The Los Angeles Times reports that Newt Gingrich intends to make appealing to the Religious Right a key part of his presidential campaign … and while that is not particularly surprising, the article did contain one piece of information of which we weren’t aware – that David Barton sits on the board of Gingrich’s “Renewing American Leadership” group:
[I]n recent years, the former speaker has made gains among evangelical leaders — the result of aggressively cultivating relationships with influential national figures and local pastors in key nominating states.
Gingrich, who was raised a Lutheran and became a Southern Baptist when he entered politics, converted two years ago to the Roman Catholic faith of his third wife, Callista — an experience that he said shaped his new focus on faith. Since then, he created a nonprofit organization aimed at religious conservatives, called Renewing American Leadership, or ReAL, appointing to the board evangelical leaders such as Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif., and David Barton of the Texas-based WallBuilders.
And indeed he does:
That means that that two key ReAL board members – Barton and Chairman Jim Garlow – openly espouse Dominionist 7 Mountains theology … as does Lou Engle who, as we noted yesterday, prayed over Gingrich just a few years back:
As we have noted before, the purpose of 7 Mountains theology is to create a “virtual theocracy” here on Earth … and the people who are advocating for that sure do seem to love Newt Gingrich.
