David Kuo's New Book: Tempting Faith

I wrote a post last week about a forthcoming book by David Kuo, who formerly served in the White House Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives.  As I noted in the post, the book is listed on amazon with the title Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction.  I just found some promotional material from the publisher, however, (I cannot link to the material for some reason) that lists a different subtitle -- here it is listed as Tempting Faith: An Inside Account of the Rise of Christian Conservatives and Their Betrayal by the Bush White House.  Different, but certainly no less eyebrow-raising.  Given that this latter subtitle also is listed here, here, here, and here, it appears that the author and publisher probably settled on that one. 

Here's a description of the book from the publisher's (Simon & Schuster:Free Press) website (again, for some reason I cannot link to this particular description):

Before the 2000 presidential campaign, David Kuo has written speeches for William Bennett, Ralph Reed, Bob Dole, and John Ashcroft, for whom he also served as a policy advisor.  A lifelong evangelical Christian, he thought he had achieved a dream when he was invited to join the Bush Administration as a Special Assistant to the President, and eventually as Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative, which George Bush had hailed as one of his "most important initiatives."  For nearly three years, he had a seat at the central nexus of political power and the Religious Right in America.

What he saw made him realize that his Christian values -- and those of millions of Americans -- were in danger of being corrupted by politics.  Religious organizations were being manipulated cynically, for political purposes, and rewarded through financial shenanigans.  Certain religious leaders were so hooked on politics that they were routinely canvassed by the White House to vet judicial appointments and horse-trade on policy positions, regardless of moral content.  Tempting Faith is both a headline-making expose and a heartfelt plea for religious leaders to take a hiatus from politics.

Wow. 

The American Booksellers Association reports that Kuo is scheduled to appear on 60 Minutes this Sunday, October 15 and on Morning Edition on Tuesday, October 17.     I'll be tuning in.

UPDATE:  Here's another website listing from the publisher with the amazon subtitle, so I just cannot be sure right now which subtitle will actually be on the book.  If anyone has an advance copy of the book or more time (and the inclination) to search further, please drop a comment to settle the matter one way or the other.  In either case, the book certainly appears to be noteworthy.

ANOTHER UPDATE:  And if you have an advance copy of the book and don't have an obligation to keep it under wraps, please feel free to share some passages.

Comments

[Richard Pierard]

Thanks, Melissa, for spreading the word on this and the Boston Globe expose of the faith-based initiative. I was stunned when I read the latter this week, as it showed things were even worse than I had been say. Hardly anyone in my evangelical community would believe me when I said the Bush crowd was conning Christians with all their shenanigans. Now the truth is out.

[Melissa Rogers]

Richard, it's great to hear from you. Thanks for your comments and for your many writings on these issues. This is indeed a sorry chapter. I hope it serves as a wake-up call.

[john]

How can you possibly say that David's book contains truth? If just one reporter did an ounce of research instead of merely publicizing exerpts from David's book that are good for anti-Bush media ratings, he/she would quickly discover that David Kuo makes a majority of his living by writing expose books. David wrote an expose called Dot.Bomb about his employer "Value America" and talked about how dysfunctional they are. And, if anyone had an ounce of knowledge about the multitudes of deputy aides there are in the White House they'd know David was a mere peon with little access to high-powered meetings and certainly very little influence. And, has David Kuo stepped foot inside a soup kitchen to serve the poor or spent time serving in the inner city? He has not. He's more political than the politicians he urges Christian to "fast" from. Only David has no problems bringing in money for his political book and isn't giving the proceeds to the poor but rather to his own pockets. Shameful!