Book Review: The Unlikely Disciple, A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University
Stuart Nachbar
April 06, 2009
The Unlikely Disciple is the story of a Brown University student's sophomore spring semester as a student at Liberty University, considered to be the leading institution for evangelical Christians in the country.
I found this story interesting; it was as if I, as a Reform Jew, were to be transplanted into a Lubovitch sect on campus. My observations would have been:it's not for me, but Mazel Tov if you believe that it's for you.
The author of The Unlikely Disciple, Kevin Roose, mentions that the late Reverend Jerry Falwell founded Liberty to "do for the right wing what Harvard does for the left."
While Liberty is the second largest religiously affiliated university in the country (after Brigham Young), its admissions statistics (a 94 percent acceptance rate and SAT's between 900 and 1,100 according to the 2009 U.S. News and World Report College Guide)suggest that the school has a way to go before it can be compared to Harvard.
However, mere numbers are not a fair assessment of a school. Liberty has grown to a student body of over 18,000 full-time and part-time students in only 38 years and there is a very sound pricing strategy. Tuition, fees and room and board are approximately $25,000; to give some comparison, that is lower than the costs for an out-of-state student to attend a public university in Virginia, and only $2,000 more than the costs for a New Jersey resident to attend Rutgers in-state.
Roose mentions that Liberty has been an attractive option for students who attended public schools. Pricing an education close to the charges for a state university has to help. Liberty also enjoys a yield rate, the ratio of admitted students who choose to attend, of over fifty percent. This is extremely high for a private university.
The Unlikely Disciple is an interesting story on many fronts. First, Roose repeatedly states that Liberty students are not what outsiders would perceive them to be. He says that they are homophobic and that they share Falwell's views on abortion, gay rights and global warming, to name examples of three politic issues, but that they are not necessarily politically active and that they often have doubts about their faith and the strict code for on-campus living called The Liberty Way.
The Liberty Way, as Roose describes, makes Liberty University appear more like a military academy than a religiously affiliated university such as Georgetown or Notre Dame. There are no co-ed dorms and there are strict rules about dating (no sex, no kissing, no close hugging only hand holding), room inspections, demerits (but also fines, which is not found at a service academy). Valentines Day is celebrated on campus, but the National Day of Purity, to promote abstinence before marriage is on the same day.
While the strict rules are of discomfort to a transfer from Brown, they were reported to be a reason students chose the school. One comment in the book was that Liberty was the "only school in the country where engineers and football players had the same opportunities for sex."
Roose devotes much time to discussing how various students feel about the Liberty Way. There is surprising disagreement, but also limited student leadership to make changes. However, students do leave. I later found out that Liberty loses twenty eight percent of a freshman class; for comparison's sake, according to the recent U.S News guide religiously affiliated schools such Georgetown or Notre Dame retain nearly every freshman; Brigham Young has a ninety percent retention rate and Baylor's is eighty four percent. Oral Roberts, another Baptist school founded by a televangelist, retains eighty one percent of its freshmen.
It is also interesting that Roose points out that Liberty is more welcoming to other faiths, and more diverse racially than outsiders would expect. Roose cites that ten percent of Liberty's enrollment is African-American (I later found out that sixteen percent of the student body is African American or Hispanic, comparable to state schools). Falwell was a Southern Baptist minister, yet only ten percent of the students share his personal faith. In fact, two-thirds of Liberty students are Protestant or Baptist; at Baylor, a large Baptist-chartered university, this figure is seventy eight percent.
There are also fascinating anecdotes about Liberty classes. Roose enrolls in six courses including Contemporary Issues, History of Life, Evangelism 101, Old Testament Survey as well as Theology and membership for credit in the Thomas Road Baptist Church choir, so that he can observe Falwell outside of campus. He is surprised how academics are capable of reconciling their beliefs in creationism with their secular educations in, for example, the humanities or the sciences. The Liberty curriculum is about indoctrination; not everyone enters the university on firm ground about their beliefs. He adds that church services the Thomas Road way, eventually became more powerfully theatrical than spiritual, with a 300 member choir and technology comparable to any modern television show.
Roose also lands a plum writing assignment that he had never expected to land. He does the last print interview with Jerry Falwell before his death at 73. Because he is a student, he attempts to humanize the man rather than repeat the positives (heralded in a Falwell Museum on campus) as well as the negatives (his opposition to the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's, his comments about gays and feminists after 9-11). He learns that while Falwell was a very flawed man, he was also capable of many acts of kindness and ran his university with transparency and integrity. Even upon his death, Falwell's Liberty was debt-free and primed to grow.
Before reading The Unlikely Disciple, I had visited other Christian schools in my prior work. They had similar rules, but none had a leader such as Jerry Falwell. While his conservative views on social issues are quite the opposite of my own, I have to give the man some credit. Falwell might have acted like a bigoted fool, and sincerely believed in his world-view, but he must also be considered a social entrepreneur. While the civil rights leaders of the Sixties formed effective non-profit and community organizations, this man founded a university that has grown exponentially over 38 years.
I found this story interesting; it was as if I, as a Reform Jew, were to be transplanted into a Lubovitch sect on campus. My observations would have been:it's not for me, but Mazel Tov if you believe that it's for you.
The author of The Unlikely Disciple, Kevin Roose, mentions that the late Reverend Jerry Falwell founded Liberty to "do for the right wing what Harvard does for the left."
While Liberty is the second largest religiously affiliated university in the country (after Brigham Young), its admissions statistics (a 94 percent acceptance rate and SAT's between 900 and 1,100 according to the 2009 U.S. News and World Report College Guide)suggest that the school has a way to go before it can be compared to Harvard.
However, mere numbers are not a fair assessment of a school. Liberty has grown to a student body of over 18,000 full-time and part-time students in only 38 years and there is a very sound pricing strategy. Tuition, fees and room and board are approximately $25,000; to give some comparison, that is lower than the costs for an out-of-state student to attend a public university in Virginia, and only $2,000 more than the costs for a New Jersey resident to attend Rutgers in-state.
Roose mentions that Liberty has been an attractive option for students who attended public schools. Pricing an education close to the charges for a state university has to help. Liberty also enjoys a yield rate, the ratio of admitted students who choose to attend, of over fifty percent. This is extremely high for a private university.
The Unlikely Disciple is an interesting story on many fronts. First, Roose repeatedly states that Liberty students are not what outsiders would perceive them to be. He says that they are homophobic and that they share Falwell's views on abortion, gay rights and global warming, to name examples of three politic issues, but that they are not necessarily politically active and that they often have doubts about their faith and the strict code for on-campus living called The Liberty Way.
The Liberty Way, as Roose describes, makes Liberty University appear more like a military academy than a religiously affiliated university such as Georgetown or Notre Dame. There are no co-ed dorms and there are strict rules about dating (no sex, no kissing, no close hugging only hand holding), room inspections, demerits (but also fines, which is not found at a service academy). Valentines Day is celebrated on campus, but the National Day of Purity, to promote abstinence before marriage is on the same day.
While the strict rules are of discomfort to a transfer from Brown, they were reported to be a reason students chose the school. One comment in the book was that Liberty was the "only school in the country where engineers and football players had the same opportunities for sex."
Roose devotes much time to discussing how various students feel about the Liberty Way. There is surprising disagreement, but also limited student leadership to make changes. However, students do leave. I later found out that Liberty loses twenty eight percent of a freshman class; for comparison's sake, according to the recent U.S News guide religiously affiliated schools such Georgetown or Notre Dame retain nearly every freshman; Brigham Young has a ninety percent retention rate and Baylor's is eighty four percent. Oral Roberts, another Baptist school founded by a televangelist, retains eighty one percent of its freshmen.
It is also interesting that Roose points out that Liberty is more welcoming to other faiths, and more diverse racially than outsiders would expect. Roose cites that ten percent of Liberty's enrollment is African-American (I later found out that sixteen percent of the student body is African American or Hispanic, comparable to state schools). Falwell was a Southern Baptist minister, yet only ten percent of the students share his personal faith. In fact, two-thirds of Liberty students are Protestant or Baptist; at Baylor, a large Baptist-chartered university, this figure is seventy eight percent.
There are also fascinating anecdotes about Liberty classes. Roose enrolls in six courses including Contemporary Issues, History of Life, Evangelism 101, Old Testament Survey as well as Theology and membership for credit in the Thomas Road Baptist Church choir, so that he can observe Falwell outside of campus. He is surprised how academics are capable of reconciling their beliefs in creationism with their secular educations in, for example, the humanities or the sciences. The Liberty curriculum is about indoctrination; not everyone enters the university on firm ground about their beliefs. He adds that church services the Thomas Road way, eventually became more powerfully theatrical than spiritual, with a 300 member choir and technology comparable to any modern television show.
Roose also lands a plum writing assignment that he had never expected to land. He does the last print interview with Jerry Falwell before his death at 73. Because he is a student, he attempts to humanize the man rather than repeat the positives (heralded in a Falwell Museum on campus) as well as the negatives (his opposition to the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's, his comments about gays and feminists after 9-11). He learns that while Falwell was a very flawed man, he was also capable of many acts of kindness and ran his university with transparency and integrity. Even upon his death, Falwell's Liberty was debt-free and primed to grow.
Before reading The Unlikely Disciple, I had visited other Christian schools in my prior work. They had similar rules, but none had a leader such as Jerry Falwell. While his conservative views on social issues are quite the opposite of my own, I have to give the man some credit. Falwell might have acted like a bigoted fool, and sincerely believed in his world-view, but he must also be considered a social entrepreneur. While the civil rights leaders of the Sixties formed effective non-profit and community organizations, this man founded a university that has grown exponentially over 38 years.