Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich blasted moderators at a debate in New Hampshire Saturday for "anti-Christian bigotry" after they asked several of the GOP hopefuls about gay rights.

"I just want to raise a point about the news media bias," the former House Speaker complained to ABC's Diane Sawyer. "You don't hear the opposite question asked."

"Should the Catholic Church be forced to close its adoption services in Massachusetts because it won't accept gay couples, which is exactly what the state has done? Should the Catholic Church be driven out of providing charitable services in the District of Columbia because it won't give in to secular bigotry? Should the Catholic Church find itself discriminated against by the Obama administration on key delivery of services because the bias and bigotry of the administration?"

He added: "The bigotry question goes both ways and there's a lot more anti-Christian bigotry today than there is concern on the other side, and none of it gets covered by the news media."

That remark was met with some of the loudest applause of the evening from the Republican audience, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney quickly spoke up in agreement.

"As you can tell, the people in this room feel that Speaker Gingrich is absolutely right, and I do too," Romney declared. "We have to recognize that this decision about what we call marriage has consequences which goes far beyond a loving couple wanting to form a long-term relationship, that they can do within the law now. Calling it marriage creates a whole host of problems for families, for the law, for the practice of religion, for education."

"Let me say this: 3,000 years of human history shouldn't be discarded so quickly," he insisted.