Rolling Stone Publishes an Excerpt from TESTIMONY

The Rolling Stone excerpt is largely from Chapter 11 of my book TESTIMONY. It begins with the story of my family’s reaction to Sarah Palin in 2008, and my trip to the Republican convention that year. 

It also documents how in 2008, some past leaders at my childhood church, such as Lou Engle, were becoming more political and partisan, and using Old Testament archetypes to sacralize Palin much the way they would do so again in 2016 to Donald Trump. 

And it traces the way that I was beginning to diverge from my family in the way I thought about and analyzed politics. My years of training in journalism were building a skepticism that wasn’t cynicism but which helped me think more critically of parties and politicians.