Could Newt Gingrich could be poised to convince evangelical leaders that a thrice-divorced, admittedly unfaithful recent convert to Catholicism could be the best standard-bearer for family values in the 2012 election?. In my latest column for “Figuring Faith,” I parse the data and conclude that although the numbers don’t forecast an easy road for Gingrich as the Republican primary progresses, it’s not unthinkable – especially given some evangelical Protestants’ reservations about Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith – that evangelical voters might back Gingrich in the primary:

Can Gingrich succeed where Cain stumbled? His past personal life certainly seems to suggest that courting evangelical voters would be an uphill battle: to begin with, he divorced his first wife – while she battled cancer. He is currently married, not to the woman for whom he left his first wife, but to his third wife, a congressional aide with whom he had an affair – while he was leading the impeachment campaign against Bill Clinton for his own infidelities. Ahead of the Iowa caucuses, Gingrich has yet to sign the Iowa FAMiLY Leader’s traditional marriage pledge, but he is reportedly reconsidering previous objections. If he does sign, Gingrich will have to find a way to square his own story with the pledge to “acknowledge and regret the widespread hypocrisy of many who defend marriage yet turn a blind eye toward the epidemic of infidelity and the anemic condition of marriages in their own community.”

To read the rest of the piece, check out “Figuring Faith,” my blog at the Washington Post.