Unlikely Disciple
Kevin Roose’s unholy semester at Liberty University.
Written by Filed under Arts & Entertainment, Life
Photo by Jeremiah Guelzo.
Before Kevin Roose enrolled at the world’s largest evangelical university he didn’t know any evangelical Christians, save for one. He didn’t even really know God. But that didn’t stop the “practically religion free” Brown University sophomore from taking a semester’s leave to subject himself to Bible Boot Camp at Liberty University, the bastion of higher education founded by the late Reverend Jerry Falwell. On campus in Lynchburg, Virginia, Roose engrossed himself in classes like Evangelism 101, History of Life, and Old Testament Survey, at the same time acclimating to a social scene regulated by “The Liberty Way,” a forty-six-page code of conduct.
While Roose expected to meet a student body dominated by angry, intolerant zealots, he discovered that the Lukes, Matthews, and Pauls he encountered were—more or less—like any other 21st century college students. In other words, in between prayer groups and Bible study they gossiped, complained about exams, and whiled away the hours on Facebook and MySpace. But what really surprised Roose is that after a few months of palling around with his spiritually intense classmates and “experimenting” with prayer, he began to enjoy—or at least appreciate—living a Christ-centered university life.
These days Roose, 21, is back at Brown, but Liberty is never far from his mind. Last month Grand Central Publishing released his book “The Unlikely Disciple,” which chronicles his 13-week immersion experience—a journey highlighted by his interview with Rev. Falwell for the campus newspaper The Liberty Champion.
Failure interviewed Roose to get his impressions of Falwell, to find out why he crossed the so-called God Divide, and to see if he made it back to the other side.
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