Say Anything Blog

I just finished my review copy of The Holy Vote by Ray Suarez which I received a little less than a month ago.

When I was first offered a review copy of this book I wasn't sure if I should take it. I am, without a doubt, "on the right" when it comes to politics. I am a conservative through-and-through, but I'm not a religious person. I respect those who embrace religion, but it's just not something that's for me. I just don't care much about religious issues. But then I thought that it might be appropriate, fitting even, for someone like me who is fairly ambivalent toward both the religious crowd and the secular crowd to review a book like this.

So I accepted the book and read it, and I've got to say that I'm pretty disappointed with it.

Looking at the jacket cover of the book, from the front cover to the description of the book on the inside flap to the bio of the author on the back flap, it is made clear that Mr. Suarez is a journalist. He works for The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, we are told. Suarez is a senior correspondent with that program, even. We are made to feel that this book will be an objective study of religion in politics. Words like "examine," "explore" and "hands-on journalism" are used on the jacket cover to convince the reader that the book is an objective work produced by a dispassionate observer.

Unfortunately, this sense of objectivity dies in Suarez's first chapter.

Suarez goes to great lengths to highlight his personal spirituality and to appear as though he is presenting both sides of religion in politics, but in reality he may as well have titled this book How Holy-Rolling Red Staters Are Ruining This Country Because They Won't Shut Up.

To be fair, Suarez does try to be equitable, but usually he ends up describing contentious, religion-orientated issues as being contentious because the religious folks are unreasonable. According to Suarez abortion is contentious because religious folks won't check their moral objections to the practice at the door, not because the pro-abortion crowd are demanding that children be allowed to get abortions without having to tell their parents (among other things). To hear Suarez tell it, the gay marriage issue is contentious because the religious folks won't recognize that homosexuals have a "right" to marry not because the gay activists won't recognize that the citizens of a state have a right to define what civil unions the government licenses.

Suarez has an agenda in this book, and that agenda is to make the "religious right" (who he clearly sees as political opponents) look like pig-headed fools.

If Suarez wants to write a book critical of religious right-wingers I have no problem with that. I'd probably agree with a lot of what he has to say on the subject as I certainly found myself nodding in agreement with a couple of passages in this book, but Holy Vote wasn't advertised as a criticism of the religious right. It was advertised as an objective "exploration" of religion in politics by a reporter. This book is not objective at all, which is exactly why it is a disappointment.

If you're looking for a critique of the religious right by all means buy this book, but if you're looking for an even-handed exploration of religion in politics you'd be better off with a different author.