Raised Right - How I Untangled My Faith From Politics by Alisa Harris

The story line behind Raised Right: How I Unhinged My Faith From Politics is that of a young woman who undergoes a personal change, from religious conservative to liberal with a little religion mixed in. Harris details early on in the book of what it was like growing up in an ultra-conservative, god-fearing family who doesn't think twice of putting a picket sign in the hands of a child in front of an abortion clinic. As she grows up, her ideals change, and while God is still some part of who she is, she turns liberal in her politics.

Harris brings great writing with her book, with some sprinkling throughout of different bible quotes and the quotes of different people of literature. It is obvious the has at least some disdain for the way that she was brought up. In my opinion, she leaves a poor image in the mind of the reader of the 'religious fanatics' who were with her as a youth. As she grows up, she finds that what she was taught as a child isn't so black and white - the right side isn't always right and the left side isn't always bad.

In the end of the book she writes "Looking back on the years the changed me from someone carrying a George W. Bush tote bag to someone protesting corporate greed, from someone who wept with joy at the national anthem to someone who could no longer sing it withoug a pang of loss," which makes me wonder if she thinks the 'bible thumpers' of her youth, and even her family, were all wrong to begin with, and she and her liberal ideals are now right. As an adult, she is entitled to her opinion, even if it differs from her parents.

Book Information:

• Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith From Politics; by Alisa Harris


• WalterBrook Press; 2011


• ISBN13: 9780307729668


• Paperback; 230 pages

Disclosure: This book was provided to the author by the publisher. Any opinions are the author's own.

Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith from Politics is available through Amazon.