The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
No drinking.No smoking.No cursing.No dancing.No R-rated movies.Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student...
show more
No drinking.No smoking.No cursing.No dancing.No R-rated movies.Kevin Roose wasn't used to rules like these. As a sophomore at Brown University, he spent his days drinking fair-trade coffee, singing in an a cappella group, and fitting right in with Brown's free-spirited, ultra-liberal student body. But when Roose leaves his Ivy League confines to spend a semester at Liberty University, a conservative Baptist school in Lynchburg, Virginia, obedience is no longer optional.Liberty is the late Reverend Jerry Falwell's "Bible Boot Camp" for young evangelicals, his training ground for the next generation of America's Religious Right. Liberty's ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a forty-six-page code of conduct that regulates every aspect of their social lives. Hoping to connect with his evangelical peers, Roose decides to enroll at Liberty as a new transfer student, leaping across the God Divide and chronicling his adventures in this daring report from the front lines of America's culture war.His journey takes him from an evangelical hip-hop concert to choir practice at Falwell's legendary Thomas Road Baptist Church. He experiments with prayer, participates in a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds), and pays a visit to Every Man's Battle, an on-campus support group for chronic masturbators. He meets pastors' kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell's life. Hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking, THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE will inspire and entertain believers and nonbelievers alike.
show less
Format: hardcover
ISBN:
9780446178426 (044617842X)
Publish date: March 26th 2009
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Pages no: 324
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Humor,
Autobiography,
Memoir,
Biography,
Book Club,
Religion,
Christian,
Biography Memoir,
Christianity,
Spirituality
In this book Kevin Roose charts his journey as a transfer student at Liberty University (“Bible Boot Camp” according to Liberty’s founder Reverend Jerry Falwell). Roose is from a quintessential liberal family. His parents are Quakers and the family’s church activity was limited. He has two lesbian...
I have to give him credit. Going into it I thought it would be more biased than it actually was. He did a great job of separating himself from what he already knew and trying to understand the things he didn't. I don't know if I could have been so forgiving to some of the things he witnessed. Also I...
Started reading this last night and I am enjoying it. I'll offer a more in-depth review after I finish this.
I'm a little torn on how to rate this. I thought about giving it five stars because I thought it was so well done for such a young man. (After all, I have a mental stack of books I've promised myself I would write, and I'm twice his age.) I decided I wouldn't tack on the bonus points for age.I th...
I loved this book! As a former fundamentalist Christian myself I felt like I was able to appreciate both sides of the story, and the grey areas, and even the compelling craziness of hyper-conservative Christianity.