Book- The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester At America's Holiest University

I just finished this one.

Kevin Roose was a student at Brown University. His friends were going off to Europe and Asia to do foreign studies. Where did Kevin go? Liberty University. It was nearby and to a boy with an ultra-liberal, Quaker background what could be more foreign than the center of Evangelical Christian Conservatism? So he enrolled for a semester. What followed was a personal enlightenment about a lot of things. Kevin Roose also had the last print interview with Jerry Falwell.

I cant really recommend this book to people because it really isnt that good. The writing is flat and often amateurish, but Roose was nineteen. That in consideration, the writing isnt so bad.

What this book does, though, is to make us think. As Roose examines his own preconceptions and those of the people around him, we begin to look at our own. It's an interesting thing for a guy like me. I didnt have any epiphanies about my views of others, but I did have to question my motivations and attitudes toward them.

You know me. I try not to let preconceptions or stereotypes get in the way. But this book showed me how others might be seeing me. That brought me up short.

The kids in Roose's dorm were normal Christian kids, but they were also reflective of contemporary attitudes among the believers of America. There's a lot of going-through-the-motions Christianity here, and we think it's okay. We seem to have accepted the idea that hard work and a little help from "the Man upstairs" is what it's all about. Where's the chapter and verse for that?

This young man spent a full semester surrounded by young Christians and well seasoned, mature Bible teachers, but he still felt comfortable going back to his old life.

Depending on which side of the Salvation line you come down on, you have to either cheer or step back and re-evaluate.