You’re a non-religious, nineteen year old journalism student at an Ivy League college. What should you do for the spring semester of your sophomore year?
Why not attend the nation’s largest Christian liberal arts college in cognito and learn about this group from the inside out?
That’s exactly what Kevin Roose did, and as a pastor let me tell you something, if you want to know what goes through the head of a non-religious person who is surrounded by Christians, you need to read this book.
Kevin Roose is an intelligent, thoughtful person who realized just how little he knew about conservative, evangelical Christianity and decided that rather than just accept the stereotypes, he would find out who they were. So, he talked his academic advisor into letting him take a leave of absence and applied to Liberty University.
While attending, Kevin realized that Christians are not all homosexual-hating, brain-washed, card-carrying Republicans who believe fun is evil. He discovered that some Christians think for themselves and do a pretty good job of it.
He also discovered that some Christians are jerks, but as he put it, “A Christian jerk is really just a jerk” no matter what religion they practice.
When I had to quantify my thoughts about this book, the only summary I could come up with was that it is like Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz but played backward. Seriously, Miller’s book was about a good Christian kid embracing the tension of being a Christian in a secular world. Roose’s book is about being a secular kid embracing the tension of being in the Christian world. The two bookend together very nicely.
Great book, and since I actually bought it, I don’t have to put the stupid FCC regulations at the end of my review.
Brian McCobb says
It just so happened that I read both of those books at during the same month. Miller and Roose seem to meet in the middle. I enjoyed both books and was shocked at how fair Roose was in his take on conservative Christians.