BY FREDERICK COSBY
BLACKAMERICAWEB.COM

Bishop T.D. Jakes blasted Republicans who support former House Speaker Newt Gingrich for president largely because rival candidate Mitt Romney is a Mormon and offered harsh words about Gingrich’s idea that poor children toil as janitors in their schools to develop a work ethic.

Appearing last week on "Washington Watch with Roland Martin," Jakes noted that Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, appears to be getting the same treatment that President Barack Obama gets from some Christians and evangelicals who insist that he’s a Muslim.

Jakes, pastor of the 30,000-member Potter’s House in Dallas, said he’s baffled that some people won’t vote for Romney because of his religious faith, but they’ll eagerly pull the lever for Gingrich, a thrice-married, twice-divorced adulterer.

‘Righteousness exalts a nation’

"The thing that’s amazing to me about it is that the people who question whether he is legitimately a Christian because he is a Mormon don’t seem concerned about somebody running who is not a Christian at all," Jakes said, alluding to Gingrich’s marital transgressions.

"So that rationale says, ‘We are more comfortable with having a sinner in a position of leadership than we are a Mormon,’ when the Bible says ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people.’"

"I really get frustrated," Jakes added, "because we don’t seem to understand that whether we have a Christian in the White House, or a Mormon, or an African-American, or whatever, you cannot be the president of African-Americans or the president of Christians. You have to be president of the United States."

Front-runner admits mistakes

Gingrich has become the front-runner in the GOP presidential sweepstakes leading into next month’s Iowa caucuses despite a somewhat randy past.

His first wife was his high school teacher. Some media reports say he discussed divorce with her while she was hospitalized with cancer, a charge that he denies.

While married to his second wife, Gingrich had an affair with a congressional aide, who is now his third wife. The affair was going on while Gingrich was leading the charge for then-President Bill Clinton’s impeachment over his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

But Gingrich’s personal past doesn’t seem to be a problem for many Christian, evangelical and Tea Party supporters who don’t want Romney to be the Republican nominee. Gingrich insists he’s a changed man who recently converted to Catholicism.

"I’ve made mistakes at times," he said during a televised Republican debate on Dec. 10. "I’ve had to go to God for forgiveness."

‘Stupid’ comments?

Though Gingrich says there a new Newt, Jakes believes that Gingrich’s recent comments about the poor smacked of the Old Newt.

While campaigning in Iowa, Gingrich said the nation’s current child labor laws are "truly stupid" and that "really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works."

"They literally have no habit of showing up on Monday," Gingrich said. "They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this, and you give me cash,’ unless it’s illegal."

He suggested that poor children be allowed to work in their schools as janitors or assistant librarians as a way to earn money and develop work habits.

‘Myriad of problems’

Jakes said that he doubts Gingrich "knows anybody that lives in a project."

"To stereotypically say that they’re monolithic means that you really don’t have your hands on the facts," Jakes said. "Let’s look at the school systems. Let’s look at the educational (system) that prepares them to go out and find a decent job. No, they don’t want to get up in the morning and just sweep streets."

"They have goals and dreams just like anybody else’s children, and I think there are a myriad of prob-

lems that play into some of the reprehensible communities that we have right now, and how we solve them is far more complicated than a sound bite."