Newt Gingrich and the Evangelicals

60% of the electorate in South Carolina for the Republican presidential nomination are evangelical Christians. 40% of them voted for Newt Gingrich. Evangelical Christians generally claim to be social conservatives. They, supposedly, do not want to vote for a candidate who has no respect for the sanctity of life and traditional family values. However, many of them voted for Newt Gingrich, who is clearly a man who does not care for what evangelicals will consider as traditional family values. There are at least three possibilities: many of these socially conservative evangelicals are ignorant, irrational, or hypocritical. Some of them are probably uninformed about Gingrich’s personal life. So, they are ignorant. Some of them are probably incapable of thinking coherently, i.e. failure to perceive the incoherence in voting for someone who is clearly opposed to one’s values. So, they are irrational. Some of them probably do not really vote based on what they claim to believe. So, they are hypocritical. I have nothing against Gingrich. His marital life should be an irrelevant consideration, when voters decide on who can lead this country well. There is no necessary connection between a good spouse and a good president. My problem is that many of these socially conservative evangelicals are the ones who readily accuse politically liberal Christians of committing an unchristian act for voting for Obama, who has a pro-choice position on abortion. I’m assuming that some of these evangelical accusers are supporters of Gingrich.