Raised Right by Alisa Harris
Posted by blueraindrop on January 19, 2012
Raised Right by Alisa Harris is the latest book that I’ve received from Waterbrook Multnomah for reviewing.
The book is essentially the memoirs of a girl who was raised in one of the segments of Christian culture that is activist oriented.
She tells a lot of stories about her life, as she was involved even as a young child with abortion protests and all sorts of political activities for the Republican party… because that’s what God would have them do.
She then details her transition to adult life in college, and the issues that came up when she became disillusioned with the choices of politicians, and had to discover for herself where politics ended and where Christianity really stood.
Was it even possible to be both a Christian and a democrat? Or even to go as far as to be both a Christian and pro-life, to believe both that abortion is a sin and to still believe that women should be allowed to choose that sin?
She also discusses some of the darker encounters with the church… including her home church staging an intervention because they believed she should drop out of college and focus on forming a family rather than feminist things like career… and an encounter with a pastor who disagree with something that she’d written on her personal page online, who decided to then recruit people to put pressure on her employer about it.
The book is a really interesting read… and I regret to say, I totally know some Christians like those she deals with at various stages.
I guess in a way, I’m a little surprised that she wrote the book. Partially because I expect she’ll be seeing more encounters with jerks in the name of Christ over it’s contents. Because I imagine they’d be offended, as that sort tends to be fairly easily.
But also a bit because I wonder how much it will be more of a tool of those who oppose Christianity than a tool to help those who’ve grown to confuse God with politics and issues. There are some examples of sane and reasonable Christians in the book… but to a non-believer reading it, the impression would probably be more along the lines of “See, Christians are jerks and really it’s just politics using the guise of religion.”
While that’s probably fair for some… I guess I just wish that she’d made the distinction more that the vast majority of Christians are not these jerks.
