c. 2007 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ When Southern Baptist public policy guru Richard Land sizes up the Republican presidential pack and factors in whether a candidate has been divorced, he thinks of marriage mathematics, not just morals.

“The progession from two to three … wives is not an arithmetic progression for evangelicals, it’s exponential,” said Land, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. “Three is at least one too many.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich _ both potential candidates _ are each twice divorced and thrice married. Sen. John McCain has been married twice. All three have had hints of extramarital affairs.

For Land and other conservative religious leaders, the checkered marital histories of GOP candidates could be an important factor. While divorce may not be a deal-breaker _ it could be, depending on how many, and for what reasons.

And for all their work to protect the “sanctity” of marriage, the high divorce rates of GOP front-runners puts many evangelicals _ not to mention the candidates themselves _ in an uncomfortable position.

“It really comes down to how they have carried on their lives beyond that,” said Connie Mackey, senior vice president of FRC Action, the legislative arm of the Washington-based Family Research Council.

“Adultery, that’s something where lying is involved and that’s a different characteristic that I think would carry more weight than divorce,” Mackey said.

Mark Rozell, a public policy professor at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., said the divorce record of prominent Republicans presents a quandary for evangelicals.

“There is somewhat of a divide within the evangelical community between those who tend to be more politically pragmatic and those who would like an ideal candidate,” he said.

Recent polls suggest voters take multiple marriages and extramarital affairs seriously. A USA Today/Gallup Poll found that less than half of weekly church attenders _ 48 percent _ would be “completely comfortable” with a candidate who has married three times. The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press found that 62 percent of Republicans, and 25 percent of Democrats, would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who “had an extramarital affair in the past.”

Giuliani _ who announced his divorce to his second wife at a City Hall press conference, to which she responded with charges of marital infidelity _ may have the most work to do to win over skeptical conservatives. Gingrich recently confessed to Focus on the Family founder James Dobson that he was having an affair while leading the charge for President Bill Clinton’s impeachment in the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

“I think that Giuliani has a lot more working against him than McCain does, and Gingrich could have a lot more working against him than McCain,” Land calculates.

Giuliani’s campaign declined to comment on his private life, but spokeswoman Maria Comella said, “Mayor Giuliani is focused on sharing his positive, optimistic vision for the country’s future.” A call to McCain’s exploratory committee was not immediately returned.

Rozell said Gingrich’s recent confession to Dobson was a strategic move to defuse the issue before making any formal announcement about a potential candidacy. In that March 9 discussion, Gingrich acknowledged “falling short of God’s standards.”

Rozell said the on-air confession was “an opportunity for Gingrich before a friendly audience to get those issues out there early in the cycle so all the buzz about it is happening right now as opposed to in the middle of the primary season.”

Not everyone sees Gingrich’s foibles as a dead end. The Rev. Jerry Falwell has invited the former House speaker to address his Liberty University commencement in May.

“I have been very impressed with the spiritual maturity of this man and am convinced that he has been honest and forthright in clarifying his past failings and his quest, as a Christian, for God’s forgiveness,” said Falwell,Liberty’s chancellor, in a March 9 e-mail to supporters.

Tom Minnery, senior vice president of public policy for Focus on the Family, said Gingrich “took a long step toward reconciliation with Christian voters” by speaking in an “amazingly transparent” way on the program.

But he said marital history is just one factor evangelicals consider as they prepare to vote.

“Stability in marriage, that’s a plus, but simply an intact marriage wouldn’t be enough to excite evangelicals who are getting pretty sophisticated about these things,” he said.

Other evangelical leaders said “a strong family image” can be helpful to competing GOP candidates, such as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback, California Rep. Duncan Hunter, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, or former Wisconsin Gov. Tommy Thompson.

“The rest of them just have one wife a piece,” said Land. “That certainly gives them a leg up.”

Even the conservatives’ beloved icon, Ronald Reagan, was able to overcome his failed first marriage to actress Jane Wyman to become the first divorced president. But, cautioned the Rev. Albert R. Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., “That divorce was not a serial event.”

Rozell, of George Mason, said there may be an “opportunity” for Democrats who appear to have a better marital track record than their potential Republican competitors.

“The Democratic candidates have a better `personal profile’ for many of the evangelical voters,” he said, noting the upswing in evangelicals voting for Democrats in 2006.

Some evangelical leaders acknowledged that the family of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is “attractive.” Mohler recently praised former Sen. John Edwards _ “the man, husband and father” _ on his blog for his marriage that survived the death of a son and his wife’s breast cancer, even though he added, “I do not want to see him elected president of the United States.”

Land said he gives Sen. Hillary Clinton “full marks for sticking with a marriage to a very exasperating and difficult spouse.” Given the choice between Clinton and Giuliani, Land said he would leave his presidential ballot blank.

“I think it’s a question of individual conscience,” he said.

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