Raised Right

So Exciting! The first post!

  

Raised Right: How I Untangled My Faith from Politics is the heart cry of Alisa Harris as she searches for truth. The tag line on the front cover really describes the book well, but is the solution to keep faith and politics separated?

Alisa wasn't shy like some homeschoolers, she was a go-get-er and loved to be in the midst of the fray. For her, politics wasn't just a passion, it was how she expressed her faith. But as she got older Alisa discovered that the people she had idolized her whole life, were actually human, and had faults. BIG ONES!

She found that she could no longer agree with the right-wing Republican party, but could she vote for a Democrat? Could she, as a christian, support a group she had been taught to despise and fight against at all cost, a group that stood against her ethics, her standards, and her faith?

The solution Alisa chose was to become a Christian Democrat. It was an odd combination. Most people couldn't understand where she was coming from.

Though Alisa was a christian, other believers rejected her, or worse spat in her face. Where was the Love that Christians are supposed to be known for? The kind that the Bible talks about in John 15:13
where it says “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”

Or 1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, that He [Jesus] laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Alisa didn't find it in the Church, so she had to go somewhere else.

I disagree with Alisa's solution. In my opinion, our faith needs to dictate our politics. Others should be able to see what we believe by watching how we act. If our worldview and thinking is aligned with the Bible, our actions will be loving, and will honor the Lord. Changing the standard is NOT the solution, changing the heart attitude is!

Coming away from this book I felt challenged to evaluate how I, as a christian, react to people around me who do not hold the same standards or worldview that I do. I have often felt disgusted by the way some teens I know act and dress. This is wrong. Condemning others is the attitude that repulsed Alisa. It has no place in the heart of the Christian.

Pick up a copy of this book and read it. I hope it changes the way you look at those who hold 'different standards' or don't 'measure up'. I would rate this book 3 stars out of 5.

(Disclaimer:I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review, every opinion expressed here in is my own.)