Giuliani cites Bible on personal life

By LIBBY QUAID, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 33 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani compared the scrutiny of his personal life marked by three marriages to the biblical story of how Jesus dealt with an adulterous woman.

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“I’m guided very, very often about, `Don’t judge others, lest you be judged,’” Giuliani told CBN interviewer David Brody. “I’m guided a lot by the story of the woman that was going to be stoned, and Jesus put the stones down and said, ‘He that hasn’t sinned, cast the first stone,’ and everybody disappeared.

“It seems like nowadays in America, we have people that think they could’ve passed that test,” he said. “And I don’t think anybody could’ve passed that test but Jesus.”

In the New Testament story, related in the Gospel of John, Jesus does not actually hold stones. The Pharisees bring Jesus a woman charged with adultery, reminding him the punishment for adultery is stoning. They are testing Jesus in an effort to charge him with breaking the law.

The Gospel reads: “But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’

“… And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the elders.”

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Giuliani also addressed a cell phone call he took from his wife, Judith, last week during his speech to the National Rifle Association, an important appearance because Giuliani clashed with the group when he argued for tougher gun control as mayor of New York.

“And quite honestly, since Sept. 11, most of the time when we get on a plane, we talk to each other and just reaffirm the fact that we love each other,” he said.

“Sometimes if I’m in the middle of a very, very sensitive meeting, I don’t take the call right then; I wait. But I thought it would be kind of nice if I took it at that point, and I’d done that before in engagements, and I didn’t realize it would create any kind of controversy,” he said.

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(AP Photo/Michael A. Mariant)

Image: (stones) hide-a-key via amazon.com; (hand) bradlittle.com