The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner s Semester at America s Holiest University

Description

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 ten thousand undergraduates take courses like Evangelism 101, hear from guest speakers like Sean Hannity and Karl Rove, and follow a forty-six-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.