Book Review: "The Unlikely Disciple"

I just finished (finally) Kevin Roose's book The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University (Kindle Edition). I've been working through it for over a month now, not because it's a boring read (it is rather fascinating) but probably because I try to read too many books at once and I also have it on the Kindle for iPhone, which means I'm too busy playing with other applications to read.

There are lots of guys in the evangelical world who have reviewed this book and I don't intend to tread on their thoughts. For me, this book was noteworthy for both good and bad reasons. First, the good.

Kevin Roose, who in the book is a 19-year-old college sophomore at Brown University, decides to transfer to Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, in order to "infiltrate" their world. He had an earlier experience with some Liberty students that piqued his interest and, against the advice of his family and secular friends, he dives headfirst into the 2007 spring semester there. I was impressed with Roose's even-handedness with all that he saw and experienced at Liberty. He admittedly went in with a biased mindset against evangelical believers but was able to lay that aside to truly get to know the students and the faculty at Liberty. True, he was deceiving everyone there by pretending to be an evangelical himself (his weekend indoctrination into evangelical Christianity prior to transferring included everything from C. S. Lewis to Veggie Tales) yet it didn't take him long to realize that the students at Liberty were, for the most part, not too much different than regular college students, minus the party scene.

His treatment of Jerry Falwell (who died right as his semester was ending and prompted him to stick around an extra week to go to the funeral) surprised even himself. It turns out that Roose was the last person to interview Rev. Falwell via the print media before his death (an assignment that he was granted the privilege of writing for the school newspaper) and his experience was so positive that it bothered him. He, along with most of those outside of evangelical circles and many within, have long vilified Falwell and, while Roose did not agree at all with what Falwell stood for, he still admired him for his unwavering faith and steadiness.

Finally, Kevin Roose made many real friends at Liberty and even to this day they still keep in touch even though he deliberately deceived them for several months. He learned about prayer and it fascinated him so much that it is a practice that he still participates in several times a week. The sincere commitment to Christ that many of these students possessed truly impressed him and his "faith meter" was raised several notches as a result (although he did not "convert" and is still not sure if he believes that there is a God).

Now for the bad. As one whose life has not been changed by Jesus Christ, Kevin Roose struggles to put into words the experiences that he had while at Liberty and therefore often dumbs them down to psychology. For instance, while attending a large baptism service for Liberty students, he was greatly moved at the excitement and fervor that was being generated in the room. Feeling caught up in the excitement himself, he was able to chalk it up to some group psychological phenomenon that large groups of people were able to generate within their belief system. He did not consider the power and work of the Holy Spirit because he knows no such power.

Another negative aspect of Roose's book is his treatment of sex and homosexuality. He seems fascinated by the desire of Liberty students' desires to stay sexually pure before marriage and goes to great lengths to chronicle those few students that he was in contact with who were lax in their moral standards. It never occurred to him that sexual purity was not a matter of just saying no to sexual immorality but rather it's a response of all of us to God, who is holy and desires our own holiness as an act of worship. In regard to homosexuality, Roose was exposed to daily doses of gay bashing and the word "fag" was thrown around like it was a kid's toy. This stung him deeply since he has an aunt who is gay, yet even though the crude language he encountered was inexcusable, Roose was rather caustic in his dismissal of those who viewed homosexuality as a sin. To him, if you declare homosexuality as a sin then you are evil in your thinking and dangerous in your religion.

In the end Kevin Roose transfers back to Brown University and resumes the life that he left behind. He did carry with him some of his habits of prayer and many fond memories of his experiences with the Liberty community, but overall his life was not radically changed. He simply cannot reconcile that there is a belief among Christians that the only path to salvation is through Jesus Christ and so he rejects that view. Overall, the book is well written and is very fair toward Liberty University and its students. For those who are believers who wish to read this book, it will have moments in it that will serve to remind us of Whom it is that we serve and that there are parts of our belief systems (i.e., how we treat those who are not like us and who are lost) that could use a little cleaning up.