Some Evangelicals Question Newt Gingrich's Suitability for the Presidency; Mormonism of Mitt Romney Possible Issue for Some Evangelicals; Gingrich Pledges "Personal Fidelity"
COSTELLO: Good morning, Denver. It's 29 degrees with cloudy skies but later today, pretty darn nice day, 43 with partly cloudy skies.</s>ROMANS: It is beautiful, isn't it, Carol?</s>COSTELLO: All right, married three times and has admitted to adultery. Now GOP presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich is stepping up efforts to overcome his past and appeal to evangelical Christians. Gingrich has even pledged personal fidelity. Here's what he had to say about it this past weekend.</s>NEWT GINGRICH, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have made mistakes at times. I've had to go to god for forgiveness. I've had to seek reconciliation. But I'm also a 68-year-old grandfather, and I think people have to measure who I am now and whether I'm a person they can trust.</s>ROMANS: That, of course, is his wife you see there as you hear Newt Gingrich on the stage. Let's bring in Dr. Richard Land live in Tennessee. He's the president of the ethics and religious liberty commission of the Southern Baptist Commission. Also McKay Coppins, a reporter from "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast." Dr. Land, let me start with you and talk about this discussion that is being had about evangelical Christians, top evangelical leaders in the country, about whether Newt Gingrich is sorry enough, whether he should be, you know, forgiven, as is the evangelical tradition, or whether he needs to do more to appeal to women, in particular, who aren't quite so ready to forgive this in their political leader.</s>DR. RICHARD LAND, PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN BAPTISTS ETHICS COMMISSION: Well, first of all, I think he's taking the right steps. I think the letter to the Iowa family group where he pledged personal fidelity and where he endorsed virtually everything in the pro-family platform helps him a lot. The question of forgiveness, you know, forgiveness and redemption and second and third chances are in the genetic code of evangelicals spiritually. That is part of our theological DNA. So I think most evangelicals are ready to forgive Newt Gingrich. The question is whether they're willing to trust him with the presidency. And there I think there is a gender gap. I think -- what I find is I talk to evangelicals around the country is that men are more willing to let bygones be bygones and give him the benefit of the doubt. Women want to hear more before they're willing to trust him with the presidency.</s>ROMANS: What do they want to hear from him? We hear Ronald Reagan, for example, he stood up and said that his marriage was a failure, and it wasn't of his choice. His wife left him. There have been other leaders who have had to come up and get through this and then have been able to appeal evangelical women.</s>LAND: Well, I think something along the lines of what John McCain said would help. You know, John McCain told Pastor Rick Warren, he said, the greatest regret of my life was the failure of my first marriage, and it was my fault.</s>ROMANS: And that was --</s>LAND: I know that impacted my 85-year-old mother who for the first time felt comfortable voting for McCain.</s>ROMANS: OK, so has Newt Gingrich done that well enough to suit your 85-year-old mother, for example?</s>LAND: Well, I think so. I think so. Look, I think that he has, he still has some ground to plow and some work to do with evangelical women. And I personally think if he's going to be president, he's going to need all their votes. And so I would encourage him to, you know, not do mea culpas all the time, but signing this statement and when asked making the kind of statements that McCain made and the kind of statements that he's been making will do a lot to help restore trust and make people comfortable trusting him with the presidency.</s>ROMANS: I want to bring in McKay Coppins, because what it sounds like for evangelical voters in Iowa, their choice, McKay, is between a Catholic, a well-known Catholic thrice married, has admitted adultery, so that's one choice, and a Mormon who has been married to his wife for 69 (ph) years and has never by any stretch of the imagination strayed in his marriage. Those are their two choices and this is what they're struggling with.</s>MCKAY COPPINS, REPORTER FOR "NEWSWEEK" AND "THE DAILY BEAST": It's really interesting because if you're looking for family values Mitt Romney is sort of a poster boy for evangelical family values. But at the same time his Mormonism is viewed with some suspicion because it is so unfamiliar to so many people.</s>ROMANS: You are a Mormon.</s>COPPINS: I am. I am a practicing Mormon myself, and we're used to having people kind of view us through kind of asking, what is this religion, because people don't know that much about it, so, whereas everyone kind of knows somebody who has had marital problems in the past, so, that's sort of a known quantity. Mormonism is not so much, right?</s>ROMANS: So, this e-mail, this e-mail chain that is going on around evangelical leaders where they want to feel he has repented enough, along those lines do you think he has repented enough for the evangelical voters?</s>COPPINS: I'm no minister, so I won't judge his heart, right. But I think politically speaker Dr. Land is right on. He has to, you know, prove to the voters that he is a changed man. And I think by all accounts his marriage is very good now and he's doing a good job of kind of putting forth this very wholesome, in-love image. It's just a matter of whether evangelical voters think he is enough of an embodiment of their values to deserve the presidency, right?</s>ROMANS: He swiftly dismissed a campaign staffer in Iowa for a comment he made apparently before he worked for him that Mormonism is a cult. That is something that still pops up and resonates -- I don't know if resonates, but it pops up in evangelical circles.</s>COPPINS: I think it resonates with a certain subset of evangelical Christians. To Mormons, it's just baffling. It's this worldwide religion of 14 million diverse Mormons. The label of "cult" is a very bizarre -- Mormons are a lot of things, we're not cultists, right?</s>ROMANS: Dr. Land, do you think that was the right approach for the Gingrich approach around that remark? Does it resonate among some evangelicals that this idea of Mormonism is a cult?</s>LAND: It does. But I don't think it's the right way to describe Mormonism. We need to use words to communicate. And when you say the word "cult," you think Branch Davidians and you think Jonestown. Mormons are your children's little league soccer coach, the president of the rotary club. As an evangelical Christian I would describe Mormonism as another religion. I would describe it as the fourth Abrahamic religion with Joseph Smith playing the role of Mohammed and the book of Mormon playing the role of the Koran. Orthodox Christiania it's not, but it's an American religion.</s>ROMANS: Is it Christian? Would an evangelical say it takes the lord Jesus Christ as his savior as a Christian?</s>LAND: No. Evangelicals would say the Jesus Christ of Mormonism is not the Jesus Christ of orthodox Christianity. They would not accept the Mormon definition of god the father, god the son, or god the holy spirit.</s>ROMANS: So would they accept a Mormon to be their president?</s>LAND: Well, this evangelical thinks that being a Mormon should not disqualify a person from running for president, and actually the irony here is that one of the problems that Mitt Romney is having with evangelical voters is that perhaps he's not Mormon enough on the issues that matter most to them, because if he had consistently during his political career been as pro-life as Mormons are and as pro- traditional family and traditional marriage on the same-sex marriage issue as Mormons are, they would have less doubts about whether he's really the conservative.</s>ROMANS: Yes and that's sort of politics and religion all mixed up in one. McKay Coppins, I want to give you the last word there because you are -- you were sort of nodding when he was talking about the fourth religion, not Christianity.</s>MCKAY COPPINS, "NEWSWEEK": Well, you know I understand the theological argument, although Mormons will fiercely defend their right -- their right to be called Christians. It's the name of the church, the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and they believe that Jesus Christ is their savior and -- and yes we -- we want to hold on. We're certainly have certain different beliefs than some Evangelicals but we want to hold on to that Christian title just as much as our Baptist friends and Methodist friends do.</s>ROMANS: These are conversations people are having in Iowa right now Evangelicals I'll tell you right now because they're looking -- they're looking at two candidates and trying to decide who they are going to support. More than two candidates actually; who they are going to support when they head to the caucus. Dr. Richard Land, thank you so much for joining me, And McKay Coppins, really -- just a wonderful conversation.</s>COPPINS: You bet.</s>ROMANS: Thanks to both of you.</s>LAND: Thank you.</s>ROMANS: Still ahead, back in the day she was Hollywood's queen of bling. Now, Liz Taylor's stunning collection of jewels is hitting the auction blocks, smashing records. Its 46 minutes after the hour.