Costly Grace

An evangelical minister recounts his journey from the religious right and American politics back to the loving messages of Jesus as seen in the gospels.

"A searingly honest view of two sides of America's culture wars. Costly Grace is both an indictment of religiosity and a testimony to the power of redemption. If only all our spiritual and political leaders were as courageous, and as faithful, as Rob Schenck." -The Rt. Rev. Marian Edgar Budde, bishop, Episcopal Diocese of Washington

Rob Schenck has been at the intersection of evangelical Christianity and conservative politics for his entire career. Attacked by partisans on both sides of the aisle, he has been called a "right-wing hate monger," the "ultimate D. C. power-broker," a "traitor," and a "turncoat."

As a teenager in the 1970s, Schenck converted from nominal Judaism to born-again Christianity and found his calling in public ministry. In the 1980s, he became an activist leader of the most extreme wing of the anti-abortion movement and entered the political mainstream inside the Beltway's religious right, brazenly mixing ministry with Republican political activism to advance his movement's crusade in the culture wars.

But after a deep reckoning with the texts of both Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Bible itself, revisiting the lessons Jesus imparted and regaining an understanding of the essence of the gospel, Schenck had an epiphany: he realized that he had strayed from his deepest convictions-that all are worthy of love, acceptance, and forgiveness, and should be free to live outside human judgment and exclusion. Reaffirming his core spiritual beliefs, Schenck today works to liberate the evangelical community from a politicized gospel, and to urge partisan conservatives to move beyond social battles and forsake the politics of hate, fear, and violence.

In this moving and inspiring memoir, Schenck reflects on his path to God, his unconscious abandonment of Christian principles in the face of fame and influence, and, ultimately, his return to the abiding beliefs that guide him in his work and ministry in Washington today. Costly Graceis a fascinating, sometimes shocking, and redemptive account of one man's life in faith and politics.