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Inside America's Holiest University
So he asked permission from a Brown dean to “study abroad” for a semester at the college. "I don't think a student has ever asked me that," the dean told Roose. "Actually, I'm sure no one has."
As the semester wore on, Roose’s view of Liberty and its students became more nuanced. He learned that soldiers for Christ weren’t all angry zealots. They gossiped about their friends and their professors. They talked about sex and drugs. 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.
It is Falwell’s contention and one major complaint that Roose spent too much of the tome focusing on what he calls, “the bad kids” at Liberty, and not enough time focusing on the “good” champions for Christ. These so-called rebels, who do feature prominently in the book, are those students who manage to sneak R-rated movies like Gladiator into their dorms, leave campus to attend a party at a nearby secular college, and admit to having a lengthy makeout session with their significant others, a strict violation of Liberty’s rules that monitor any interaction beyond handholding.
“I believe that over 90 percent of LU students try hard to comply with the behavioral code and are supportive of the school’s mission,” says Falwell. “It seemed like Kevin gave a disproportionate amount of ink to the relatively small number of who disregarded the school’s policies.”
Or maybe what Falwell was referring to when he said Roose spent too much time focusing on the “bad kids” was a section in the book that deals with Roose attending a meeting of Every Man’s Battle, a support group for chronic masturbators that, similar to other support systems like Alcoholics Anonymous, offers 24-hour support to men trying to suppress their onanastic urges.
While self-pleasure and open-mouthed kissing and watching a gory movie are infractions that wouldn’t even warrant a tongue-lashing at any other college, a violation of this magnitude at Liberty can mean a student faces expulsion.
There is no doubt that Roose’s journey through Evangelicalism is a long strange trip for anyone raised with a secular background, but what makes An Unlikely Disciple remarkable is that it doesn’t take the cheap shot or make the easy joke, like so many across the religious divide—like comedian Bill Maher, who, in his 2008 documentary Religulous, sought to “examine and satirize organized religion and religious belief.” Roose was careful to let evangelicals explain their beliefs for themselves and sometimes, to fall on their own swords. And while some of it may come across as humorous to a lay audience, unfamiliar with the ways of this particular community, Roose was never anything but fair, and on that, Falwell agrees.
This could be why Falwell and Liberty’s students haven’t given up on saving Kevin just yet. Instead of angry text messages from Liberty students pissed off at Roose’s portrayal of them in the book, Kevin gets texts from his old friends telling them they are praying for him.
“ [My dad] would make it his mission to recruit Kevin to attend seminary at LU when he finishes Brown,” Falwell says. “He would want to see Kevin become a convert and Liberty’s number one promoter. The apostle Paul had a similar experience.”
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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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.
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.
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)
"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.
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.
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.
The words religion and university should never be together unless it's a class on mythology.
I love reading about Christian asceticism! It's like watching poodles jump through hoops. Can't wait to read it!
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
Exceptional article.... very fascinating.
Show me a Christian, and I'll show you a bigot.
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.
misha1000 ---
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. .... A bigot? Really?
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
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.
David,
If nobody else has to believe in it, how likely is it that it even remotely relates to any truth but your own?
A class in Creationism? Isn't that just a one-line course that "God made the world"? Period. Hard to imagine the intellectual rigor associated with those credits.
Thank you.
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