Gingrich softens his tone, but still questions opponents’ faith
Last month former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich dismissed faith leaders who worked to pass health care reform as socialists looking for another opportunity to redistribute wealth. This came on the heels of his release of a book warning of Democrats’ “secular-socialist machine” working to drive God out of public life. Before that, he played an instrumental role in stirring up opposition to the president’s commencement speech at Notre Dame, saying Obama has “anti-Catholic values” (at the time, Gingrich had not yet converted to Catholicism). In other words, Gingrich has a track record as a self-appointed judge of other people’s faith.
Now it sounds like he’s changing his tone, if not his tune. On a segment responding to President Obama’s remarks on the power of prayer in his speech about the BP oil spill last night, Fox & Friends host Gretchen Carlson gave him an easy opportunity to question the sincerity of President Obama’s faith, asking
But Mr. Speaker, did you find it at all disingenuous, because some people are analyzing that this morning as saying it was disingenuous from a president who does not go to Church on a regular basis?
Gingrich answered:
Well, I hope he means it. [...] I’m sad that it took a crisis of this scale, but I’m delighted that the president has recognized that we in fact all are subordinate to a larger God and that we need to seek guidance from that God.
Gingrich declined to directly challenge Obama’s faith, and even gave him qualified praise, but saying “…I hope he means it” is a subtle way to cast doubt on the president’s faith. Why would Gingrich “hope” President Obama means it, unless he suspected the president was being insincere? For Gingrich, the segment is a step toward civility, but it shows he still has a lot of room to improve when it comes to respecting other people’s faith.