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SALT LAKE CITY -- A key staff member for Newt Gingrich's presidential campaign has resigned following reports he made a controversial comment about Mormonism.
The Iowa Republican reports that Gingrich's new Iowa political director, Craig Bergman, made the comments last Wednesday while talking to a voter focus group.
He said, "A lot of the evangelicals believe God would give us four more years of Obama just for the opportunity to expose the cult of Mormon."
This comes as Gingrich vows to run a clean campaign and refrain from the kind of attacks that have come to characterize the modern race for the White House.
In other religion news
- Three state agencies have sent letters to the Utah Highway Patrol Association requesting that all memorial crosses on public land be removed. The action follows a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court to not hear Utah's appeal of a lower court decision banning the roadside memorials. The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled earlier that crosses on state property violate the separation of church and state.
- Displays of Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the three wise men are being crowded out by atheists in Southern California. Churches have placed Christmas nativity scenes in a Santa Monica coastal park for decades. This year, atheists got all but three of the spaces because of a new lottery system.
- New research from the Pew Research Center shows the national marriage rate is at an all-time low. Data shows 51 percent of people over age 18 are married, compared with 71 percent in 1960. The median age at first marriage has never been higher for brides (26.5 years) and grooms (28.7 years).
