The religious right, like the creationists, is looking for a new way to impose its values on us, lead by that steller example of family values (such as divorcing seriously ill wives), New Gingrich.

Muriel Kane writes in RawStory: “When Newt Gingrich served as Speaker of the House in the 1990’s, he never appeared to be particularly close to the religious right. His Contract with America was all about deregulation, balanced budgets, tort reform, and getting tough on crime and welfare. ”

“However, in the wake of the Republicans’ crushing defeat in last fall’s election, he has apparantly decided that the only hope for the GOP lies in an alliance between his own anti-tax adherents and religious conservatives.  A story which appeared Friday in US News and World Report explores Gingrich’s growing alliance with the religious right…decided that we’re in a crisis in which the secular state, if allowed, will fundamentally and radically change America against the wishes of most Americans,” Gingrich told US News. “You’ve had such rising hostility to religious belief that I wanted to reach broadly into the country and dramatically raise public awareness of threats to religious liberty.”

N.B.: We live in a secular state, and as for ‘most Americans’, religion is not a majoritarian issue.

He has founded a anti-first amendment organization called Rediscovering God in America: Reflections on the Role of Faith in Our Nation’s History, which “has now developed a PowerPoint presentation with which it will attempt to convince pro-business groups like the US Chamber of Commerce and Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform — as well as major Republican donors — that the most reliably anti-tax members of Congress are also the strongest social conservatives. As evidence of this claim, the American Family Association has already agreed to participate in Gingrich’s anti-tax rallies.”

 

see: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Newt_Gingrich_woos_religious_right_for_0320.html

also: Dan Gilgoff:http://www.usnews.com/articles/news/religion/2009/03/20/newt-gingrich-steps-up-efforts-to-mobilize-religious-conservatives.html

As for Family Values: “WASHINGTON – Newt Gingrich won’t be winning the Mr. Sensitivity Award any time soon.

The former House Speaker and his ex-wife, Marianne Gingrich, are in a bit of a dispute over whether Newt knew that she might have multiple sclerosis when he told her on Mother’s Day 1999 that he wanted a divorce.

For the ham-handed Newtster, breakups are a touchy issue.

He notified his first wife, Jackie Battley, that he was divorcing her in 1981 after she was hospitalized with cancer…

see:http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/news/Jul2000/PWMSNewtsEx.html