I have never had sex outside of or before marriage.  I think that is wrong.  That said the vast majority of people these days have had sex outside of marriage.  I am married, never got divorced, and have also never used contraception.  I am very much pro-life and pro-family in my personal life.  I encourge others to live do this also.  That said, most of my friends have had sex outside of marriage.  I had 2 groomsmen and 1 best man at my wedding.  One of them had been divorced.  Another had had an abortion to a child concieved outside marriage.  Those 2 men, however, had since made changes to their lives.  The one who was divorced had been in a marriage that neither one of them was really ready for.  In my opinion, they never really understood marriage and never were married.  The other, yes had made some mistakes.  He realized the abortion was wrong, and his choices on that were wrong.  He since changed his life.  He is happily married with 2 kids and a strong Christian.  I know a number of people who have made mistakes, but changed.  I love these people, and I trust them completely.  They are good Christians, honorable people, and are have grown and changed.  I believe in forgiveness, and in the saving power of Jesus Christ.

Speaker Newt Gingrich made some really bad mistakes in his life.  You know what — so have most people.  Like many of my friends, Speaker Gingrich appears to have changed.  As a Christian, I believe that I will be judged as I judge others.  I will be forgiven as I forgive others.  If I am to be a follower of Jesus, I must follow Jesus.  Jesus — a name which means “God saves,” is a saviour.  Jesus is our way, our truth, our live, and our salvation.  From what does he save us?  He saves us from our sins.  He forgives sins.  If we are to be like Jesus, we must forgive those who have sinned as well.

I’ve started to see some of these last-second attacks.  They attack Gingrich for having sinned.  Sins Gingrich has already admitted to, has already appologized for, and repents of.  These folks who are attacking Gingrich based on his personal failings of the past are not acting like Christians act.  They are acting like the the Pharisees of Jesus’s time.  They are today’s modern Pharisees, and they seek to use moral issues — not to change people’s souls and help move them closer to God — but to attack people and bring them down.  They seek to glue people to the sins of their past; whereas, Jesus frees people from their sins.  These folks who attack the repentant sinner who has changed and regrets his actions — they attack the centeral Christian believe that Jesus has come to save us for our sins and that He forgives our sins.  They reject repentance, they reject forgiveness, and they reject mercy.  They use the personal faults of someone’s past to attack that person.

I heard some remarks by James Dobson, and am sure I will hear them from others.  What surprises me is that what I heard from Dobson.  Dobson has a whole section of his Focus on the Family website devoted to 2nd marriages, so clearly he must believe in some level of another chance for folks who made mistakes.  It also has a whole series of articles on affairs.  Including working through them, forgiving a spouse for them, etc. In fact, it advises when when you spouse has an affair to not demand a divorse, but to try to work through it.  Dobson has spent his life believing in forgiveness and giving 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 100th chances to people who sinned in the past.  He preaches a message of God’s mercy and love.  What he says about the Gingriches is completely different from the message he says about everyone else.

It takes alot more trust to be married to someone than to vote for them as president.  I am dissapointed that folks like Dobson, who really to believe in forgiveness, would gang up on attacking a man who made mistakes, sought forgiveness, and changed his life.  The GOP will not win in 2012 on the platform of “everyone who cheats on their spouse is a horrible person,” many people — like me — who are strongly pro-marriage — also believe in the saving power of Jesus Christ.

With all due respect, I ask that people see these last-second attacks against Gingrich as what they are. 

In regards to Gingrich’s flaws and the personal attacks, we have already been there, we have already done that: it is time to move forward and talk about solving America’s problems.  I sure hope that Gingrich can be as effective at turning this country around as he was in turning his life around.