Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith From Politics

I have never had an interest in politics.  None.  Zero.  Zilch.  Nada.  Having been raised in a Christian home and surrounded by Christian friends, the few political opinions I had naturally leaned more to the right.  But over the past few years I realized that those opinions were not really my own.  I had adopted them because that is what a "good Christian" is supposed to stand up for.  Hoping to find a voice that echoed my frustrations, I decided to read Alisa Harris', Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith From Politics.  Born to a politically active, conservative family in New Mexico, Alisa shares stories of her family standing by the highway holding picket signs when she was a girl too young to really know what they were taking a stand for.  She shares her starstruck story of touching then Republican presidential nominee, George W. Bush.  "My fingertips just brushed the hem of his sleeve.  It was enough."  Her home school field trips to the state capital where she and her classmates were unleashed upon unsuspecting liberals to practice conversation techniques meant to remove the scales from their eyes and sending them running to the GOP confessing their many sins along the way.  After moving away from home, the events of September 11th, the resulting Iraq War and through forming relationships with fellow New Yorkers, Alisa realized that she had mixed up her priorities.  That being a follower of Jesus' teaching didn't necessarily go hand in hand with the GOP's political agenda and that those who cheered for the opposing side weren't as misguided, uninformed or evil as she was taught to believe.

This book isn't so much a guide to how to untangle the reader's faith from their politics as it is a memoir of Alisa's faith journey.  The last few chapters, while important felt different from the rest of the book in tone and subject matter and I felt that they could have been developed a little bit more to better tie into the rest of the book.  The chapters read like blog posts and are therefore easy to read.  There are a few scriptures that she references as a basis for her belief change but for the most part, she speaks of general christian concepts and examples from conversations with liberal christian friends.  If you're looking for a book to help you untangle your own faith/political crisis I think you'll be disappointed by Raised Right.  (However, there are many other authors who may be better able to tackle the theological task of untangling the Christian Conservative Agenda from the heart of God and the example of Christ.)  If you're looking to identify with a young person who has struggled with finding their identity in our country's limited political landscape, you'll most likely find a kindred spirit in Alisa.

Read the first chapter below and don't forget to rate my review! Thanks!!




*I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review*

Raised Right by Alisa Harris (ch. 1 excerpt)