Gingrich Represents New Political Era for Catholics

The New York Times ^ | 12/17/11 | Laurie Goodstein

[marshmallow]

Newt Gingrich sat beneath the soaring dome in the largest Roman Catholic church in North America, the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, and listened as a choir that included his wife sang at an evening vespers service for Pope Benedict XVI and 300 American bishops.

That is the moment, three years ago, that Mr. Gingrich says he decided to become a Roman Catholic, after having been born a Lutheran and joining the Southern Baptist Church in college. In 2009, Mr. Gingrich was baptized in the same Catholic parish church on Capitol Hill where Senator Robert F. Kennedy once attended noonday Mass and sometimes assisted the priest as an altar server.

But Mr. Gingrich represents a new kind of Catholic, one very different from the Kennedys, who were Democrats, political liberals and cradle Catholics shaped by the Irish immigrant church. To a Kennedy-era Catholic, divorce was a sin, labor unions were a virtue and anti-Catholic bigotry was a staple in many Protestant circles.

Mr. Gingrich is a culture wars Catholic for whom the church seems a logical home for conservative Republicans. Generations removed from the Kennedy years when Catholics predictably voted Democratic, this is a new era in which conservative Catholics and evangelical Protestants have joined forces in what they see as a defining struggle against abortion, same-sex marriage and secularism.

Critics and cynics have derided Mr. Gingrich’s latest religious transition as a conversion of convenience designed to give moral cover to Mr. Gingrich, who is on his third marriage — this one to Callista Bisek, a former Hill staff member 22 years his junior who had been his mistress for six years. But those who know him say the conversion was sincere, born of both an intellectual and a spiritual attraction to the church.......

[Travis McGee]

Everything is a political calculation to this lying con artist. Even his religion.

Here, Newt sits next to another "Catholic," discussing man-caused global warming.

[sodpoodle]

Noot’s Irish Roots;) From Wiki.

Gingrich was born at the Harrisburg Hospital in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on June 17, 1943, as Newton Leroy McPherson. His mother, Kathleen “Kit” (née Daugherty; 1925–2003), and father, Newton Searles McPherson, married in September 1942, when she was 16 and McPherson was 19. The marriage fell apart within days. In 1946, his mother married Army officer Robert Gingrich (1925–1996), who adopted Newt.

[Saundra Duffy]

I think Newt should become a Mormon.

[RegulatorCountry]

He just couldn’t make the math work for that, Saundra.

[RegulatorCountry]

Your reply puts that ridiculous Dede Scozzafava thing in a new light.

[cripplecreek]

If there were ever enough Mormons to deliver him to the white house, I’m sure he would be willing to convert at least for a little while.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Well, let's not beat up the Newt too badly here, boyos (dat's an Irish ting).

How about Secretary of State? Ambassador to UN? Court of St James?

Maybe Myth can make a deal with Newt since it's your collective opinion he can be bought.

[Salvation]

Newt has changed dramatically. Here are some FR links about his conversion.

The Evangelical Case for Newt Gingrich
Gingrich Represents New Political Era for Catholics
Gingrich Represents New Political Era for Catholics [ecumenical}
Newt Gingrich on Catholicism and JPII
Why Newt Gingrich Converted to Catholicism
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich Opens Up on Catholic Conversion and Embracing 'Overt Christianity'
Newt Gingrich on his conversion to Catholicism
Gingrich Keeps Quiet on Catholic Conversion (received into Church over the past weekend)
Exclusive: Newt Gingrich conversion details; plans release of JP2 documentary
Gingrich to Become Catholic During Easter Season
The Newt Evangelization: Gingrich to become Catholic

[Salvation]

Have you read Gingrich’s documentary on John Paul II?

I think he knows what the truth is. Why are you saying he is a lying con artist?

[MHGinTN]

I get the feeling that the aim of the article was to cause a negative backlash with Catholics, the same Catholics who vote democrat most of the time despite the democrat party abortion empowerment scheme.