Newt Gingrich was not morally inspiring the last time he held office. His situation ethics – which in his case meant he was exempt from the many values he purported – makes his recent pandering to the ‘religious right’ all the more offensive. So now Newt is back, with a threat to run for president. Do we really need another ignorant, embarrassing president?
With all due respect to the Texans I like, and there are some, Newt made an appearance at a San 
Antonia church from which even John McCain rejected an endorsement in the last presidential race. To put the Cornerstone Church in perspective, their clergy John Hagee, described the Holocaust as fulfilling God’s prophecy. (For the full CNN story written by Dan Gilgoff, from which the photo here is posted, see the link below.)
Here’s what Gingrich said about religion in the United States: “I have two grandchildren: Maggie is 11; Robert is 9. I am convinced that if we do not decisively win the struggle over the nature of America, by the time they’re my age they will be in a secular atheist country, potentially one dominated by radical Islamists and with no understanding of what it once meant to be an American.”
If Maggie and Robert are in a half-decent school, then they probably know more about American history and civics than their bigoted grandfather. This is someone who used to be Speaker of the House who clearly doesn’t understand the separation of church and state. The separation is not an atheist conspiracy. The United States has a secular government by design.
My abridged description of the origin of separation of church and state is that it was largely a result of squabbling between different Protestant Christian denominations that didn’t want any of the others becoming the official church of the new country, e.g. the Baptists didn’t want to be forced to be Puritans. The way to protect each other from having an official religion forced on them was to have no state or federal religion. That also means that the Constitution protects us from Islam becoming the official religion, though I for one am more worried about the Christian extremists.
Howard Fineman put it well in The Thirteen American Arguments (p.61). “The land we live on was claimed in God’s name, but the world’s first officially secular government sits on it. We invoked God in making our Declaration of Independence, but not in our governing authority, the Constitution.”
Fineman is not some crazy, liberal journalist spouting off. His reference is to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peaceably assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances.” This is the amendment that protects all of us from a totalitarian government. Now that’s what it means to be an American.
The Gilgoff story reported that Gingrich converted to Catholicism two years ago. (I guess he had his annulment fast-tracked.) Ironically, the early Americans were not too kind to Roman Catholics. As an example, Philadelphia’s cathedral was completed in 1864 with minimal stained glass windows to discourage the vandalism like had taken place two years earlier in anti-Catholic riots (this information is from a tour I took in 1998). That’s what it once meant to be an American, Newt.
There are more moderate than “radical” Muslims, just like there are more moderate Christians than extremists. Those moderates are not suicide bombers any more than most Christians go around bombing women’s clinics. I just completed research on news coverage of religion. For the perception of radical Muslims, I do place some blame on the media and the politicians. Those participating in radical Islam do not represent the majority of Muslims and are usually politicians who have hijacked the religion to serve their own ambitions. News stories that were better researched and better written would make this clear. I also remind you than when there was a shooting in Arizona by a crazy white guy, no one talked about his religion.
When it comes to Newt Gingrich, it’s hard to know where to stop, but I will. Thinking of people like him ranting ignorantly about religion just ruins my day. If Gingrich runs for anything anywhere, it ought to be back to school because he could really do with some education. -J.B.
