Gingrich tells pastors: Don't pray for me to win, but for God's will to be done

WT


Continuing to court the crucial evangelical voting bloc, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich starred in a Friday teleconference with Iowa pastors, where he fielded questions about his turbulent marital history and said that what matters on Tuesday is not that he wins — but that God's will prevails.


"I wouldn't ask you to pray for me to win, but for God's will to be done," he said, when asked by San Diego megachurch pastor Jim Garlow, who hosted the call, how they could pray for him in the few remaining days before Iowans vote for the GOP presidential nominee in Tuesday's caucuses.


Don Wildmon, the influential chairman of the American Family Association who handed Mr. Gingrich a coveted endorsement earlier this month, invited the Christian leaders to participate in the midday call.


"I have been impressed with Newt and have come to the conclusion that Newt is the one person who can lead us out of the awful environment created by the present occupant in the White House," Mr. Wildmon wrote.


Mr. Gingrich answered questions about abortion, gay rights and immigration — and about his two previous marriages that ended in divorce.


"I know what it's like to have failed," he told the listeners. "It makes me in some ways a little sadder and a littler slower than I was."