Novel approach: Undercover at Liberty

During spring break 2007, Kevin Roose found himself standing outside a Daytona Beach nightclub, handing out Bible tracts to drunken co-eds.

He was on an evangelical mission trip with a group of Liberty University students, trying to spread the gospel amid hardcore hedonism. As they passed out fliers, a film crew from “Girls Gone Wild” began taping the debauchery.

“The girls would lift up their shirts, and we’d tell them about Jesus. It was very uncomfortable,” Roose said during a phone interview.

The task was trying for the most seasoned evangelists. For Roose, a liberal, “God-ambiguous” sophomore who had transferred to Liberty for a semester from Brown University, it was a nightmare.

“I think that might have been the hardest week of my life.”

Roose, now back at Brown, said he spent a semester at Liberty to learn about Christian culture, to challenge the deep-seated stereotypes he held about Liberty and its far-right ideology, and to write about the experience. His chronicle of his time at Liberty, “The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at the Holiest University in America,” hits bookstores on March 26.

He was there undercover. He said he kept his mission secret to get the most candid view of Liberty possible.

In the beginning of the book, Roose sets up Brown and Liberty as polar opposites. By Liberty standards, he said, Brown would be considered “a notch or two above Sodom and Gomorrah,” with its permissive social rules and shades of liberal politics.

Roose went to Liberty with a host of what he calls “secular paranoias.”

“We tend to think of Liberty students as sitting around all day, and burning books and sewing Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls. This was not a culture that I was familiar with.”

Instead of clinging to these prejudices, though, he decided to check out Bible boot camp for himself. His goal was to cross the “God divide” and to confront his prejudices head on.

“I was genuinely curious to move beyond those stereotypes and to see what I could learn and to see if I could find common ground with people I didn’t know much about.”

Roose immersed himself in all things Liberty, which initially seemed like an utterly alien world. He took six core classes, including a History of Life, a required course that teaches young-earth creationism. He sang in the choir at Thomas Road Baptist Church. He played intramural softball with his hall mates and attended Friday night Bible studies.

He experienced the Liberty’s code of conduct firsthand, including its rules prohibiting drinking, smoking, kissing, dancing and R-rated movies.
“First of all, I learned it’s a pretty normal place, all things considered.

“Like all college kids, they doubt and question their faith. It was a very humanizing experience for me. I learned that students at Liberty, they are not polar opposites from me and the life I led at Brown.”

Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. has mixed feelings about the book, though he has not yet read it in its entirety. His wife, Becki, is currently reading it, too.
On one hand, Falwell said Roose did a “fair job of reporting what he observed.” On the other hand, Falwell thinks Roose “still doesn’t completely understand what Liberty is all about.”

To Falwell, the book further demonstrates just how wide the divide can be between conservative Christian universities and the left-leaning institutions like Brown.
“The fact that he was brought up to believe that conservative Christians are so different just tells me that there is a real misunderstanding on the other side about who we are and what we’re about,” Falwell said.

“I think the national press is partly responsible for that. They try to make conservative Christians as lunatic fringe wackos, as homophobes. There are certain people who just fall for that, and it’s a shame. Maybe Kevin’s book will help to clear that up.”

At Liberty, Roose found himself in the front lines of America’s culture wars.

If Liberty is on the far-right on the political spectrum, Roose, an Ohio native, hails from the far-left. He was raised by uber-liberal parents, who once worked for Ralph Nader. He has two lesbian aunts. His politics are solidly liberal on evangelical flashpoint issues, like gay marriage and abortion.

In the end, he learned just as much about himself as he did about Liberty.

He learned to appreciate the complexity of issues like abortion, even if he disagreed with most of his peers.

As for the academics, Roose put his Ivy League ego in check when he found out how challenging some of the classes were.

“It was certainly a humbling semester, and I think I worked twice as hard as I ever did at Brown.”

Now he has a working knowledge of the Bible, and quotes scripture like a pro. His views toward religion have changed, too. He sees the positive role religion plays in the lives of his Liberty friends, even if he disagrees with some of their values.

Faith now plays a larger role in his personal life. He prays every morning, and even feels comfortable calling himself a “Christian,” though he does not consider himself an evangelical.

“I do think that my faith has been and will continue to be transformed by what I saw at Liberty.”

Roose’s semester was accompanied by nagging feelings of guilt. He decided to hide his secular background and mission from his peers to write the book.
He took notes in the bathroom stalls and in the margins of his Bible at church. As his friendships solidified, the guilt increased.

“I was really dreading the day I would have to tell them what I was up to. It was hard. It was excruciating.”

About a year after he left Liberty, he returned to campus to tell his friends about the book.

“When I finally told them, they all forgave me. They all were very gracious,” he said.

Most of the students and professors have aliases. Two professors whose names were not changed, Dr. Ergun Caner and Dr. Elmer Towns, know about the book but have not read it yet.

Roose gave advance copies to Liberty’s administrators and some of his friends there.

Liberty graduate Brian Colas befriended Roose during his semester at Liberty and is a minor character in the book, where he is referred to by an alias. Colas was student body president and met Roose through college Republican meetings.

He was surprised when Roose later told him he was writing a book, but in retrospect he said it makes sense.

“Kevin was always very interested and inquiring about the various aspects of Liberty. He sort of seemed like a natural journalist in the way that he carried himself.”

Colas, a law student now at the University of Virginia, is portrayed as conflicted about Liberty. He appreciates its Christian identity and the relationships he formed with friends and professors, but found its lack of ideological and political diversity stifling at times. Since graduating, he looks back on Liberty in a positive light and attributes some of the cynical views he shared with Roose to “senioritis.”

He would recommend the book to any Liberty student.

“It was really thought-provoking, seeing an outside perspective of Liberty that’s both fair and at the same time he calls it like he sees it.”

Dr. Karen Swallow Prior, chairwoman of Liberty’s English department, heard about the book from a few of her students and decided to review it for Christianity Today. She said that Roose’s book is a fair portrayal of what he experienced, but it gives a narrow view of the school.

For example, his academic experience was limited to six religion classes, hardly a balanced representation of the wide range of liberal arts classes Liberty offers, she said.

“He had a distorted experience at Liberty because he purposely signed up for a very narrowly defined set of classes. … The experience he had was true, but not the whole truth.”

Prior, who met with Roose when he visited Liberty recently, said the book demonstrates “wit,” “honesty” and “open-heartedness.” And despite what she sees as the book’s shortcomings, it underscored her basic beliefs about Liberty.

“The most important thing was that my own beliefs about the students at Liberty University and the community were confirmed, that it is a deeply loving and committed community of believers, despite many flaws that we both have.”

James Kimmey, a junior at Liberty, heard about the book through friends. Intrigued, he looked up Roose on Facebook, and requested an advance copy of the book and the chance to interview him for the campus radio station, where he is news director.

Kimmey, who grew up in San Diego, said he can understand the God divide Roose describes. When out of the Liberty bubble, he is used to hearing statements like, “Wow, you go to Liberty? You seem so normal.”

“This book definitely bridges the gap, a little bit, between the evangelical and secular world,” Kimmey said.

With the book just a week away from publication, it’s already stirring up buzz on Liberty’s campus.

“My roommates all know I have a copy of this book, and I have to keep it away from them,” Kimmey said.

“Everyone’s interested. They want to see it.”