He is an adjunct fellow of the Hudson Institute and a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, with a special interest in America's "culture wars." Kurtz writes regularly for publications such as National Review, Policy Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and Commentary.Kurtz graduated from Haverford College and holds a Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University. He did his field work in India and taught at Harvard and the University of Chicago. He has published extensively on family life, child rearing, religion, and psychology in various parts of the world.

During the 2008 election cycle, Kurtz published several editorials that discussed relationships between Barack Obama and some Chicago church leaders such as Jeremiah Wright, and former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. In August 2008, Kurtz obtained records concerning Chicago Annenberg Challenge from the University of Illinois at Chicago. According to Kurtz, the educational program on which Obama and Ayers collaborated was ultimately unsuccessful.