Cross-examined: David Kuo can take the heat. Photo: Chris Hartlove

Tempting Fire

I arrived at Tufts in 1986, moved into Tilton Hall, and found that my roommate and I had ended up in one of the rooms abutting the furnace. Suffice it to say we were never cold in winter.

When my book Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction was released some months ago, that near-furnace experience came in handy because of the little firestorm that erupted around it. The book was about God, politics, and me. It was (and is) a very personal book about trying to love God and serve in politics while keeping my soul. That wasn’t always easy.

It was at Tufts, as a member of a Christian group, that I was introduced to the idea that I could serve Jesus through politics. The idea resonated with me. A liberal interning for various Kennedys, I was against the death penalty, for human rights, and for the poor. It seemed that Jesus would be happy with those positions. But after some intense personal experiences while still at Tufts (I ended up getting my girlfriend pregnant, and we both agreed an abortion was the best solution), my politics evolved over the years, and I ended up on the religious right.

By my mid-twenties I was on a fast track in the Republican world, and by my early thirties I was a special assistant to the president of the United States. Along the way, I regularly lost touch with my priorities, abused the name of God, and became an angry and hateful political activist. Through other events, including a life-threatening illness, my priorities and my orientation would change. I came to realize the eternal importance of the spiritual and the temporal reality of the political. That is what I wrote about in the book.

Released just weeks before November’s midterm election and in the midst of revelations of Christian misconduct (Pastor Ted Haggard’s sex and methamphetamine scandal) and Republican misconduct (Representative Mark Foley’s dalliances with Congressional pages), portions of the book were explosive. Though my White House time was just a few chapters in the book, it shone a bright light on the political manipulation of so-called Christian conservatives at a bad time for Republicans and on the lack of follow-through on the “compassionate conservative” agenda. While I was disappointed that the larger message of my book was often lost in the storm, I was grateful for the opportunity to speak my mind in public forums and to influence the debate in some small way.

Yes, there were back-channel threats delivered through predictable Washington avenues (friends, reporters, leaks, etc.). But that is simply the business of politics. I knew I was tipping over some sacred cows. It helped, I suppose, that I didn’t consider cows sacred. But more than anything, there has been powerful support. From friends in the White House, Christian pastors, and avowed secularists alike have come words of thanks for reminding people that the spiritual should never be subsumed by the political, and that the altar of God is more important than the altar of politics. Those lofty-sounding words convey a heartfelt sentiment: let’s make sure we aren’t using God for our purposes but, rather, are being used for His.

I am thankful to Tufts not only for a room next to a furnace to get me used to the heat but for teaching me early on, through my political science classes, about how politics really works.

DAVID KUO, A90, a former special assistant to President George W. Bush, served as deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for much of Bush’s first term. His national best-seller, Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction, received enormous attention because of his revelation that President Bush’s “compassionate conservative” promises were used primarily for political purposes.