Southern Baptist leader queasy over Newt's casino haul

Southern Baptist leader queasy over Newt's casino haul
By Jeremy Redmon
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A top official with the Southern Baptist Convention said it's troubling that a casino magnate's $10 million is funding much of the effort to make Newt Gingrich president.

Gingrich should distance himself from casino gambling, said Richard Land, president of the Nashville-based Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the public policy arm of the nation's second largest religious denomination. The SBC has more than 16 million members, according to denomination websites, more than 1.3 million of them in Georgia.

A spokesman for Gingrich said the former Georgia congressman doesn't gamble and would leave the issue for the states to decide if elected president.

Several other Christian conservatives said that while they don’t support gambling, they don’t fault Gingrich, because he doesn’t control the pro-Gingrich Super PAC that received the contributions.

Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Nevada-based Las Vegas Sands Corp. –- which owns the Venetian and Palazzo casino resorts –- and his wife, Miriam, each contributed $5 million to the Winning Our Future Super PAC this month, according to news reports.

“When you are so prohibitively in debt to one particular lobbying group, that is a great concern,” Land said. “And it will be a great concern to many Southern Baptists because we believe gambling is a scourge. It is the fastest growing addiction in the country. And we certainly don’t want a president who is going to promote it.”

The Adelsons declined to comment through a spokesman.

Matt Towery, an Atlanta-area political pollster and former Gingrich aide, said Gingrich’s campaign would be in trouble if it were not for the Adelsons' financial backing. Gingrich's chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, has a much bigger campaign war chest, and a Super PAC supporting Romney has been savaging Gingrich with critical television ads in recent weeks.

Rick Tyler, a former Gingrich aide and now a senior adviser to Winning Our Future, declined to comment on the Adelsons' donations. But he did confirm that the PAC was able to buy $6 million in campaign advertisements in Florida this week, including a TV ad that links Romney to President Obama on the federal healthcare overhaul.

Christian conservatives were not united on the question of the Adelsons' support for Gingrich. Jody Hice, an Atlanta-area Baptist minister and former Republican congressional candidate who is not aligned with any presidential candidate, said that although he doesn’t support casino gambling, the donations are “not necessarily a sign of Newt's support of them [the Adelsons] or their business.”

“To be distracted by varying views regarding casinos and gambling is to miss the point, in this circumstance,” Hice, a conservative radio talk show host, wrote in an email. “The money in question is not even going to a candidate but to a PAC.”

Jerry Luquire, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition, didn’t criticize Gingrich but said the former House speaker should explain his position on gambling. “He should answer the question regardless of the source of his funding, just because it is a matter of interest,” said Luquire, whose coalition opposes the expansion of gambling in Georgia.

Forbes magazine lists Adelson as the eighth richest person in the United States with a net worth of $21.5 billion. His company operates convention centers, casinos and resorts in Las Vegas, eastern Pennsylvania, Macao and Singapore. Nearly 90 percent of its operating profit comes from Asia, Forbes reported.

While Adelson is associated with casino gambling, a separate issue seems to have cemented him to Gingrich: Israel.

"Sheldon Adelson is very deeply concerned about the survival of Israel and believes that the Iranians represent a mortal threat to Israel and the United States, Gingrich told reporters in Florida this week. "He is deeply motivated ... by the question of having a commander in chief strong enough and making sure the Iranians don't get nuclear weapons."

When a reporter asked Gingrich if he had promised Adelson anything, Gingrich responded: "I promised him that I would seek to defend the United States and United States allies."

Adelson told The Washington Post this month he was introduced to Gingrich in 1995 in the course of lobbying for a bill to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Gingrich said in December that he would issue an executive order to move the embassy to Jerusalem on Day One of his administration.

That same month, Adelson agreed with controversial comments Gingrich made about Palestinians on the Jewish Channel. Gingrich told the cable network: “Remember, there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. We have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and are historically part of the Arab people, and they had the chance to go many places.”

In a published statement, Adelson said: “My motivation for helping Newt is simple and should not be mistaken for anything other than the fact that my wife, Miriam, and I hold our friendship with him very dear and are doing what we can as private citizens to support his candidacy."

Towery, who served as a debate coach and campaign chairman for Gingrich, also dismissed concerns that the contributions would prompt Gingrich to support casino gambling. “Newt is not that way," he said. "Newt generally bites the hand that feeds him. ... This guy can give him all the money he wants, but Gingrich won’t do him any favors.”

Staff writer Daniel Malloy contributed to this article.