Daid Kuo, author of Tempting Faith, participated in an online Washington Post Chat yesterday. Kuo as you may recall, wrote a book criticizing the Bush Administration for their lack of compassion in supporting Faith Based Initiatives. Kuo used to work in the Office of Faith Based Initiatives and came to find out that the administration was merely using the Evangelical community to win elections. They had very little interest in actually helping the poor.

You can read the entire chat here. But let me post a few of my favorite excerpts:

Alexandria, Va.: I've heard people in my church argue that you can't be both a Christian and a Democrat. Is this attitude prevalent among evangelicals and do you think this concept originated in the minds of Republican political strategists?

Thank you and God bless.

David Kuo: It is a very common belief and one I first discovered circa 1990 when I started attending a church in Alexandria too. It represents this amazing distortion of Jesus' Gospel - literally, the good news that Jesus was raised from the dead and that his followers could be as well - with a particular political agenda. It reduces Jesus to some lobbyist or political consultant and that really isn't a very good thing.

Washington, D.C.: Do you think it is a move in the right direction for faith-based groups to be receiving federal funding at all — is the idea to eventually phase out government social service provision and to have local organizations take up this work on the ground?

David Kuo: I do, I absolutely do. I think small faith-based and secular groups working at the neighborhood level are so vital to providing care that they deserve so much help.

One organization for instance, here in DC, is a tiny place called the Unique Learning Center. There, one woman has dedicated her life to helping kids one family at a time. Groups like Unique are rescuing countless lives and deserve so much help.

Where Dogs Bite Men: The thesis of your book isn't exactly a revelation, you know?

David Kuo: I know! It is actually about 2000 years old (at least) - thesis is simply this - you can't serve two masters…

I agree 100% with David. And he also has a blog you can read here.

Permalink | Add a comment? |