Where are the Real Evangelical Christians?

Posted by in Blog, Featured, Politics on January 19, 2012 2:45 pm / 5 comments

I was raised in a Catholic home and even attended a Catholic school for six weeks in first-grade before Mother Superior suggested to my parents that they “think Tom would be better suited to a public school environment.” That was a polite way of saying get him out of here – but that’s another story.

As a Catholic in the 1960s and early 1970s it was made painfully clear to me that eating a hot dog on Friday would basically condemn me to eternal damnation. I wonder what has changed from then to now, where evangelical Christians have become politically expedient and allowed the rulebook to become more than a little obfuscated with regards to Newt Gingrich.

It is no secret that Newt Gingrich has lead anything but a Christian based life nor has he been a life-long supporter of evangelical Christian values. But as a self-admitted adulterer, philanderer and wrongdoer while the Speaker of the House, he has seemingly become the darling of South Carolina’s Evangelical Christians. This is baffling when Rick Santorum, the newly crowned winner of Iowa based largely on the support of Evangelicals in that state, has gained little or no traction in South Carolina.

From a Rasmussen poll this morning we see that “evangelical Christians prefer Gingrich by 37% to 21% margin, with Paul and Santorum at 16% and 15% respectively. Romney leads among all other religious groups.” That’s better than a 2:1 margin of support for Gingrich over Santorum from Evangelical Christians, and a snub on a man who’s life seems exemplary relative to Christian conservative views. This redemption thing with Newt only goes so far with me, and this is a man who walked out of a press conference this morning when his extramarital affairs became the topic of reporter’s questions.

So I have a question for the South Carolina evangelicals. Have you abandoned your principles in favor of political expediency and are you against Mitt Romney because he is a Mormon? Both strike me as possible, and reek of hypocrisy at best and religious bias at worst.

Mother Superior, who tossed me out of first-grade at Catholic school would be as confused as I am.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife
 
 

5 Comments

  1. Brian says:
    January 19, 2012 at 3:03 pm

    There are two sides of sin. The committing side and the repenting side. The fact that you are looking at one and not the other brings to question your Christian foundation.

  2. Tom Dougherty says:
    January 19, 2012 at 3:07 pm

    My Christian foundation is just fine, thank you, and I have an excellent personal relationship with my God. However I choose to eschew organized religion for many reasons, among them the utter and complete hypocrisy that exists today.

  3. Re: Where are the Real Evangelical Christians? | The Right Sphere says:
    January 19, 2012 at 3:09 pm

    [...] response to Tom’s new post about the curiosity of evangelical Christians supporting new Gingrich over Santorum, Romney and [...]

  4. Brian says:
    January 19, 2012 at 3:42 pm

    I really love how some people will espouse to Christian beliefs then insults one of the foundational tenants of the scriptures. I believe it is a dog pointing gesture to their core.

    The gathering of the body is a commandment in the bible. When people come together they form similar points of views, hence organized religion. Do they always get it correct? No. That doesn’t mean that organized religion is wrong, it means that people are flawed. Take Newt for example.

    He made a mistake in the past, one that he has stated was during a very difficult time in his life (spiritually) and during a spiritual renewal. So, what did he do? He faced it privately. He faced it publicly. He said that it is was wrong. Now, here he is a decade later without the same sin. Sounds like repentance to me. Forgiveness should be our automatic response. The fact that some “so called” Christians aren’t forgiving him, leads non-Christians to believe that their sin won’t be forgiven either.

    Pulling back up sins of the past are huge no-no’s in the bible. We all are flawed and have sinned. If we did this to Mosses or David what do you think their chances of leadership would be?

  5. Tom Dougherty says:
    January 19, 2012 at 4:09 pm

    My question to the Evangelicals and my disdain for Newt Gingrich is not based solely on his infidelity. Rather I look at the only Speaker of the US House to ever resign due to ethics charges, his obvious obfuscation (lying) about Freddie and Fannie and many other well documented transgressions.

    I do believe an individual can repent and begin to live a Christian life founded fully in those core principles, I just don’t believe Newt Gingrich has “walked the walk” but he sure has “talked the talk”. If that’s enough for some Evangelical Christians then may Newt be with them.

Post a Comment