PRINTFrom Brown to republican red
Kevin Roose takes a break from Brown University to spend a semester studying Liberty
Courtesy of Grand Central Publishing
May 27, 2009 | 12:00 p.m. CST
Several topics shouldn’t be brought up at a cocktail party. Politics, sexual preferences and religion are especially sensitive issues, as Kevin Roose learned firsthand. At age 19, Roose left his liberal haven at Brown University and traveled to the über-conservative Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va. He documented his experience in The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University. Roose, a born-and-raised Quaker, went undercover to write about the evangelical community in America in an attempt to understand and combat misconceptions associated with the people in it. The differences he encountered during his semester “abroad” are surprising, but it’s the similarities he found that are the most shocking.
Our country is made up of teams – black vs. white, red vs. blue, anti vs. pro – and these disparities create endless debates all over the United States. Kevin Roose decided to venture outside his comfort zone after he visited Liberty University, where he worked as a writer’s assistant and became infatuated with the school. Within a couple of months of his first visit, Roose applied to the school. To him, Liberty was a conservative world of no kissing, no dancing and constant prayer; a world riddled with homophobia and patriarchy. A brave endeavor for any individual, but what is even braver is that Roose completed his semester at an evangelical university with an open mind. Sure, he expected some problems throughout the semester, but his true intention was to understand this contrasting culture — not to criticize it. Understanding someone else’s religion? What a crazy concept.
The book takes readers chronologically through Roose’s semester at college, as he gains a religious perspective from his previous Quaker upbringing. He effectively uses dialogue, excerpts from school documents and bible quotes to summarize his semester in a 315-page non-fiction account, and keeps the reader’s attention until he returns to his day-to-day life. The most surprising aspect of it all might just be that the well-written novel was completed Roose’s sophomore year of college, and he is currently only a senior at Brown.
Roose immediately thrusts the reader into the evangelical setting as the book opens with a scene of him praying for his friends Dave and Wayne who are in trouble for going to a party off campus. The students at Liberty truly believe that drinking alcohol and having contact with the opposite sex takes someone further away from God. This is a hard concept for Roose to grasp, especially because he comes from the blue city of Providence, R.I.
“America’s colleges and universities, I’m sad to say, have become breeding grounds for immorality and drugs,” said the late Rev. Jerry Falwell. “And worse than that, an attitude that is anti-Christian and often anti-American.” Falwell was the founder of the school and is the name most commonly attached to these evangelical ideals. Falwell was famous for claiming that pagans, abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians were the cause of the 9/11 attacks, words that Roose references in the novel multiple times. With such accusatory claims it is hard not to read the book with some bias in mind, but Roose expertly walks the reader through both positive and negative aspects of the school.
There are many homophobic slurs, patriarchal comments and insults thrown toward atheists by the students and faculty at Liberty, which will make any progressive thinker cringe throughout the book. It may be difficult to imagine wholesome Christians making these remarks, but Roose gives both sides to every person he encounters while at Liberty. His friend Joey might overuse the word “gay” to an amazing extent, but his big heart and humor are undeniable. His roommate, Greg, might be critical and judgmental, but he embraces Roose wholeheartedly, even after Greg discovers his lack of piety. Roose battles with his coinciding principles and the new friends he makes at Liberty and he leaves the reader questioning the importance of principles along with him.
The people at Liberty are hard to categorize, mainly because their beliefs are not simple. When Roose discovers that some students at Liberty debate their own faith and devotion to God, the stereotype of the zealous evangelical is brought to a halt. The people at Liberty are just that —people. They have their own worries and struggles with their faith, and Roose’s experience brings a humanizing aspect to this issue of religion.
This might seem like a hilarious jab at one of the most talked-about sectors of Christianity, but in reality it’s a book about tolerance and acceptance. Roose’s maturity is astounding as he struggles with this shift in culture, which makes it worth the read no matter what religion you claim.
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