Buried in an large New York Times Magazineprofile of Newt Gingrich is a little nugget of information: A Baptist since graduate school, Gingrich said he will soon convert to Catholicism, his wife’s faith.
This week on The Bulletin, hosts Mike Cosper, Nicole Martin, and editor in chief Russell Moore convene for lively conversation about transgenderism in women’s sports and ministry responses to campus antisemitism and the needs of the incarcerated. Special guests include CT’s own Emily Belz, Tammy McLeod of the Harvard Chaplains, Heather Rice-Minus of Prison Fellowship, Madeleine Kearns of National Review, and state representative and former NCAA Division I basketball coach Barbara Ehardt. Step behind the headlines of top stories and be challenged to engage your world with the mind of Christ.
Joining us this week:
Emily Belz is a staff writer with Christianity Today. She is a former senior reporter for World magazine. She is a World Journalism Institute graduate and also previously reported for the New York Daily News, The Indianapolis Star, and Philanthropy magazine. Emily resides in New York City.
Tammy McLeod serves as president of the Harvard Chaplains at Harvard University, where she serves as a chaplain for Cru, an interdenominational Christian ministry, alongside her husband Pat. Tammy is also the director of college ministry at Park Street Church in Boston. Tammy and Pat are the authors of Hit Hard: One Family’s Journey of Letting Go of What Was—and Learning to Live Well with What Is.
Heather Rice-Minus is the president of Prison Fellowship and will become the CEO on January 1, 2024, succeeding her mentor, James Ackerman. Heather first joined Prison Fellowship in 2013, and in her most recent role of executive vice president, she led teams that build partnerships with churches, help strengthen relationships between incarcerated parents and their children, foster partnerships with donors at every level, and advocate for restorative criminal justice reform. In a previous role as the head of Prison Fellowship's advocacy team, she was a leading voice behind the passage of the First Step Act.
Madeleine Kearns is a staff writer at National Review and a senior fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. She is from Glasgow, Scotland, and is a trained singer.
Rep. Barbara Ehardt serves the state of Idaho, District 33. A graduate of Idaho State University where she attended on a basketball scholarship, Barbara spent 15 years as a NCAA Division I women’s basketball coach at UC Santa Barbara, Brigham Young University (Provo), Washington State University, and Cal State Fullerton as the head coach.
Resources Referenced:
As Campus Threats Rise, College Ministries Look for Ways to Help
Mental Health & Jesus (Cru)
Texas Prisoner Who Leads Death Row Worship Faces Execution
Hello My Name is Felon
Read More from Christianity Today about Today’s Topics:
Campus Antisemitism and the Lessons of a Nazi-Occupied Church
Why Prison Ministries Are Growing
What Transgender People Need from Conservative Christians
Embracing Our Transgender Neighbors on God’s Terms
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At a moment when the role of religious fundamentalism in the party is a central question for reformers, Gingrich, rather than making any kind of case for a new enlightenment, has in fact gone to great lengths to placate Christian conservatives. The family-values crowd has never completely embraced Newt, probably because he has been married three times, most recently to a former Hill staff member, Callista Bisek. In 2006, though, Gingrich wrote a book called “Rediscovering God in America” – part of a new canon of work he has done reaffirming the role of religion in public life. The following year, he went on radio with the evangelical minister James Dobson to apologize for having been unfaithful to his second wife.
The Rev. G. Avery Lee, a longtime pastor of St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans who died earlier this year, wrote to The Times-Picayune about Gingrich’s faith.
“He was not a member of any church,” Pastor Lee wrote in a 1994 letter to The Times-Picayune. “He said that in his study of political theory he noted how much influence the church had had on political theory and asked if I could explain.”
After their initial conversation, “We talked often. Newt began coming to church. To make it short, I baptized him (by immersion) into the membership of the St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church.
“He found there a liberal approach to both theology and sociology. . . . Whether our teachings had any effect or not, he was at least exposed to the basic Baptist principle of freedom: personal freedom before God, an open mind before an open Bible, the separation of church and state, and compassion toward other people as sinners saved by the grace of God.
“He also may have learned that we Baptists fuss and fight a lot with each other. It has been suggested by some that in baptizing him, I didn’t hold him under long enough.”
Update: A Focus on the Family employee emailed me to note that Dobson is not a minister as Matt Bai describes him for The New York Times. Dobson founded a ministry called Focus on the Family.
