RAISED RIGHT IS RIGHT ON

Waterbrook Multnomah has been graciously providing me with books free for more than a year now.  The only stipulation is that I provide them with a fair and honest review of each book.  Alisa Harris’s Raised Right How I Untangled My Faith From Politics is the most recent.  I have put off writing this review for several weeks now because I am conflicted about what I have to say about it. 

All of the books that I request from Waterbrook are non-fiction and many of them tend to lean politically left or right.  When this is the case I have noticed a pattern with my reviews.  Since I tend to lean left, the books that lean left get a good review and the books that lean right get a negative review.  This is far from objective and the lack of objectivity troubles me.  So there you have somewhat of a disclaimer—because the book leans left the review will be favorable. 

With all of that said, I am looking forward to the book that leans left that I do not like and the book that leans right that I absolutely love just to be able to show that I can, in fact, be objective.  Raised Right, despite the irony with the title, however, is not that book.

Raised Right is Harris’s memoir—something quite strange or unique for someone who, from what I can gather, has yet to begin her thirties!  Despite being young, Harris spews forth wisdom that many twice her age lack. 

The story depicts Alisa’s life growing up in a family that was both religiously conservative and politically active.  “I had been picketing since before I could walk.  Before my parents moved to Oregon from New Mexico, they had bundled me into a carrier twice a week and hauled me and their signs to the local abortion clinic, where they paced the road across the street, praying as pregnant women walked in and empty women walked out.” (p. 13) Then the story moves on to Alisa’s college life and ends shortly after college. 

Through the transitions from home to college to post-college life Alisa weaves a narrative that demonstrates a gentle and graceful transition or reinterpretation of the conservative values that she was taught as child.

While I did not grow up in a religious home I did grow up in a conservative one.  Alisa’s story truly resonates with me.  I did not become a follower of Christ until my first year of college and my conservative upbringing certainly influenced my worldview and how I viewed my relationship with God.  At some point, like Alisa, I became disgusted with lack of love, mercy, grace and compassion as well as the hubristic adherence to religious dogma so often displayed from the religiously conservative right.  And again, like Alisa, this caused me to begin re-evaluating what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I believe that Alisa and I are both in similar places and I believe that is why I loved this book so much—it helped me feel like I am not alone.  Moreover, it reinforced the notion that it is okay, good in fact, to challenge the status quo.

For anyone raised in a religiously conservative home who struggles with its ideology I highly recommend this book!