly, hypocritically, self-righteously to pull him right back. They won’t let him step away from his sinful past, though no apparent evidence of that sinful past exists any longer, or any evidence that he is the same man he was 20 years ago. He is being judged as the man he was - while that man no longer exists. He is, I repeat, a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Finally, Christians, who truly fully embrace and receive the saving work of Christ, who are transformed deeply, understand that Newt could have done all those things back then, even worse, and still today be a new creature in Christ Jesus - but no one, not Santorum, nor his minions, will allow for that, or accept that might ever be true. So, the final finally: it says more about the people who can’t let Newt be this new creature many believing Christians trust he is, if only because they are likewise sinners, great sinners, saved and transformed by the same power that Newt claims has saved and transformed him. It is religious bigotry, hard hearts, and people like Santorum, who behaviorally have hit many of the right notes in their outward lives, though it is hard to believe that is extensively true - I am sure we will find out - whose self-righteousness - whose pride in their outward manifestations of sinlessness, and acceptable conduct, that causes believing Christians to distance themselves from him, to see him as a hypocrite, saved more by his self-perceived good works than the miraculous, healing work of a Perfect Savior, by his love and tender mercy, towards those who are fully unworthy.
Santorum is about none of that, he is about a gospel of works and self denial, of earned salvation. Newt is simply a sinner being saved by by the gift of grace, he could never earn or be worthy of... through no goodness of his own... the same as most of those Christians who can’t support Santorum’s apostasy."