“PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THE GOP E AND THE EVANGELICALS CAN FORGIVE MITT ROMNEY FOR BEING PRO-CHOICE SUPPORTING BABY KILLERS BUT CAN’T FORGIVE NEWT HIS DIVORCES?”
Don’t include this evangelical in that query. Nor the ones I know.
Good question.
“PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHY THE GOP E AND THE EVANGELICALS CAN FORGIVE MITT ROMNEY FOR BEING PRO-CHOICE SUPPORTING BABY KILLERS BUT CAN’T FORGIVE NEWT HIS DIVORCES?”
They have NOTHING else on Newt’s impeccable conservative record to carp about, so they pile on that. That’s despicable.
In a country where 50% of marriages end by a divorce, the fake indignation is ridiculous. His first wife forgave him, he has excellent relations with his daughters and grand-children, as for his second wife, Marianne, she left him in 1987 emptying the house of furniture and taking away the family car ... While they were separated he met Callista and fell in love with her in 1993 and married her in 2000. It is obvious that he loves her dearly and that they are happy together. The private life should remain just that - private.
Karen Santorum also made mistakes in her youth, but that’s not and should not be an issue. The GOP gossipers should STFU already about Gingrich’s private life as well.
I don't think you will find the answer to this question ("forgiveness") in religion... you will find it in politics.
Truth is, many of the evangelicals "leaders" and their organizations find themselves quite comfortable with the "kinder, gentler, compassionate conservative" GOP structure that provides them a certain measure of importance (or they just might support a "conservative" Democrat). All they are interested in, just as most "minority" groups within a structure is increasing (or at least not losing) their influence relative to some other groups.
They are a slice of a bigger slice which represents government within a political-economic pizza pie. You can grow two ways - by growing your slice within the government slice, or by growing the government slice within a pizza pie that represents entire economy. The bigger the government, within the economy, the bigger their own influence overall.
Smaller government advocates don't give them anything. As a matter of fact, the Tea Party "platform," such as it is, (ideally) calls for the diminished role of government, and the influence of the Special Interest Groups within it, through tax and regulatory reforms. That would cut the role (slice) of the government within the economic pie, and it would also cut their own influence (and many other SIGs) within the government sector (slice).
It's a double-whammy for some evangelical "leaders" and they don't consider it a good thing. That's why Gingrich (most representative and early supporter of the Tea Party movement) was, in reality, the nemesis of this part of the evangelical "community" of "leaders" who went to endorse Santorum at that "non-consensus consensus" meeting near Houston.
That's the real reason why, despite Gingrich's organizations providing real, tangible (including financial) help to these evangelical "leaders" some of them would choose "anybody but Newt" as a nominee - he is for a "radically" smaller government and its influence in the economy and people's lives, and for smaller influence of special interest groups within the government - the worst outcome for some evangelical "leaders," despite Gingrich himself, like Reagan, being personally quite sympathetic and favorable to their stated spiritual goals.
That's what explains Huckabee and Santorum runs, and the choice of "family values" VP Dan Quayle by George H.W. Bush and their embrace of George W. Bush. That's what at the heart of the more outspoken and "visible" supporters of Santorum, whose names I brought up in the post. They see Tea Party and the concept of smaller government as a threat to them, just as the GOPe, so they are "natural" allies in this interparty struggle.
Of course, not all evangelical "leaders" see it like that; many truly want the government out of the way, and they are the ones who supported Gingrich - that's why the sharp and quite public and acrimonious split this year that most people who didn't pay attention to it, missed.
Many people didn't see it because they assumed that "we are all on the same side" and have the same or similar goals. Just like the case with GOPe, it was not exactly true.
Not that I forgive Mitt but it isn’t the divorces that are the problem for Newt.
It is the lying. The cheating. The whoring.
That’s all.