Mark Souder On His 'Torrid' Affair: 'How Could I Compartmentalize It So Much?'

Mark Souder, the former GOP congressman and standard-bearer of the Christian right who resigned last month after confessing to a long-running affair with a staffer, says even his faith wasn't strong enough to conquer sin and the "spark" of infatuation that ignited into a "torrid" affair over eight years.

In "Lessons from a broken man," the cover story of the next edition of WORLD, a popular evangelical magazine, Souder offers a number of revealing glimpses into his struggles to stay faithful to his wife, and the political pressure cooker that he says can destroy the Beltway marriages of even the most die-hard believers.

"I prayed multiple times a day, sang hymns with emotion and tears, felt each time that it wouldn't happen again, read the Bible every morning," Souder said in one of more than a dozen e-mails to WORLD's editors. "So how in the world did I have a 'torrid' (which is an accurate word) many-year affair? How could I compartmentalize it so much?"

Souder, 59, who has returned to Indiana to repair his 35-year marriage to his wife, Diane, (they have three grown children), does not provide detailed answers, especially to the question of why so many Christian conservatives like himself have been unable to live up to the lessons they preached to others, and which they often used as a platform to get elected.

Souder cites the loneliness of the job in Washington as part of the reason that in 2002 he hooked up with staffer Tracy Jackson, also a Christian and also married. But he says it would not have made any difference if he had moved his family to Washington when he was elected as part of the "Republican Revolution" of 1994 -- as former vice-president Dan Quayle had advised him to do. Souder tells WORLD that the two had a "spark" and that they could simply have carried on the affair during trips back to Indiana.

"Bottom line, however, is that the problem is sin," Souder says. "The problem is getting the will subordinated to the Holy Spirit early enough that the Spirit is not squelched."

The WORLD profile is generally sympathetic, and Souder says he deserves all the criticism he is receiving. Yet as he did when he announced his resignation, Souder seems to pin the blame for his lapse on the Beltway as much as he does on the Devil or a failure of the Holy Spirit.

Not only are the temptations and challenges tougher for Washington pols, but politicians "and any top professionals," he says, "are skilled manipulators and smooth with words...Holding us accountable is hard."

The moment of truth only came last fall, when Souder and Jackson were in a parked car in a nature reserve back in Indiana. A park officer tapped on the window and asked them to move along. The incident scared Souder, and he screwed up his courage to inform some of his colleagues of his affair. Only last month, before he made his resignation announcement, did he finally tell his wife.

Souder also tells WORLD that when he came to Washington he and two other freshman Indiana Republicans had a talk with Rep. Dan Burton, a veteran GOP member from the Hoosier State. Burton told them that he had fathered a child out of wedlock back in 1983 -- news that would only emerge publicly in 1998 -- and warned them, "Do not mess up your life like I did mine."