One of Roose's themes in the book is that faith and reason are not mutually exclusive, even when Liberty says it is. That, in fact, is something I learned at Liberty, though I can't really say that any of my professors taught it to me. I learned it in much the same way Kevin Roose learned his lessons at Liberty - from the people I met there. From roommates, dorm mates, RA's, prayer leaders. From seeing what others were going through. From seeing that there were people who were good Christians who believed differently from me on many issues, and realizing that was okay.
This is an important book for people on both sides of the God Gap. The "secular liberals" need to be aware that there are actual human beings on the other side; the conservative Christians need to do the same. I find it ironic that some of the most heated criticism for the book has come not from Liberty students but from the left, who are convinced that Roose needs to be deprogrammed because of his stay at Jerry Falwell's reeducation center. They miss the point of the book, unfortunately.
But there is also value for evangelicals as well. We need to see how we are perceived, because even as many of those perceptions are wrong, they are wrong because of the way we present ourselves. Our rhetoric and our preaching are nothing if they don't match our lives, and far too often they don't. Our beliefs do not match our actions, and that's a stinging indictment.
If I had the money, I would buy a copy of The Unlikely Disciple and hand it out in convocation on Monday at Liberty. Thankfully, the book is available at the new bookstore on campus; unfortunately, it contains a somewhat misleading disclaimer that the administration has placed in each book. If there are factual errors in the book (and I have personally heard Jerry Falwell tell us that Christians need to feed the hungry before we can ever hope to witness to them, which is one issue the disclaimer addresses), it is because we haven't been clear concerning our message, or our intent. We need to be aware of how we are perceived, and take steps within our beliefs to change that perception.
Article comments
1 - Chris Scott
I am a Liberty student and have read this book. I discovered a lot of ... well let's just say 'unlikely statements' in Roose's work, which you can read about in my review.