Comments on: Interview with Kevin Roose, Author of The Unlikely Disciple

By: Ben Donahue

Ben Donahue — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:26:17 +0000

Kevin,

Great job on the book! It brought back all sorts of good and bad memories of my time at Liberty. Good luck to you in the future and I look forward to reading more of your work!

Ben Donahue
LU class of ‘97

By: frank guilfoil

frank guilfoil — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:18:28 +0000

question for Hermant: How would anyone know if there were any gay people in the closet at Liberty?
What do you mean by undercover? Wasn’t he very much like the other students at Liberty?

By: David

David — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 00:43:38 +0000

Speaking as a former Bob Jones student (30 years ago) who has long since swung around to atheism, I’m rather surprised at not only how easily Kevin was able to enroll at Liberty, but how LBC’s student policies are practically laissez-faire compared to (the unfortunately abbreviated) BJU’s. The Jonesians might expell (”ship”) a couple caught holding hands; couples sitting in the “dating parlor” were required to maintain a safe distance of…can’t remember exactly, something on the order of 16 inches when seated side-by-side (I was up there studying once, and saw a chaperone pull out a ruler and check a couple). Hugging was strictly verboten.

The admission process included submitting a detailed account of one’s “salvation” experience. If the applicant didn’t measure up to strict fundagelical standards and practices, forget it.

Small wonder, perhaps, that back in those days, opinions of Falwell at Bob Jones hovered between heretic and antichrist.

Of course, it’s possible things have changed since then. I’ve not exactly kept up with the Jones dynasty, other than noticing that they remodeled the campus main entrance a few years ago (I’m back living in Greenville, SC again — where my wife and I started a nontheist meetup a couple years ago).

By: Amy

Amy — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:20:34 +0000

Amen Lily. Everyone says things that are idiotic, just most of us don’t get followed around with a camera all the time.

By: Lily

Lily — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:17:07 +0000

I’d never thought about what Jerry Falwell might be like in real life, but this makes me wonder how many of the nice, personable Christians I knew at Wheaton would have been just as publicly hateful as Falwell if they’d been given the chance. There were several occasions when professors or pastors whom I deeply respected surprised me by saying hurtful or discriminatory things which seemed terribly out of character.
On second thought, I don’t think this is limited to religious people. Probably many of us atheists would be shockingly hateful and hurtful too, if given the public voice. And I think some of the things that Dawkins, Dennett, and company say are probably just as hurtful to Christians as Falwell’s words are to us.

By: Tim D.

Tim D. — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:52:24 +0000

[is late to the party]

For all the ranting these Liberty U guys do about the supposed politicization of university material, they sure do have a sense for politicizing their own material.

[/is late to the party]

By: Hemant Mehta

Hemant Mehta — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 21:27:03 +0000

I would have liked to know more about how and why Kevin’s views on religion have changed from this experience. Did he find people at Liberty who were gay and in the closet? Did he ever break his cover to help someone? What was the hardest moment or moments being in cover while at Liberty? Did he find people at Liberty who were having doubts about their beliefs? I have about a million more of these.
-Staks

All are great questions and just about all of them are covered in the book. Which is why I didn’t raise them.

I tried to ask questions I didn’t get a complete answer from in the book (or the ones I thought were most interesting).

By: Staks

Staks — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 19:57:25 +0000

I am very curious to read Kevin’s book. I have an autographed copy of A.J. Jacob’s books and a great conversation with him at a bookstore signing. I do think that your questions to Kevin were kind of boring. I would have liked to know more about how and why Kevin’s views on religion have changed from this experience. Did he find people at Liberty who were gay and in the closet? Did he ever break his cover to help someone? What was the hardest moment or moments being in cover while at Liberty? Did he find people at Liberty who were having doubts about their beliefs? I have about a million more of these.
-Staks

By: efrique

efrique — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:22:39 +0000

[a fellow student] said. [...] I haven’t read a book in six, seven years. But I might read this one.” (p. 312)

This, I think, sums up everything that we would want to know about Liberty. A college student has apparently not read any books (the Bible aside, one assumes) since some time before starting college. Or I should say ‘college’.

Whatever the *@^&&*^% the student has been up to, it apparently isn’t learning.

By: faraway

faraway — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:31:23 +0000

It sounds like an interesting book, akin to Hannah Rosin’s ‘God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America’. I read an excerpt of Kevin’s book on Salon.com this weekend and it did leave me wanting to read more.

Learning that Jerry Falwell was a charmer who loved to play stinkbomb pranks on people does not make me like him more. Quite the opposite, in fact.