In an interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Newt Gingrich offered an insight about the controversies surrounding his personal life: That he has gone through the process of confessing his weaknesses and went to God for forgiveness — and this makes him “more normal than somebody who wanders around seeming perfect.”
Host David Brody asked Gingrich how he felt about evangelicals who seem to have forgiven him, and who say the media wants to tear him down for his past. (Gingrich of course, has recently been accused by his second ex-wife Marianne of asking her to allow him to have an “open marriage” in which he would also date Callista, the woman who has since gone on to become his third wife.)
“Well, I think it’s important. It’s also important that they recognize that I have not hidden from the facts of my life, that I have confessed my weaknesses, and that I have had to go to God for forgiveness and for reconciliation,” said Gingrich.
“And I think most people can identify, either with themselves or with loved ones, that life has moments that are very sad, you wish wouldn’t have occurred. And you look back on them and you seek forgiveness for not having done everything you could have.
“So, I think in that sense, it may make me more normal than somebody who wanders around seeming perfect and maybe not understanding the human condition, and the challenges of life for normal people.”
Eric Kleefeld
Eric Kleefeld joined TPM as an intern for the final months of the 2006 midterm elections, and then kept showing up for work. His other interests include guitars, old comic books and the politics of various English-speaking countries.
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