Posted on 11/30/2011 8:31:57 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Mr. Speaker,
Well done! You have risen beyond relevancy to serious competiveness by your grip, erudition and intelligence. You have come back from the political equivalent of Hospice care to become a serious contender for the Republican nomination for president.
You’re obviously extremely bright, knowledgeable, experienced on the issues and fully able to go toe-to-toe with the formidable campaigner President Obama has amply demonstrated that he is.
By the way, your idea of a series of Lincoln-Douglas style debates between you and the president if you are the nominee is a great idea. Those debates would do much to clarify and explain the critically important decisions that Americans will be making about their and their children’s future in the 2012 election.
However (and you have known me long enough to know that the “however” was coming), you still have some significant problems with Evangelical voters. These voters are, and will be, an important factor in both the primaries and general election.
Over the past three years, I have conducted more than 200 informal focus groups with Southern Baptists across the land, in rural, urban, suburban and exurban settings. Mr. Speaker, I have good news and I have bad news.
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.
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.
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.
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
Well, I guess those poor li’l evangelicals can just re-elect an America-hating muslim.
Land hardly speaks for all Southern Baptists and is himself off the reservation quite a bit.
One could argue he is the most socially liberal SBC head ever.
Not my cup of tea.
Newt’s affairs are fair game and I think he will defend himself fine.
He was cashing in already and has never stopped since.
He has earned 100 million dollars in the last 10 years cashing in on his influence and contacts.
Its free enterprise, but its slimy.
It’s not up to evangelical women to forgive him. Newt converted to Catholicism, and assuming he made a good confession about his adultry, was forgiven.
RE: Its free enterprise, but its slimy.
When is it OK to start cashing in after we step out of office?
Or is the answer NEVER?
Land is correct. It is a character issue and forgiveness can happen, repentance can happen but what will he do in the future. His faithfulness is not about personal issues, it is about how he will make decisions in the future. His dancing with the liberal democrats on issues like global warming and single payer health care are just two examples. Some very troubling statements have been made AFTER his renewal of faith. I wish he had proven himself faithful in most things but I don’t know if he has been faithful in even a little.
Newt himself is a Roman Catholic. To judge by the attitude some Freepers have toward Catholicism, he’s have bigger problems with Evangelicals than just his two divorces.
Come to think of it, how did Newt get remarried and become a Catholic with two divorces? Did he get those annulled or what?
RE: It’s not up to evangelical women to forgive him
It’s still a huge chunk of votes he has to woo whether he is evangelical or not. Unless of course, he doesn’t need the votes....
Did I mention that I still support Herman Cain?
As far a Christian women not voting for NEWT, all the Christian women I know, WILL be voting for NEWT.
Eisenhower left a pretty good example.
I am a Christian woman. Given the choice between Newt Gingrich (who is an unlikeable man) and Barack Obama, I would actually campaign and work for Gingrich. I do not look for perfection in a President. I look for a man of ideas who can bring this country out of the doldrums and restore American greatness. Most important, I want a President who will stop stending money this country does not have and will stop creating ‘classes’ of people to pit against one another. Only God is perfect.........
These actions, forgiven by God or not, remind other women of another articulate, slick guy who is good making a "sow's ear sound like a silk purse," and that guy would be none other than Bill Clinton.
Do we want to witness such scum sitting in the Oval Office and feel comfortable that he'll not find another Monica cavorting around the corner - I think not.
These actions, forgiven by God or not, remind other women of another articulate, slick guy who is good making a "sow's ear sound like a silk purse," and that guy would be none other than Bill Clinton.
Do we want to witness such scum sitting in the Oval Office and feel comfortable that he'll not find another Monica cavorting around the corner - I think not.
You get a “clean slate” if your coming into the Catholic Church (or any Christian community, for that matter) includes being baptized (Important: baptism is a non-repeatable, once-in-a-lifetime event).
Since Newt was presumably already baptized, he did not get a clean slate by virtue of being baptized when he became a Catholic. He did get a clean slate by virtue of receiving the Sacrament of Penance at that time, but his ability to do so was contingent on his two prior marriages being annulled. I have no information about the grounds for annulment in either case, but have no trouble believing that valid reasons did exist. I accept his conversion as genuine.
The fact that Newt is now a Catholic with access to the sacraments pleases me personally, but has no bearing on my interest in supporting him politically. It certainly does not make him a saint. I think Newt’s a phony, a windbag, a prodigious ego, and not to be trusted. I disagree with his support of torture. I am not aware that he’s ever renounced past statements he’s made in favor of embryonic stem cell research. I will not be voting for him in either the primary or general election.
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