The Unlikely Disciple

A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University

By: Kevin Roose

Narrated by: Kevin Roose

Length: 11 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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 10,000 undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a 46-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.

©2009 Kevin Roose (P)2010 Hachette

Critic reviews

"Kevin Roose has produced a textured, intelligent, even sympathetic, account of his semester at Liberty University. He eschews caricature and the cheap shot in favor of keen observation and trenchant analysis. The Unlikely Disciple is a book of uncommon wisdom and insight. I recommend it with enthusiasm." (The Rev. Dr. Randall Balmer, Episcopal Priest and Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University)

Open-minded and honest

At first I was cynical that the premise to this book could be fleshed out without a whole bunch of misunderstandings and misrepresentation of "religious folk", but Roose does a tremendous job of detailing the spiritual and social spectra of the evangelical community. Spending a semester at Liberty College, the Brigham Young University of the evangelical world, Roose throws himself into life of a Liberty student 100% and comes away sharing a refreshingly open-minded, if not Christ-like account of these experiences.

Now, a warning, this book handles controversial and sensitive subjects which may not be suitable for younger readers, but Roose handles these topics in respectful yet interesting ways. I think any person would come away from this book with a greater desire to love and know those that don't believe as they do. It's inspiring to say the least.

Roose does an excellent job narrating, and you come away wanting to hang out with the guy and all his Liberty Friends.

Excellant! Loved it alll!

As a Christian I was drawn by the thought of a non Christian at a VERY Christian school. I expected this to be a bashing, but Kevin Roose really took his work seriously and approached this book with a open mind, an open notebook and trully put his heart, feelings into this work. It was real, no long section on Christian bashing just the truth. Awsome, emotional, and I just could not put it down. Thank you for such a great book

Sad ending for me....

I believe this book should be a must read for every person who calls themself a Christian. There is no formula, or answers as to how become a devoted follower of Christ, in this book. But Kevin Roose could tell the difference if you were or were not one.
I really enjoyed the friendships he made along the way, and the care his own family showed while he was at Liberty.
His genuine care for his classmates was what got to my heart! You must read this book, to at least see how it ends. We as believers might spend less time with the SHOW, and more of the matters of the heart!
Good Book!!!

LOVED IT

It's just like being a foreign exchange student in your own country. Eye-opening and unexpectedly humorous.

Good book

I think you will be impressed with this book as I was to think that the writer is a pretty young guy. He is a witness to the Falwell empire and has the luck to have the last interview with him. I really liked that he read his own book. Kevin Roose doesn't seem to have much regret that he misled his LIberty friends while it was happening, which I found hard to believe, though.he does return to campus sometime later and 'fesses up. You will come away with the feeling that you never knew such places existed, although I have since learned that Brigham Young has similar restrictions. Easy, fast listen which is always good!

Great

The author did a good job to help us better understand the christian right movement. How it changed him by being there. The authors beliefs were constantly challanged while he was there. I think it made him a different person when hel left. Reading this book made me change the way I think about the christian right. Good book.

My judgment is probably as harsh as the author’s should have been

He takes it way too easy on the ultimate “us vs them” group that it is high time we stopped pretending is not a cult. Christianity is truly a bizarre death cult.
Besides that, book comes off as a puff piece at worst and a softball approach at journalism at best.

Who says participant observation is dead?

Kevin Roose thinks a lot about the ethics of passing himself off as an evangelical Christian at Liberty University--enough at least to work himself up into a lather over the deception. His moral quandary lurks behind most of his account, sometimes peeking its head through the curtains and sometimes just creating uncomfortable contours in the background. Either way, it is this dilemma that produces the novel's most interesting--and at turns, the most annoying--motif: Is lying to people about your identity wrong?

Roose spends much of his time in full hand-wringing mode, describing his internal agony at deceiving his fellow students. Then, in a flash, he forgives himself, claiming that his falsifications were the only way to get a 'true' picture of life at Liberty. Either way, this book is not about Falwell, Liberty University, or evangelicals, it is about Kevin Roose locked away in a Virginian Elsinore, trying to pass himself off as a born-again Christian. And quite frankly, the schtick gets boring within the first 50 pages.