Newt Gingrich: Americans "Are Surrounded By Paganism"

At an event in Virginia titled "Rediscovering God in America," Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee aimed to recapture lost political momentum for the Christian right with strong exhortations for members to involve themselves in politics in order to maintain and increase the presence of religion in the public square, the Virginia-Pilot reports.

Both men railed against abortion rights, gay rights and the lack of religious influence in American public life, however Gingrich upped the ante in his attempt to stir up the crowd with this line:

I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history. We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.

However, Huckabee was not to be outdone in the use of hyperbole. The former Republican presidential candidate called the United States a "blessed" nation whose victory against the British in the Revolutionary War was "a miracle from God's hand," indeed the same type of miracle that defeated the legalization of gay marriage in California.

Another speaker at the event was Oliver North. (H/t Think Progress)

Comments

[mamiel]

I just want to remind Newt that democracy (as well as philosophy) were invented by pagans. Our ideas about democracy today derive from ancient Greek and Roman models, models built by people who believed in multiple gods. A government based on bibical law would look like a taliban operation.

As a pagan myself I can only say that I "wish" we were surrounded by pagans!

[Magaly Guerrero]

I'm always amazed by some people's rather limited definition of "religious". I just can't see how someone can walk through life saying that they belong to a loving path, but turn around and hating everyone and everything that is different from them.

Who knows, maybe I'm just to Pagan to understand that type of ignorance!

[copestir]

Newt How many divorces are you up too now? Affairs? Just wondering about that especially from some one that is so moreal.

[medicinecat]

History has shown that when "witches", real or imagined, are scapegoated, then other minorities will be soon added for victimization. Look to the Spanish Inquisition where a purge of heretics and witches led to the abuse and mass exodus of Spanish Jews. Once the machinery of hate is set in motion, groups will be chosen arbitrarily for ill treatment. Newt's superstitious talk is dangerous.

[DavidClaiborne]

I'm so proud to be a part of Newt's paranoia. I think it's time we start mobilizing the pagan community into politics in order to directly respond to this kind of nonsense.

Guess what Newt? Your superstitious religion SUCKS... that's why people are jumping ship...

[Wodooyino]

You're absolutely right, we should mobilize. Though not as 'pagans', since -- along with other equally loaded words like 'heretics' and 'heathens' -- it's a pejorative term that monotheists like to use to demonize anyone those that doesn't happen to subscribe to their own rather bizarre and utterly unsubstantiated belief system. Gingrich and his fellow dogmatists are welcome to call me whatever they want to for believing in an exclusively science-based matter vs energy explanation of the Cosmos, but they might as well be insisting that my pants are on fire, when I happen to know for a fact that they're not. For now, at least......!

[Zanti]

Hmmm. So, if Newt and Co. dispensed with all the superstition, you'd find their stances acceptable?

[Sandra Urias]

Where's my cauldron? ... ok ... Eye of Newt ....

[Buster41]

NEWT IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT ON THIS ONE.

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY PAGANISM.

AND, WE HAVE BEEN ALL THE WAY BACK THROUGH HISTORY TO THE CAVE MEN WHOSE ANCIENT REMAINS WE ARE STILL FINDING IN MANY PARTS OF THE GLOBE.

WITHOUT THE PROFOUND INFLUENCE OF PAGANISM, NEWT COULD NEVER HAVE HAD HIS CHRISTIAN BIBLE TO THUMP AS HE GOES ABOUT BASHING DEMOCRATS, WOMEN SUPREME COURT NOMINEES, WHILE SMILING BIG, AND GETTING HIMSELF OFF OCCASIONALLY.

SO, WHAT ELSE IS NEW, NEWT?

[merryone]

Did he mean "plagiarism"?

[The Ogre]

Ha! The primary battle with Palin begins...

[Abd-ul-Latif]

We're not surrounded by paganism so much as by atheism, or at best agnosticism. I noticed many people who left comments on this article think that the US is just SOOO overly religious because of writing on coins and so on. Please. You think that way because ultra-atheist EUROPE is your sole standard of comparison. People who are not Eurocentric, who have been to the Eastern world, will realize that most people on this planet live out their entire lives fully immersed in religion--not just the rare hypocritical gestures engaged in by most Americans. Even the fundamentalist Protestants, who claim to be the really "religious" ones in the US, have a religion that is woefully lacking in ritual and principles of behavior. They make a lot of noise about their love for Jesus (a.s.) but in the end they line their pockets with money, blaming the poor for their own poverty.

In the end, God is all the poor have left. But because of this, they are far richer than the wealthy atheists. The atheists see this (God is the last refuge of the poor) as evidence against God, but in fact it is evidence against the atheists' own disbelief.

[Shwazy]

There can be no evidence for or against God. That's the point. In the end it comes down to either believing in God, or not.

I'm continually amazed by the need for some to try to find theological or sociological explanations for not believing in fairy tales.

For many people, it just doesn't make sense, and thus, they don't believe it. It really is that simple.

[The Ogre]

There is evidence, but it cannot be externalized. It cannot be recorded, explained, or written about. It is inside, only.

[lianmolive]

There absolutely can be evidence for or against. Hence the bible on one side, and science/reason on the other.

Science have refuted the Young earth theory, for example. That refutes aspects in the Bible, which refutes their notions of god.

The thing is, it's the person(s) who claim there is "something" who has the burden of proof. Therefore it's those who believe in God to prove their premise... not the other way around.

[MJinCanada]

Europe is hardly atheist. They had centuries of the Inquisition, corrupt popes, burning heretics, guilt-ridden fanatics and religious wars laying waste to nearly every country.

After all that, they got some sense and learned to chill.

[lianmolive]

Today, many countries in Europe have more atheists/agnostics than any other industrialized, except Japan I think.

The US if far more religious compared to England.

[StJames]

Too true Abd-ul-Latif. In America the one true god is MONEY. The rest is just empty gestures most commonly used to gain a social, political of financial advantage. Christianity was perverted by paganism 1800 years ago. Jesus was not born in December, but the early church wanted to lure pagans to the'faith' so they co-opted the winter soltice and named it Christmas. That's just of dozens of examples. So for Newtie and friends to call anyone not of their ilk "pagan" is really hilariously funny. Particularly since Newtie recently converted to Catholicism the most pagan and superstitious of all the monotheistic religions. As the King said to Anna..".It's a puzzlement"

[lianmolive]

"they are far richer than the wealthy atheists".... really? If your implying that someone who doesn't have money and isn't a slave to it is metaphorically richer, then I would agree. But you don't have to have any god in one's life to live a "rich" life.

No, atheists don't see god as the last refuge, and no, that is not evidence against god. I've never heard of mainstream atheists consider that as evidence against god.

There's the literal definition of pagan and the connotative one. That word takes on many different meanings... Native Americans who worship "nature" is considered pagan. Wicca is Neo-pagan. Xians and other monotheistic modern day religions consider pagans as heretics and hedonists. Some consider pagans as those who love the material.

In an event, what does being surrounded with Paganism mean? Why is this a threat to anyone?

[balrog221]

so much certainty so little evidence

[TommyMcCarthy]

We can only WISH Americans were "surrounded by paganism".

Given the choice between paganism and the homophobic, xenophobic, "Jesus-loves-me-but-he-can't-stand-YOU" version of Christianity so cynically exploited by the Ging/Baugh Republicans over the last thirty years or so.....

I'll take the former 11 out of 10 times!!
tm

[jennysez]

And just exactly why is being a Pagan a bad thing Mr. Twice Divorced Married Three Times Former Republican Speaker of the House Recently Converted Catholic?

[reader110]

Does this mean that we should all "rediscover" Santa and the Easter Bunny, too?

[Wodooyino]

I couldn't help laughing when I read this article, because...... no offense intended, but.... to us heII-bound he@thens, it's fervent believers like Gingrich that now seem like the 'pagans' , with all their arcane rituals and mumbled incantations to some imaginary sky spirit. I mean pu-LEAZE, Newt : you're now supposedly 'eating the body of Christ and drinking His blood', on a regular basis, and then have the frikin nerve to go after other people's belief systems? How can you de-lu-sional hyp0crites even stand to look at yourselves in the mirror any more?

[balrog221]

... I know... not to mention child molesters, MD killers and suicide bombers. Not many athiests doing that for the cause.

[AmirZadeh]

Conservatives are dying, they're going off a cliff. Na na na na na na na na HEY HEY HEY GOODBYE!