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Kevin Roose went undercover at Liberty University for his new exposé about the dorm life of evangelicals. Jo Piazza talks to school chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. about why he’s turning the other cheek and still hopes to save Roose’s immortal soul.
Jerry Falwell Jr., chancellor of the world’s largest evangelical Christian college, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, will not be reading the undercover memoir of life at his school that's hitting bookstores this week. But he won’t exactly be boycotting Kevin Roose’s An Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University anytime soon. In fact, Falwell’s quiet acceptance of the tell-all seems to signal a quiet breach of the cultural divide between the Christian right and the rest of America.
Falwell, a University of Virginia-trained lawyer, left the job of reading Roose’s book up to his wife, Becki, who filled him in on what she thought he needed to know. And after her review, Falwell doesn’t have any plans to take to the pulpit and preach against a book that uncovers what life as a Christian soldier in training at a school referred to as “Bible Boot camp” is really like. Of course, that doesn’t mean he is going to be recommending it to his friends, either.
While most of them planned to get married before college graduation, at least one of Roose’s new pals was intent on losing his virginity before marriage.
“We will not promote the book, but we will not discourage anyone from reading it,” says Falwell Jr., who took over as Liberty University chancellor after his father Jerry Falwell Sr., founder of the Moral Majority, passed away in 2007. “Barnes & Noble operates the campus bookstore. I am sure students will be able to order the book, but I am unsure whether they will stock it.”
The Unlikely Disciple. By Kevin Roose. 336 pages. Grand Central Publishing. $24.99.
That’s a far cry from some of the more volatile reactions Falwell Jr.’s late father had during his three decades of clashes with secular America. In his more famous statements, the senior Falwell said that if you weren’t a born-again Christian, you were a “failure as a human being,” and blamed civil libertarians, homosexuals, and feminists for the terror attacks of September 11.
In fact, Liberty’s reaction to Roose’s book seems to be one of tepid acceptance and encouragement instead of the expected reactionary outrage.
“We appreciate Kevin’s fairness to Liberty. I think he did an excellent job. No college president can be expected to like every part of any book about his/her school but, all in all, I think the book will give outsiders a better understanding about what Liberty University is all about,” Falwell Jr., told The Daily Beast.
While most college students spend a semester backpacking through Europe, taking advantage of lax drinking laws and all-night Eastern European discos, Roose embedded himself in the Liberty crowd, and took courses in creationism, Evangelism 101 and the Old Testament. He spent his Spring Break with his fellow students in Daytona Beach proselytizing to drunken revelers (most of whom would have been his old buddies at Brown). Now back at the liberal-arts school, Roose’s Spring Break plans are a little different this year. He plans to practice Guitar Hero in his sweatpants for most of the break.
He got the idea for his book while working as an intern for Esquire magazine’s editor-at large A.J. Jacobs, while Jacobs was working on his own book, The Year of Living Biblically. Roose showed up on Jacobs’ doorstep one day asking to be his lackey, and so Jacobs got to test out a law in the Bible that allows a man to have his own personal slave. While working with Jacobs, Roose visited Liberty and was fascinated by their sports teams, their award-winning debate team, and of course, the students’ faith. For Roose, it was the equivalent of an US Weekly spread. Evangelicals—they’re just like us!
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Paul Schrodt is a writer living in New York City. He has contributed to New York magazine, Radar, and Esquire.com.
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Johanna Piazza wrote the Full Disclosure column for the New York Daily News. A Masters candidate in Religious Studies at NYU, she has contributed to the New York Times, Glamour, Blender, and is a regular contributor to CNN.
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Johanna Piazza wrote the Full Disclosure column for the New York Daily News. A Masters candidate in Religious Studies at NYU, she has contributed to the New York Times, Glamour, Blender, and is a regular contributor to CNN.
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Johanna Piazza wrote the Full Disclosure column for the New York Daily News. A Masters candidate in Religious Studies at NYU, she has contributed to the New York Times, Glamour, Blender, and is a regular contributor to CNN.
Martyz42
Bad lawyers are dis-barred, bad doctors have their licenses revoked, sad that brain washing schools can't be sort of dumped from any list of schools that are considered places of learning or institutions of knowledge & called what they are, just brain washing clinics for the weak & stupid brains that are otherwise called Confederate religious right wing republican stooges of the future.
Hawnzz
What really irritates me is that certain Christians seem to think that all of Christianity agrees with them. We don't. We all sin and fall short of the glory of God. Anyone know where that is from? (Hint... Bible) Do you really think that Jerry Faldwell will stand before his maker and spewing bile...("failure as a human being," and blamed civil libertarians, homosexuals, and feminists for the terror attacks of September 11.) and that the good Lord won't have something to say about it? If you have not love, you are but a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal. Sound familiar...? (Hint... 1 Corithians 13)
penscott
"sad that brain washing schools can't be sort of dumped from any list of schools that are considered places of learning or institutions of knowledge"
That is a severe but correct description of the Ivy League,
Berkeley, UCLA, etc.
jeansam
I'm impressed that the young man could write this book and not offend the folks at the school. That shows great maturity and grace.
CWCoulter
Most Christians believe in "original sin" and especially that all "fall short of the grace of God." This is a sawhorse of the faith and nothing new. However, in typical fashion, the media takes the most notorius moments, like Falwell's ridiculous 9-11 assertion, which granted deserved its moment to be maligned - it was a terrile thing to say and non-representative of Christianity - and heaps them onto the public.
Why? Conflict is more interesting. Demonize and you don't have to deal with it. Both sides are guilty of this.
So, no dialogue can ever be achieved. Are there shrill, blaming Christians?
Yes, of course.
Are there members of the American left who state terrible things - Lawrence Summers on women and math; Howard Dean on confederate flags; all the Democratic support for the Iraq War - yes, of course.
If we're ever going to get anywhere, we'll open this discourse in a meaningful way. DId you know many Evangelicals believe in Evolution? Really, it's nice to see nuance added to the portrait.
sonofloud
The words religion and university should never be together unless it's a class on mythology.
cook1974
I love reading about Christian asceticism! It's like watching poodles jump through hoops. Can't wait to read it!
Hawnzz
CWCoulter,
You are absolutely right. But two wrongs don't make a right. (I hate cliches... but I couldn't think of another way to say it.) And frankly, I expect more from those that should "know better". If you believe in who Jesus was and what he stood for... there should at least be some evidence. "How you treat the least of these is how you treat me." Remember that one?
I believe in evolution, not the religion of evolution.. but the scientific process. Evolution means the random adaptation to environmental change. I just find it rather humourous that God created the world in 6 days... didn't he create day on night on the third day? Hmmm..... but this is another discussion altogether. lol
Nikki11
Exceptional article.... very fascinating.
misha1000
Show me a Christian, and I'll show you a bigot.
finderj
Religion and faith are two distinctly separate things. One can practice religion and haven't a clue about authentic faith. One can practice faith and have trouble with most organized religion.
Fanatics of any stripe, of any ilk, are problems to those of us who prefer reasoned discourse and courteous disagreement to screaming, slogans, and jihadism.
kokuaguy
misha1000 ---
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. .... A bigot? Really?
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
DavidBarron
faux-liest. Hohoho.
...sorry.
Anyways, if you can believe in something without anybody else having to believe in it, and if it doesn't negatively affect somebody else, and especially if it helps somebody else via charity and general niceness...go for it. Otherwise you've got a bad belief and are wrong in every way.
Jwayne54
David,
If nobody else has to believe in it, how likely is it that it even remotely relates to any truth but your own?
Thank you.
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