"Tempting Faith" A Revelation And A Great Read

David Kuo, formerly of the Faith Based and Community initiatives office in the White House has written a book that had the media chattering a few weeks ago about how the Bush White House referred to the Evangelical Religious Right as the "nuts". Additional colorful terms were used to describe the far right base that helped elect Bush, but I will forgo those here.

In his interviews, David repeatedly said the book was a story of his faith journey, and after reading it I agree. It is a story of one man’s journey into faith, politics and finally into a kind of epiphany about the politics of Washington and how the Bush White House in particular uses people for it’s own purposes.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and found elements of my own faith journey in it. The exception is hat mine was as a gay man and David’s is not. His time as speechwriter for the neocons and policy wonk is fascinating stuff, and though you may or may not be a Christian, it will give you a lot of insight.

In the end David has a recommendation for the Religious Right and I heartily agree. Fasting. Fasting from politics for a couple of years and getting back to the work of Jesus. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, healing the sick. You know, the stuff Jesus talks about ad nauseum? Funny how the word Christian has become identified with intolerance, greed and politics. Like Mr. Kuo, I have to wonder how the faithful could have strayed so far from the way.