I arose early today - 4:00 am - to read the 179 pages of Tom DeLay’s new memoir No Retreat, No Surrender: One American’s Fight.  It was homework of sorts, preparing for the phone conversation I just completed with him about a half an hour ago. 

My initial impression after reading the book was rather mixed.  Everything in me wants to believe the best about Tom DeLay.  The mainstream media has worked overtime since he left Congress in 2006 to make a caricature out of the former Majority Leader. During an interview with Meredith Viera of the Today Show, she was meticulous in pointing out the House Ethics charges (all of which were dropped), the indictment in Texas on campaign finance charges (none of which have been pursued in the courts) and his “guilt by association” with Jack Abramoff.  Sadly this is the only image most Americans have of Tom DeLay.  I’ve seen a completely different Tom DeLay - the real Tom DeLay - in a brief personal introduction to him last year when I was in Washington for a conference, and today in the time I spent with him on the telephone. 

Tom Delay describes himself as a “real jerk” during his days in the Texas House and in the first few months of his tenure in the U.S. House.  He was a partier, a womanizer, and nearly an alcoholic during those days.  But that all changed in 1985. He says, “In my run for reelection in 1986 I was a different man from the one who had first gone to Washington in 1984.” 

The transforming moment for me came one day during the meeting [a weekly Bible study led by Tom Barrett for House members], when I quietly prayed a prayer of commitment to Jesus Christ. No one else was involved. In fact, no one else in the room even knew until later. I did it quietly, and yet with the greatest sincerity of my life.

The truth is that in 1985 I had a genuine born-again experience. Jesus Christ took up residence in my life, healed my marriage, changed my passions, and gave me a new map for understanding the world.

Some, not surprisingly, have characterized DeLay’s conversion as politically motivated, a charge he responds to during our conversation. Just today a writer for the Washington Post Writer’s Group, Marie Cocco, said this about DeLay’s conversion:

…his survival in conservative politics depended upon cleaning up his act. If nothing else, it all was the necessary prerequisite to DeLay becoming the driving political force behind Clinton’s impeachment for lying about adultery.

That stament says more about DeLay’s clairvoyance than it does his character! DeLay prayed to receive Jesus Christ as Savior in 1985, seven years before Bill Clinton was elected president! How DeLay could know nearly a decade out that he would need to “clean up his act” in order to pursue impeachment charges against a man who hadn’t even been elected president yet is proof of typical liberal smearing of DeLay’s sincere decision to receive Jesus.

In the book DeLay fairly well outlines his political philosophy, which began as “conservative/libertarian” in the Goldwater/Reagan tradition, and after his conversion to Christ took on the added dimension of “a broader mission to restore the nation to the purposes of God.” This has caused his detractors to accuse him of a conspiracy to overthrow the Constitution and institute a Theocracy, when in reality DeLay’s vision for the moral well-being of the Nation is no more radical than that of the Founding Fathers, and based on the same abiding principles.

The book is long on pointing out the flaws and issues of the people around DeLay during his years in Congress, detailing his own quest for power to be used in the service of the conservative principles that drove him to seek office in the first place.  Says DeLay: “Anyone unwilling to position themselves for power in the service of their principles should stay out of politics.”  During my phone conversation with Congressman DeLay I asked him how that statement squared with Jesus’ ideal that “the first shall be last” and “he that is greatest among you shall be servant of all.”  You’ll have to tune in this afternoon for DeLay’s response.  

Any misgivings I had about the book were relieved by a candid 30 minute conversation with the former House Majority Leader. We’ll air that conversation today during The Paul Edwards Program, heard locally in Detroit on AM 1500 WLQV from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm and around the world via the World Wide Web at http://www.godandculture.com.