"Tempting Faith"-- Book says Bush just using Christians

[Ian David]

Exclusive: Book says Bush just using Christians
‘Tempting Faith’ author David Kuo worked for Bush from 2001 to 2003

By Jonathan Larsen
"Countdown" producer
MSNBC
Updated: 8:57 p.m. ET Oct. 11, 2006

More than five years after President Bush created the Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, the former second-in-command of that office is going public with an insider’s tell-all account that portrays an office used almost exclusively to win political points with both evangelical Christians and traditionally Democratic minorities.

The office’s primary mission, providing financial support to charities that serve the poor, never got the presidential support it needed to succeed, according to the book.

Entitled “Tempting Faith,” the book is not scheduled for release until Oct. 16, but MSNBC’s “Countdown with Keith Olbermann” has obtained a copy.

“Tempting Faith’s” author is David Kuo, who served as special assistant to the president from 2001 to 2003. A self-described conservative Christian, Kuo’s previous experience includes work for prominent conservatives including former Education Secretary and federal drug czar Bill Bennett and former Attorney General John Ashcroft.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15228489/


Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction
by David Kuo



Available October 25th. Pre-order from:

Powell's Books $25.00
http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-0743287126-0

Overstock.com $15.68
http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=2001273

Barnes & Noble $17.50
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780743287128&itm=1


Synopses & Reviews
Publisher Comments:
David Kuo came to Washington wanting to use his Christian faith to end abortion, strengthen marriage, and help the poor. He reached the heights of political power, ultimately serving in the White House under George W. Bush, after being policy adviser to John Ashcroft and speechwriter for Ralph Reed, Pat Robertson, and Bob Dole. It was a dream come true: the chance to fuse his politics and his faith, and an opportunity for Christians not just to gain a seat at the proverbial table but to plan the entire meal.

Kuo spent nearly three years as second in command at the president's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Yet his experience was deeply troubling. It took both the Bush White House and a severe health crisis to show him how his Christian values, and those of millions of Amer- icans, were being corrupted by politics.

Instead of following the teachings of Jesus to serve the needy, Kuo found himself helping to manipulate religious faith for political gain. Public funds were used in battleground states, for Republican campaign events. The legislative process was used as a football, not to pass laws but to deepen purely symbolic fault lines. Grants were incestuously recycled to political cronies. Both before and after 9/11, despite lofty rhetoric from the president claiming that his faith-based program was one of his most important initiatives, there was no serious attempt to fund valuable charities.

Worst of all was the prevailing attitude in the White House and throughout Washington toward Christian leaders. Key Bush aides and Republican operatives spoke of them with contempt and treated them as useful idiots. It became clear, during regular conference calls arrangedfrom the White House with a key group of Christian leaders, that many of these religious leaders had themselves been utterly seduced by politics.

It is time, Kuo argues, for Christians to take a temporary step back from politics, to turn away from its seductions. Tempting Faith is equal parts headline-making expose, political and spiritual memoir, and heartfelt plea for a Christian reexamination of political involvement.
Synopsis:
A veteran of the Religious Right and former special assistant to President George Bush tells all, and reveals how the Bush administration has manipulated people of faith.


Product Details

ISBN:
0743287126
Subtitle:
An Inside Account of the Rise of Christian Conservatives, and Their Betrayal by the Bush White House
Author:
Kuo, David
Author:
Kuo, David
Author:
Kuo, J. David
Publisher:
Free Press
Subject:
Religion, Politics & State
Subject:
Government - Executive Branch
Subject:
Government - National
Subject:
Presidents
Subject:
Church and state
Subject:
Christianity - Christian Life - Political Issues
Publication Date:
October 2006
Binding:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Pages:
288

[liberal N proud]

1. I am sure the Christian bu$h lovers are all lining up to buy this book

:sarcasm:

[Ian David]

4. I pre-ordered three copies. n/t

[zeemike]

2. Oh no...Boy George wouldn't do that would he? n/t

[Virginian]

16. The Anti-Christ has been exposed.

How many will see? How many will continue to blindly follow?
Some are confusing FAITH in God for TRUST in a politician. No one should ever fully trust a politician, much less have blind faith in him.

[Freedom_from_Chains]

3. Maybe this is why they feel so persecuted. n/t

[Mira]

5. Olberman recognized this as a bombshell

I hope that we can create publicity for this book and talk about it. Nobody likes to be ridiculed behind one's back, and nobody likes to be deceived and used.
This has the potential to unmask the false prophet in the White House with some of his backwash base.

[Ian David]

6. I'm going to make photocopies and leaflet cars in church parking lots.

Anyone else want to do that?

In the event you can't get access to the parking lots, many churchgoers park on local streets.

[rodeodance]

12. hey, good Idea---I will put some up also---

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Sure

?sdfewe

I already go around putting these little cards on appropriately marked cars.

[zeemike]

17. Oh that is good, real good. n/t

[underpants]

7. This was the basic theme of "What the matter with Kansas" too

This new book looks like a good read as well.

[ClintonTyree]

8. And the pious Bush.......

is the number one charlatan. His 'holy, holy, holy' act is so transparent to any critical thinking person. The key words in that sentence being, "critical thinking person", a rare commodity within religious circles. "God's chosen", is a fake, a fraud, a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's led them to the slaughter, fleecing them regularly along the way.
If they've finally awoken from their slumber.......great. They most certainly will not vote for a "godless" Democrat :eyes: but perhaps they'll refrain from voting which would be a victory in itself.

[underpants]

9. Tucker Carlson agrees (lets it out in the open Mathews challenges him...

Chris couldn't have been happy that Tucker let that one out of the bag.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/10/tucker-carlson-to-evangelicals-duped/

CARLSON: It goes deeper than that though. The deep truth is that the elites in the Republican Party have pure contempt for the evangelicals who put their party in power. Everybody in…

MATTHEWS: How do you know that? How do you know that?

CARLSON: Because I know them. Because I grew up with them. Because I live with them. They live on my street. Because I live in Washington, and I know that everybody in our world has contempt for the evangelicals. And the evangelicals know that, and they're beginning to learn that their own leaders sort of look askance at them and don't share their values.

MATTHEWS: So this gay marriage issue and other issues related to the gay lifestyle are simply tools to get elected?

CARLSON: That's exactly right. It's pandering to the base in the most cynical way, and the base is beginning to figure it out

[LostInAnomie]

10. This message won't even dent their hair helmets

All it is going to do is convince the Evangelicals that "once again" they are being persecuted by the liberals. Kuo's fundy credentials won't matter because he's attacking God's representative on Earth. They'll see him as a Judas selling out Bush* for thirty pieces of silver.

If these morons haven't been smart enough to pick up on the GOP's bullshit lip-service for the past 26 years, what's the chances they'll pick up on it now?

[Joe_VB]

11. I think I will buy two .....

and send one to Pat Robertson and one to Jerry Fawell as a "Season's Greeting" present.

[rodeodance]

14. i am wondering where he stands on the separation of Church/State?? I

can not get a sence of this from the post---. While he is very critical of the WH, he complains of not funding charities---which leads me to think it is OK for Fed. gov. to do so.




.....Instead of following the teachings of Jesus to serve the needy, Kuo found himself helping to manipulate religious faith for political gain. Public funds were used in battleground states, for Republican campaign events. The legislative process was used as a football, not to pass laws but to deepen purely symbolic fault lines. Grants were incestuously recycled to political cronies. Both before and after 9/11, despite lofty rhetoric from the president claiming that his faith-based program was one of his most important initiatives, there was no serious attempt to fund valuable charities.

Worst of all was the prevailing attitude in the White House and throughout Washington toward Christian leaders. Key Bush aides and Republican operatives spoke of them with contempt and treated them as useful idiots. It became clear, during regular conference calls arrangedfrom the White House with a key group of Christian leaders, that many of these religious leaders had themselves been utterly seduced by politics.

It is time, Kuo argues, for Christians to take a temporary step back from politics, to turn away from its seductions. Tempting Faith is equal parts headline-making expose, political and spiritual memoir, and heartfelt plea for a Christian reexamination of political involvement.
Synopsis:
A veteran of the Religious Right and former special assistant to President George Bush tells all, and reveals how the Bush administration has manipulated people of faith........

[Mira]

15. The hypocrisy is also exposed in a German book

http://www.amazon.com/falsche-Prophet-US-Pr%e4sident-Glauben-vergiftet/dp/3532622971/sr=1-5/qid=1160
655322/ref=sr_1_5/002-2183496-3073600?ie=UTF8&s=books

My mother gave it to me 2 years ago. "The False Prophet" the sub-title says: How the US President poisons the Christian Faith.

It's by Juergen Fliege, a German TV and Radio Minister. He takes apart how Bush uses the Bible's words to his advantage by twisting them into pro war messages.

I ought to stop what I'm doing long enough to translate the thing, it's 70 awfully powerful pages, and solidly uses the Bible as counterpoint to statements made by Mr.Bush, making him look as uninformed and grasping as he is.
The author claims that he is not sure if Mr. Bush has the capacity to be teachable in the fundamentals of being truly religious.

Somebody help me out ! How does one translate a book and market it?