Admit an affair when prosecuting the President over an affair, get a cookie from one of the religious right’s biggest figureheads, Rev. Jerry Falwell.

I was pleased to hear Mr. Gingrich state: ‘’I've gotten on my knees and sought God’s forgiveness.'’

He has admitted his moral shortcomings to me, as well, in private conversations. And he has also told me that he has, in recent years, come to grips with his personal failures and sought God’s forgiveness.
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Consequently, I decided earlier this week to invite Mr. Gingrich to come to Liberty University on May 19 as our graduation speaker. This will be his second commencement speech at Liberty, previously addressing graduates in 1991.

In recent years, Mr. Gingrich has dedicated much of his time to calling America back to our Christian heritage.

Gingrich recently admitted to James Dobson that he had an affair while he was heading the charge against President Clinton for his affair with Monica Lewinsky. Now repentance should not be underestimated by political commentators, but it wouldn’t be a bad thing if moralizers like Falwell and Dobson placed an iota of importance on hypocrisy. Thus there is real cognitive dissonance between respecting someone’s value as a commencement speaker because they are a moral person who practices fidelity and is not a hypocrite and someone who is a moral person because they had the sense to repent their sins.

But beyond the speech at Falwell’s Libery University, Gingrich has now been sterilized from criticism on his marital infidelities and, presumably, his multiple divorces. He is now, to borrow the words of Lynne Cheney, “a Good man.” As the saying goes, It’s OK If You Are A Republican.


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