Kevin RooseRezensionen

A fascinating little book about an undergrad who enrolled for a semester at infamous Liberty University.

The author did a good job acknowledging the flaws in his undercover experiment (he's a straight white cis dude, so it was easy for him to feel comfortable in that environment). His description of becoming emotionally invested in evangelical culture makes for an interesting read. There's also the voyeuristic appeal of finding out what extreme evangelical college students are "really" like (the answer: well-meaning if deluded).

My main issue with Roose's mission is that he makes a common mistake of modern journalism - in an effort to be fair-minded and to not offend anyone, he does not take a stand on anything. He comes across as someone who lacks strong beliefs - for example, being able to sit through classes on pseudoscience and listening to hate-filled rants are mitigated by the openness and friendliness of the student body. There is a reason that people are so open and friendly - they drank the Kool Aid and now they have no reason (in fact they are discouraged from) questioning or developing an intellectual life. Which I thought was the purpose of a college education.

It would be like attending a radical muslim school that preached death to infidels and encouraged suicide bombing, and ended with the conclusion that "it wasn't so bad, the people were nice, I made some good friends". Roose tries to address this conflict, but in the end he seems to be more concerned with selling books than taking a stand.

That being said, The Unlikely Disciple is an engaging read and does a good job of showing what life is like at Liberty U.

It was a pretty well done story especially considering he was still in undergrad at the time. It's not exactly view changing for me with regards to liberty, but it does shed some interesting light on the people who choose to attend there and how the metaphorical evangelical sausage is made there

A fascinating and compassionate take on a world that is (mostly) unknown to me (as a Catholic I don't usually experience much of this). The book is careful in its nuance and endearingly honest.

Surprisingly interesting. I can see myself having spent time with him and his friends, had I gone to this school. Worth the read!

Absolutely impossible to put down! I was so impressed by the maturity of the writing, and the subject matter was fascinating.

Jobs are about money, right? You’re exhorted to “follow your dreams” or “do what you love,” but ultimately rent has to be paid and pizza eaten (and delivery persons paid), so … I do a thing for you, you give me money. It’s communication and interaction at its most base level, a pure financial transaction. Obviously, if you can find a way to tie meaningful employment with your inner peace and contentment, so much the better. And sure, once the cashflow establishes a certain level of stasis [eating Ramen because you want to, not because you have to], you can start to consider a lateral move for more fulfilling work, but there’a almost always a financial floor below which you dare not go.

So it’s as difficult as ever to read about Ivy League graduates griping about the torturous hours they endure in the introduction to their [self-selected] professions as bankers, money-changers and Masters of the Universe. We learn all about how they have to work a lot — on the weekends, late nights, early mornings, pretty much any time electricity is available on the island of Manhattan. They don’t like it! [ Duh. ] But they (for the most part) continue to do it! [ Also duh. ] That’s the incentive provided by a minimum $60K salary $20K bonus if they’re thought to be bad at their job.

For the full review, please click here.

When I first saw this book in the bookstore I was immediate intrigued. Liberty University and similar school have always held this mystery for me. Sure I knew many evangelicals in school and even some whom attended my alma mater, but I was still very interested to get an inside glimpse of what life is really like.
This book did not disappoint. Kevin Roose, a sophomore at Brown decided to study “abroad” during his junior year. While all his friends were going to Paris and London, Roose headed south to Lynchburg, Virginia to study at Liberty University. Liberty founded by televangelist, mega-church pastor and Moral Majority founder Jerry Fallwell is an “fundamental Baptist” university that prides itself on teaching the ideals of Evangelical Christianity. It’s “Jesus Camp goes to college. Thankfully it wasn’t as scary as that move and I thought that the Roose did a fine job of chronicling his experience especially when compared to those of Liberty’s students. Sure we got a glimpse of those that the stereotypes are made of, but what we also saw was a group of young men and women just trying to find their way in the world while at the same time living up to the ideals of their beliefs and religion. No matter what those beliefs are, I think that most of these students went through the same struggles that their students at secular colleges go through with a few differences. The students at Liberty obviously have a more regimented environment and many thrive off that situation. Their regimentation is no different from the Army. Of course this regimentation perhaps hampered some of their growth, but these kids are young. In the end, they are doing what students at colleges all across the country are doing- just to a different tune.
I enjoyed Roose’s writing and his storytelling, the only issue I had with the book is that I wish Roose had stood up to some of those ideals. I understand that he was trying to blend in, but he could have at least started a conversation or planted the seed to combat some of the hate. Again, that’s my personal opinion as someone who enjoys playing the devil’s advocate on occasion. Overall, a very good book and at the end I just wished he would have included what happened to Anna- did he ever tell her. Perhaps that is something for the paperback edition.

Un estudiante de primero de universidad en Brown (universidad prestigiosa y perteneciente a la Ivy League junto a Harvard, Princeton o Yale entre otras) decide pasar un semestre en la Liberty University, para luego escribir sobre ello. La Liberty University es una universidad creada por un teleevangelista, Jerry Falwell, que tiene según consenso la dudosa distinción de ser el centro universitario más conservador de los EEUU. Para comprender la catadura moral del amigo Falwell, les remito a su página de la Wikipedia. Seguro que a alguno le suena Falwell porque fue el que dijo que Tinky Winky, el Teletubby morado, era homosexual.
Pues eso, el amigo Falwell funda una universidad destinada a formar mentes que luchen a favor del evangelismo y devuelvan a los EEUU a sus días de gloria "en los que las escuelas públicas eran controladas por los cristianos". Se pueden imaginar que pasar de una universidad liberal (entendido en la acepción anglosajona de "de izquierdas") a una fundamentalista religiosa debe ser un choque cultural interesante. Con esto en mente, nuestro protagonista aterriza en Lynchburg, Virginia.

El resumen del libro es que 1.- en efecto la Liberty University es un centro que propala ideas bastante negativas en muuchos campos (especialmente interesantes son las clases de creacionismo, donde enseñan ¡¡¡en una universidad!!! que los dinosaurios que metió Noé en el arca eran jóvenes y por eso pudieron caber todos), y 2.- que entre la gente hay de todo. Hay muy buenas personas, por supuesto, como en cualquier grupo de 10.000 jóvenes que uno escoja. Durante todo el libro el protagonista entra y sale de los dominios del síndrome de Estocolmo.

La lectura me atrajo porque yo pasé un año en los EEUU viviendo con una familia evangelista, y hay muchas cosas que cuenta el autor que yo he vivido en la iglesia evangelista a la que íbamos. Leyendo esto puedo ver que mis evangelistas eran de la rama "gente normal", comparados con los de la Liberty University.

Otra cosa que está bien, aunque el autor apenas la desarrolla, son los comentarios de libros de antropología, sociología y psicología que el autor intercala por el libro, como cuando nos explica el proceso psicológico de la conversión religiosa, que está muy interesante (es en dos fases, no en una).

Una lectura fácil, que nos da un brochazo de color sobre el fundamentalismo religioso de los USA, tan ligado al partido republicano. Hay cosas que dan miedo, hay cosas que indignan y hay cosas que enternecen. Interesante.

I'm also a Brown alum, and while I didn't know Kevin Roose, we know a lot of the same people on the newspaper (the Herald). I had heard about this book a few times but only got around to reading it now, something like ten years later. It's still eye opening and worth the read, if you are interested in this subculture. Roose is rather too equivocating for my taste, though perhaps this is because I am more interested in the anthropology of insular religious communities than in any individual man's struggle to compartmentalize the hateful anti LGBT rhetoric of people he otherwise likes. I would be curious to know whether things look similar at Liberty University now, in the age of Trump.

Kevin Roose was a student at Brown University when he was assisting A.J. Jacobs who was researching his book The Year of Living Biblically. The two of them made a trip to Jerry Fallwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church. Roose met some students from nearby Liberty University, which was founded by Fallwell.

Roose decided to enroll at Liberty for a semester to learn about Evangelical Christians. He sort of did a domestic semester abroad to learn about a culture that was very different from his own. He didn't tell the Liberty students that he was not an Evangelical Christian nor that he was planning to write a book about his semester there.

This book is interesting and I learned a lot about a culture very different from my own. Roose is very fair to the subjects. He covers both what he considered good and not so good about life at Liberty and as an Evangelical Christian. At several points, he struggles with the ethics of keeping his secret. He did eventually go back and tell the friends he'd made the truth.

Roose narrates the audio edition himself and while he's not making a career out of audiobook narration, he does a decent job. I highly recommend this one and I will be recommending that The Hubster make this his next audiobook.

How good is this author? I'm a fairly liberal Christian, a Quaker, like the author, but I come from the majority tradition in American Quakerism, that is more Christ-centered. I believe Jesus is God, that he died and rose again, but I think Moses was probably ahistorical, and I know Abraham was. Most of the beginning of the Old Testament was written by four guys named J,E,D, and P (and not for nothing that happens to spell out my name and initials). While I grew up believing that women should obey their husbands and evolution was false, God changed those views in me, and more recently, I've come out in favour of a Biblical mandate for homosexuality. My life is based on the Bible, but as a Quaker, it is first based on the Holy Spirit. I'm against the military, capitol punishment, the war on the poor, and abortion (again, Quaker). In short, I'm not a Jerry Falwell kind of guy. Short of Jesus himself, we have nothing in common. The guy pretty much turned my stomach.

How good is this author? He had me weeping as I read about Falwell's death.

This book was so very illuminating, even to me, having grown up as a Christian, all my life. At first I felt he was too much equivocating conservative Christianity with Christianity in general, but over time, I came to understand where Roose was coming from. I loved how very even-handed he was, treating those at Liberty U as people, and not simply caricatures. Roose goes through a transition himself on this, but he is disarmingly honest, which allows the reader to like both him and all the fellow students at LU, though both camps are so diametrically opposed. I could relate to much of what he described, as I've seen or experienced this myself with Christians and conservative Christians. And I learned a lot about the extreme conservative end of Christendom, that I had not been aware of (though it may perhaps be the Liberty experience alone), such as the regular sexual objectification of women that his classmates engaged in. This was surprising, as it's not something I've ever seen or experienced myself within Christianity, and I am indebted to Roose for revealing that aspect to me.

How good is this author? I am busy teaching six classes in high school and so have a lot of work, and I could *not put this book down*. It's non-fiction, but reads as a novel. And I think, I think, he may have helped me consider the expression of Jesus in my life in new and deeper ways.

I enjoyed this book and would recommend that younger people particularly those in college, read this cautionary tale. Roose shadowed eight college students about to enter career life working in financial and investment companies. I have heard previous tales of how companies like Goldman Sachs would work their new interns and young employees to death ( literally.) The abuse that these young employees endured certainly was not worth the money and promised bonuses that they received. Some people thrive in this type of environment – – most don't.

Roose also described crashing a fraternity like event where various senior executives in financial services got together and mocked their wealth, bonuses and lifestyle. They reveled in the money they made given the opposition to their wealth and bonuses after the financial meltdown. When Roose was uncovered as a reporter, he was threatened as if he was an allied spy at a Nazi convention.

This is the type of book that makes many Americans suspicious and antagonistic towards the 1%.

Plenty of good stories – – some happy endings – – some lessons learned.

This book made me laugh out loud in many cases and smirk in many others. The classic fish out of water story that this book is makes it quite entertaining. I especially liked the parts where he had to stop swearing and quit his habit of masturbation. This man is far more brave than I am, since I don't think I could see myself going over to an ultra-conservative Christian college. I wouldn't be able to take the creationism courses and other stuff like that. I don't think the rules would have been that bad, but some of them are positively draconian. Then again, there were some people that felt that the rules were too lax.

I suppose it takes all kinds though. This book was thoroughly enjoyable, and I would like to read it again, but I have a lot of other stuff to read.

Excellent book. Blows away stereotypes on both sides of the "God Divide."

An enjoyable read although it was not satisfying to my curiosity of the inner workings of Wall Street. It did speak to the changing ethos and the extremely capitalistic determination of who would and would not remain in wall street's labor force.

Brown University student (raised as a Quaker) defers "study abroad" for becoming a mole at Liberty University for a semester. Roose writes well beyond his years. Well researched and written with a good flow.

A friend told me about this book. Sounds intriguing. A Brown university student takes a semester "abroad" at Liberty University and is surprised at what he learns.

Jobs are about money, right? You’re exhorted to “follow your dreams” or “do what you love,” but ultimately rent has to be paid and pizza eaten (and delivery persons paid), so … I do a thing for you, you give me money. It’s communication and interaction at its most base level, a pure financial transaction. Obviously, if you can find a way to tie meaningful employment with your inner peace and contentment, so much the better. And sure, once the cashflow establishes a certain level of stasis [eating Ramen because you want to, not because you have to], you can start to consider a lateral move for more fulfilling work, but there’a almost always a financial floor below which you dare not go.

So it’s as difficult as ever to read about Ivy League graduates griping about the torturous hours they endure in the introduction to their [self-selected] professions as bankers, money-changers and Masters of the Universe. We learn all about how they have to work a lot — on the weekends, late nights, early mornings, pretty much any time electricity is available on the island of Manhattan. They don’t like it! [ Duh. ] But they (for the most part) continue to do it! [ Also duh. ] That’s the incentive provided by a minimum $60K salary $20K bonus if they’re thought to be bad at their job.

For the full review, please click here.

Roose, a Sophomore at Brown, a liberal Democrat, the only child of lapsed Quakers, also liberal Democrats, attended one semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University. This book is his chronicle of those three months.

Based on that, one expects fish-out-of-water type hijinks, of which this book has plenty. For example, early in the semester, a group of Liberty U student-Evangelicals descend on Spring Break in South Florida in order to to witness to the gone-wild wicked. Picture earnest, clean-cut, rosy-cheeked kids asking drunk, bikini-wearing, pot-smoking, raucous-music-listening, flip-flops-flapping, sun-burnt, red-eyed, fuzzy-toothed, body-abusing, pleasure-seeking sinners whether they'd like to get saved. Imagine the sinners' own four-letter invitation. Our man Roose, along for the ride, plays his role to the hilt, witnessing right along with the best of them. Well, actually, he does a pretty poor job of witnessing because he really doesn't believe in the Christ he's putatively espousing the asking of salvation from. Awkward, yes, but you've got to admire him for being game.

The best part is the depiction of the student-Evangelicals' own fake night-club located across the street from a real night club. Outside the fake Evangelical night club were B-girls and a restive line of obnoxious frat guys waiting for admittance, strobe lights, neon, techno beats, etc.; i.e., all the hip-hop signifiers of night-club sin. However, inside the fake club was a calm room, well-lit and quiet but for the hum of earnest conversion conversations, and (one imagines) the here-and-there indignant howl of a reveler recognizing that he's been duped. One wonders if any of the revelers so duped initially -- like in the first few disorienting seconds when they first stepped into the light from the nighttime darkness and din -- if initially they thought they'd died and gone to the Great Judgment Bar. It's fun to imagine the slow change in facial expression.

Liberty University is a strict, religious institution of higher learning, and Roose has much to say about the myriad differences between his LU roommates and his Brown U friends. But let me switch gears here and say that making snarky fun of true-beliver Evangelicals is not what this book is about. In fact, Roose is to be commended for giving his semester in the ideological-abroad a good-faith effort. The students and faculty at LU are depicted as 3D, blood-red people, complicated and real, not at all what we've come to expect to from the stereotypical media portrayal of this demographic.

In fact, it should say something that Roose's book is positively blurbed by members on both sides of the ideological divide. If you're looking for a fun, funny, well-written chronicle of what a responsible portrayal of the religious and irreligious alike, you'll want to read /The Unlikely Disciple./

Also, you'll want to read /TUD/ for Jerry Falwell's very last media interview, with the author, wherein the divisive Damnation-and-Hellfire demagogue endorses Diet Peach Snapple Iced-Tea and comes across as winningly avuncular. It says something about Jerry Falwell that he counted as friends not only the clerical and religious, but also Hustler's Larry Flynt. What that very odd friendship says, aside from the initial, what-the-heck cognitive dissonance, is that whatever else Falwell publicly was, he took seriously the admonition to love the sinner, to turn the other cheek to his enemy. And it's ultimately that last sentiment that Roose takes great rhetorical pains to manifest in his account.

Fascinating. An interesting and easy read.

this is really jsut a collection of case study examples of college graduates starting careers in the banking and finance industry. Interesting enough and well written, but not really worth reading a whole book about.

I really enjoyed this book. It was an engaging, quick read, and I couldn't put it down. It is written by a student at Brown University who spends a semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University in order to write about the school from the inside.

I appreciated the author's open mindedness and his willingness to see the good in things and people he had previously demonized.

After discovering he does not know any evangelical Christians, Roose decides to enroll for a semester at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University and write a book about his experience. Roose, of course, has to disguise his true identity and purpose so his going to Liberty to "get to know" evangelical Christians is disingenuous. What Roose finds at Liberty is not at all surprising--an anti-intellectual, virulently homophobic, secular world-fearing, conservatively politicized environment in which the "academic" classes are framed in a Biblical literalist worldview and with a pastoral staff that has an incredibly creepy obsession with all things sexual. Roose also discovers that most Liberty students do not fit his stereotypical ideas of evangelical Christians. There are no froth-mouthed, Bible-thumping nuts. There are plenty of people oozing with piety and others who display various degrees of irreverence. Roose finds common ground with many students and forges friendships with a few. In one hilarious chapter, Roose chronicles a mission trip he goes on with some fellow students to proselytize Spring Breakers in Daytona Beach. The results are, to say the least, disastrous. Interesting and occasionally insightful.

Other Brown students spent semesters abroad in Europe, but Kevin Roose, after a stint as research assistant to A. J. Jacobs for [The Year of Living Biblically] thought that Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University would be a more challenging cultural stretch. He approached with as open a mind as he could manage, considering his liberal Quaker background, and after an awkward start (evasions when asked why he’d transferred, attempts at squeaky clean behavior that came across as inauthentic) settled in fairly comfortably, pursuing activities (e.g. choir and prayer) with genuine interest, raising concerns in his family that he might go native. He didn’t. He remained ideologically skeptical, but personally respectful; this is not a book of caricatures. All the more impressive because he was 19 at the time.