so folks, as promised, here is the second installment of what i hope will be a permanent bi-weekly feature here on kflay.com and on MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL. if you aren’t yet a subscriber, rectify that.

this week i’m reviewing The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. the book is essentially an undercover look at the inner-workings of student life at Liberty University, an evangelical college founded in 1971 by Jerry Fallwell (the dude we can blame for politically mobilizing the religious right and helping to secure the elections of Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II). it would be easy for Roose to spend most of his time lambasting the institution for its rigid (and extremely antiquated) rules, its overt conflation of sermonizing and educating, and its profound conservatism in all areas of life. i think we can all agree that college students at an accredited university should NOT be forced to take courses in which things like evolution, women’s rights, and homosexuality are dismissed, decried, or denied outright.

however, Roose’s book gets interesting when he extends beyond a basic criticism of the school and begins to look more carefully at the students themselves. one-on-one, the author finds that many students at Liberty are kind, friendly, and generous — and Roose is quick to point out that not all of his classmates are sycophantic Fallwell followers. we hear about kids who watch R-rated movies, those who question Liberty’s teachings, and even some who haven’t been “saved” (the definitive evangelical experience). the main point is this: evangelical christians constitute a sizable and influential segment of the population and it would be both ignorant and silly to lump them all together in one pot.

Roose’s narrative is heartfelt and The Unlikely Disciple is an interesting read, one that I’d recommend particularly for folks currently in/recently out of college.

SCORE: 7.5/10

NEXT WEEK: The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath