J-Walking: October 2006 Archives

I like talking about myself as a follower of Jesus. I prefer that description to any other one in describing my faith. I like it because it describes the relationship pretty well: intimate but not static; he leads, I follow.

But tonight a question occured to me: Does Jesus sometimes follow me?

Wherever I go, he is there. He will never leave me and never forsake me. Does that mean that sometimes he follows, too? And if that is true, what does it mean for my faith?

This idea is profoundly humbling. And scary.

I don't know. I am headed to bed, and that is the question. Let me know what you think. I'm also going to email a few friends and see what they say. I'll share whatever I hear.

Go to see the Bollywood version of Michael Jackson's Thriller on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

I'm guessing we've all heard Jesus' words bunches of times before:

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he apologizes, forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven time and turns round seven times and says 'sorry' to you, you must forgive him." Luke 17:3-4

I love how Tom (N.T.) Wright, Bishop of Durham in the Church of England, and author of the ...for Everyone series of commentaries on the New Testament puts it:

"When you forgive someone, you are making yourself their servant, not their master. Forgiving someone again and again ought not to get harder and harder; it shouldn't be a matter of restraining anger for a longer and longer time... If that's what it's like, you've missed the meaning altogether. The point is that you're not scoring moral points at all. You are to be humble, to take no advantage of the situation, to give to the other person the generous and welcome forgiveness that (as Jesus indicates on numerous other occasions) God has shown you in the first place. That, after all, is the real source of humility. If in doubt, meditate on God's grace."

NOTE: Over the coming days Andrew Sullivan and I will be engaging in a dialogue/discussion/letter exchange regarding his new book, The Conservative Soul, and my book, Tempting Faith. For those who do not know him, Andrew is one of today's most formidable and provocative social and political commentators. He also edits "The Daily Dish," one of the most widely read political blogs on the Web.

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Dear Andrew,

Would that I knew where to start this discussion/letter/dialogue.

Truth be told, when we talked about this idea of a “blogalogue” I hadn’t read all of your book and therefore didn’t understand what a monumental work you had produced. In many ways, it is improperly titled. This isn’t just The Conservative Soul; it is really First Things (with all appropriate respect to the journal of the same name), because the driving narrative of the book seems to me to be understanding God, prioritizing God, and loving God. Everything else flows from that--for well or for ill.

But that doesn’t cover the political part of your book. A couple of years ago, a good friend--who is also a good conservative with a background in philosophy--exclaimed after flipping through one of the neo-conservative journals, “These guys have no clue why they are conservative...and neither do most conservatives. They have no philosophy.” Conservatives need to read your book to get a better understanding of that philosophy, no matter their definition of conservatism.

For me? Of course after reading your book, I think I am not so conservative as I once thought--after all, I am a compassionate conservative who would spend lavishly to help faith-based and non-faith-based groups care for the poor and do maintain a ridiculous optimism that such a thing would be transformative.

More than anything, though, I am struck by your willingness to lay your life bare in order to make an argument so important to you. We won’t and don’t agree on some things, but I so respect you and your candor. I hope my part of this dialogue will do justice to the significance of your book and your story.

Thanks for doing this, and I look forward to reading your response at "The Daily Dish."

Read: "Dear Andrew: Part Two"

Peter Steinfels in The New York Times yesterday wrote a very nice piece on my book . What I appreciate so much about the piece is that Steinfels captures what I the book is really about:

"As much as it is a story about politics, it is also a story about faith. 'I set out to write a spiritual book,' Mr. Kuo insists, and 'Tempting Faith' turns out to be an engrossing piece of religious autobiography and a revealing, sometimes unnerving window into evangelical Christian culture."

Another review in the Hartford Courant seems to understand the book even better. Susan Campbell writes, "This coming-of-age story is intriguing, written as it is by a man who saw the faith of the White House from a unique perspective. The insights of David Kuo, True Believer--and former deputy director of the White House's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives--are brutally frank. He does not spare the workings of the White House (though he always maintains a respectful tone in regard to the president) and he certainly doesn't spare himself.”

The story is getting out!

I keep waiting. Even now I hope I've missed something. I keep waiting to hear James Dobson or Jerry Falwell take to the airwaves to denounce the unconscionable attack on actor Michael J. Fox by Rush Limbaugh.We all know the...

Today, guest blogger Patton Dodd, Beliefnet's Christianity Editor who is based in Colorado Springs, comments on the reception of "Tempting Faith": Though I've had the pleasure of working with David Kuo in recent weeks, like most everyone I read his...

These past two days, home with family and back in church this morning, surrounded again by friends who agree and who disagree with my thoughts but who live the reality that Jesus’ love is far more important than anything else,...

Need to be going to sleep, but just finished doing a small segment on "Real Time with Bill Maher." Like most of these interviews, I was piped in via satellite, so I wasn't actually in the studio. But I was...

I got back home tonight and went to what I thought was just a small book signing in DC. It was--with the exception that C-SPAN was filming it. It was fun to have a stage to myself and be able...

Watch Tucker Carlson...

Not that every good, smart and spiritually significant thing can be found among Beliefnet-associated people, but here is yet another example of Beliefnet's great taste:Columnist Amy Sullivan, who also does stuff for other lesser outlets like "The New Republic," posts...

Morning again, by God's mercy, but a hard one. Probably just tired, but also discouraged. I kept wondering why Fox News pulled the two stories they had scheduled, and then last night I figured it out. During my illness, there...

Wow, am I tired. I’ve been doing press interviews all day and I feel battered. It’s awfully hard to convey a whole book in a few minutes--let alone when the book is about your whole life and not just a...

I keep wondering why it is that the White House keeps putting up people to respond to me who are not from the White House. Then the realization hits me -- there is no one left at the White House...

As I've been doing interviews on my book, I've been proposing that Christians "fast" from politics. It has been mischaracterized as a call for Christians not to vote. That's not what I mean. Christians like me have worked in politics...

It is always so much easier to talk about walking with Jesus than it is to actually lean on Jesus. At least that has been my experience. Jesus is easier to love when I don't need him so much because...

Well, I am glad that Jesus loves me unconditionally. For now, I am, according to a Christian writer, a member of the "Axis of Evil." I don't have that much time to write right now, but will have more to...

So, the smears are beginning. A call this afternoon from a DC gossip columnist who was called by a Republican finance person alleging I had done something wrong to him five years ago.All I wanted to do was fight back...

A month ago, the "60 Minutes" crew came to our house and took over four full rooms with cameras, lights, monitors, microphones, and people. I talked with Lesley Stahl for almost four straight hours. We talked about virtually everything, including...

Jesus and I just took a walk through Central Park. It was a great relief from the small tempest blowing around a book I have written that will be out tomorrow and on "60 Minutes" tonight. Almost no one has...

Though it clearly happens all the time, I am surprised by seeing sunrise in New York City. That dark night filled with clouds and loud taxi cabs and trucks that go 'beep, beep, beep' when in reverse--it gets lighter bit...

For the last 20 years my heart's deepest desire has been to walk with Jesus - even when that was the last thing I thought I could to do. Trying to capture who Jesus is in a few words is...