The Unlikely Disciple

The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, by Kevin Roose

I was happy to see this book come across the donation table, because it's been on my wishlist of "books to get around to checking out of the library" for a while.  And it was a really interesting book to read; I liked Roose and his project.

Kevin Roose was a perfectly average freshman at Brown University in Rhode Island.  Evidently he also had a job doing assistance to A. J. Jacobs, the guy who makes a living by doing a project for a year and then writing a book about it -- living according to ancient Jewish law, reading the Encyclopedia Britannica, and so on.  When Roose, in the course of his job, visited an evangelical church and met some students from Liberty University, he decided to do his own project.  Lots of his friends did study abroad trips to Europe to learn about other cultures, but here was a much more alien culture right on his own doorstep.  Why not spend a semester 'studying abroad' at Liberty?

In order to do so, Roose had to go undercover.  He'd grown up a Quaker in very liberal Oberlin, and he'd have to pass as, at least, a fairly convervative Evangelical.  I liked how Roose wrestled with the realities of living a double life.

Roose also had to work out just what his project was.  To his credit, he vowed not to use his semester to take cheap shots at fundamentalists; he wanted to get to know this world from the inside and understand the culture, the beliefs, and the human beings.  He was imagining some pretty stereotyped stuff, and of course when he got there, he found that Liberty students were just people.

I also liked how hard Roose tried to really participate in this new-to-him society.  He joined a church choir.  He went to activities, and he tried to live like the other students, with dedicated Bible study and prayer time, and I think he tried to be honest about the effects that had on him.  At the same time, he was constantly trying to figure out how to navigate this world, that had a lot of elements he couldn't agree with or that were distressing to him.  At the same time as that, he was seeing some things that were really neat, like the close friendships in his dorm that seemed to go deeper than what he was used to, and people sharing more of their difficulties and supporting each other.

So the whole thing is pretty fascinating.  I couldn't help mentally comparing it with what it might be like to do such a thing at an LDS university -- what would that book be like? -- but I also realized right away that it wouldn't be the same project.  A writer wouldn't be able to go undercover in that way, but at the same time, I'm not sure he'd need to.

One of my favorite bits, from near the beginning (trimmed for length):

Last week, I was walking to the gym with Zipper, my ultra-happy next-door neighbor.  Zipper told me about his most recent prayer walk, and the thoughts is had inspired...
While Zipper was talking, I was trying to figure out why he was  giving me this spiritual soliloquy.  Was it because he didn't think I was saved?  What was he playing at here?
In the last few days, though, I've learned that at Liberty, it's perfectly socially acceptable to pour your soul out to everyone withing earshot.  There's no such thing as TMI.