The Unlikely Disciple

The hilarious and heartwarming, respectful and thought-provoking memoir of a college student’s semester at Liberty University, the “Bible Boot Camp” for young evangelicals, that will inspire believers and nonbelievers alike. 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 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 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, 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 a spring break mission trip to Daytona Beach (where he learns to preach the gospel to partying coeds). He meets pastors’ kids, closet doubters, Christian rebels, and conducts what would be the last print interview of Rev. Falwell’s life.