My pointer to this was Jacobs, because Roose was his unpaid intern during the writing of that book. I enjoyed "The Unlikely Disciple" because the writing is solid and there was an element of suspense to see how Roose was affected at the end by his experience.In short: Roose was a journalism major at Brown; took a semester's leave of absence to study at Jerry Fallwell's ultra-conservative, "bible is the literal word of God" college, Liberty University, specifically to write a book about his experience there. Here's how I net out Roose's experience of life at Liberty:
- Homophobia runs rampant.
- Normative behavior quite different from baseline; can't judge as good or bad.
- In objective argument, atheists overwhelmingly defeat professor in debate on religion, e.g., bible literalists have trouble defending bible contradictions. (See also Jacobs' book, or Dawkins'.)
- Dating is easier within structured behavioral boundaries.
- Anti-evolution arguments are indecipherable at best.
- The students are mostly likable people; taken independently of the behavior required by their religious beliefs (i.e., targeted hatred), they're great folks.
I was surprised. Shouldn't have been: heard of the Stockholm Syndrome? Maybe that's unfair: I just expected Roose to fulfill his role as "Godless liberal" and he ended up being open minded (to closed minded-ness? Be nice now Carl!) instead.
In any case, can't help but expect to read more of Roose's work - in magazines or books - and I look forward to it.
