I am every partisan politician's worst nightmare--a registered independent, says journalist Marcia Ford. Wildly unpredictable in my voting habits over the last three decades, I have cast ballots for Democrats, Republicans, independents and assorted loose cannons.

In We the Purple, Ford describes and interprets her fellow Purple voters--independents who are neither Republican red nor Democratic blue. Through dozens of interviews with independent voters and candidates, politicians, political observers and activists of many stripes, she explains how these citizens eschew partisan politics, guided instead by their core values, their faith, and their experience.

Purple voters won't settle for the one or two issues identified for them by politicians, lobbyists, or religious leaders. It's a slippery voting bloc for politicians and pundits to get a handle on--they have no allegiance to party and no partisan ideology to uphold. If officeholders they help elect don't do something to fix what needs fixing, independents have no reason to ever vote for them again.

Many Christians, like Ford, are independent voters, and she examines how faith influences their unaffiliated political stance. Many Christian independents feel disenfranchised and unwelcome at churches if they are not in agreement with the prevailing political views. As paradoxical as the image may seem, if Christians remained morally centered, their votes could swing all along the political spectrum. And that include the votes of prominent Christian leaders, Ford says. If religion is to play a prophetic role in the culture and in the political process, then people of faith need the freedom to speak prophetic wordsopenly, without fear of repercussion or losing face, Ford says.

Marcia Ford is a seasoned journalist, editor, and author. She was a reporter and editor at the Asbury Park Press in New Jersey, editor of Christian Retailing magazine, and associate editor at Charisma and Ministries Today. In addition to editing nearly one hundred books, she is the author of twenty books, including Finding Hope, Traditions of the Ancients, The Sacred Art of Forgiveness, Memoir of a Misfit, and with Scott Marshall, Restless Pilgrim: The Spiritual Journey of Bob Dylan. She lives with her family in Colorado

"In the same what-you-see-is-what-you-get voice that fans of Diary of a Misfit got to know and love, Ford gives a personal overview of the misunderstood, ill-defined estimated 42 percent of American voters known as Independents. In her informal, conversational way, she not only offers a peek at the trajectory she followed to independent political thinking, but provides a map through the maze of organizations, blogs, movements and philosophies of her fellow Purples. The insights of an eclectic representation of such folk, ranging in age from 23 to 87, illustrate the diversity of voters unwilling to toe a party line. A woman of faith, Ford dislikes any pigeonholing of her politics based solely on her religious beliefs. If anything disappoints about this highly accessible must-read for anyone feeling lost in the current political process, it's the lack of a formal conclusion, which feels a bit like Ford went to refill her cup and forgot to come back to the table. Still, elected officials should make this required reading, as should political independents." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"We the Purple" educates and motivates the reader to have their ???vote??? and political action informed by their faith. "We the Purple" speaks to the voter who is not mindlessly aligned with one political party or another, but who analyzes each issue through a Christian worldview lens. Issues and faith determine how these people vote. The media has labeled this to be the independent voter??'s election, and this book is here just in time!

Ford educates and motivates the reader to have their vote and political action informed by their faith rather than by one political party or another.