Newspapers / Q-notes (Charlotte, N.C.) / April 4, 2009, edition 1 / Page 18
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Q - L I V I N G YOUR ONLINE CULTURAL ACTIVITY RESOURCE FOR EVERYTHING. EXCEPT BOREDOM. CharlotteCultureGuide.com Visit here for creativity, wonder and inspiration. A Project of ARTS a SCIENCE COUNCIL “AN ELLE OF A SHOW! ” -Time Magazine HURRY! great seats are STILL AVAIlABlfl LON DE. APRIL 21-26* OVENS AUDITORIUM 704.372.1000 • BlumenthaiCenter.org ” Group Soles: 704.379.1380 i*e' The Unlikely Disciple The student who went undercover at Liberty University talks about Christian education, conservative views oh homosexuality, and why the **God divide" is overblown by Bradley Portnoy. CampusProgress.org ASC j B y all appearances, Kevin Roose is your typical Brown University sen ior. He's an English major, sings in an a cappella group and was raised as a Quaker in the kjpd of family where having two lesbian aunts is no big deal. But, instead of the typical junior year study-abroad trip to Europe or Africa, Roose took a semester off from Brown to enroll in Liberty University, the world's largest evangeli cal university. Founded in the 1970s by controversial pastor jerry Falwell (also respon sible for founding the conservative lobby group Moral Majority), Liberty is known as much for its strict rules (no drinking, no dancing, and no kiss ing — not even on the cheek) as it is for its agenda-driven academ ics. Liberty teaches evolu tion in its biology depart ment (necessary for accreditation), but all students are required to take courses teach ing young earth creationism. When spring break rolls around. Liberty students hit the beaches like everyone else — but the/re there to proselytize, not party. Roose dove head first into what Falwell once described as "Bible boot camp," liv ing like any other evangelical Christian stu dent. When people on the Liberty campus asked him why he had left Brown to enroll there, he told them he wanted to see what a Christian college was like. This was the. truth, but his motives went beyond that. Roose took notes on his experience every night and his new book, "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University," already on shelves, tells his story of a semester spent at Liberty. Campus Progress recently spoke with Roose about his time at Liberty, the chal lenges of returning to Brown after a semester of piety and how his parents reacted to his "semester abroad." The book follows you through an entire semester spent at Liberty University and in the end you come away with a surprisingly favorable impression. Going in, were you expecting to receive Liberty so posi tively or did you find yourself sur prised by the outcome? I really had no idea what to expect at Liberty, since I grew up and lived my whole life in a secular, liberal bubble. All I had to work with were my preconceived notions of Falwell-style conservative Christianity. So, it was completely surpris ing to discover that most Liberty students are perfectly normal kids and that a lot of them spend their days watching judd Apatow movies, gossiping about girls and complaining about the amount of home work they have — the same things my friends at Brown do. I was expecting a col lege full of students who spent their free time sewing Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls and penning angry letters to the ACLU. One of the major issues that you have with Liberty and its students' views is their intoierance for homosexuaii- ty. At Brown you have a number of gay friends and even went so far as to share a room with one of them before leav ing for Liberty. Were there ever times that you nearly spoke out against some of the comments that you heard (or even an instance where you did that did n't make it into the book)? With that issue, I was in a pretty tough position since I couldn't really speak my mind without revealing myself as an outsider. But, as 1 got to know the guys on my hall, I did start to pipe up during discussions about homosexuality. I'd say things like, 'Tou know, some people think the Bible doesn't forbid same-sex relationships at all." And, of course, my hallmates would mostly roll their eyes and keep talking. But, a few of them actually seemed open to the possibility, so I felt good about that. Baby steps, you know? Your parents were apprehensive about your project going In — what have their reactions been to the changes Liberty brought about in you? "Apprehensive" is a bit of an understate ment. They flat-out hated the idea of me studying at jerry Falwell's college when I first brought it up. They used to work for italph Nader, after all. But, I think they came to understand my motives for want ing to do it and they supported me even though they were worried that I'd be changed permanently by the experience. Now, I think the/re just happy it's over. Even though you changed the names and ident^ing details of everyone in the book, you still spent a semes ter deceiving them about your true mission at Liberty. Were there any concerns going in about the ethics involved in your project? Of course. It was unbelievably hard to keep certain parts of my identity shielded from public view and it only got harder as I grew closer to my Liberty friends. But, I decided early on that I wanted to see the real picture of Christian college life and that required being seen as an insider. 1 did make a few rules for myself going into the project, one of which was that I'd do as lit tle lying as possible. So, I told people I came from Brown and when they asked see Author on 20 18 APRIL 4.2009 *ftNotes
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