“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 words openly, 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