Posted by Kevin on April 30th, 2009
On a tip from a few Twitter followers, I just watched Liberty chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.’s “State of the University” address from Wednesday’s convocation. A few things stuck out:
- The lead-in to Chancellor Falwell’s address was a ten-minute sit-down chat with Carrie Prejean, aka Miss California, the beauty queen and Perez nemesis who has become an anti-gay-marriage icon of late. It’s a funny, slightly bizarre conversation, especially the part where Miss California gets cat-called by an arena full of male Liberty students, and the part where she waxes rhapsodic about the need to oppose gay marriage at all costs, and then concludes her speech with the line, “It’s all about tolerance.” Also, isn’t she out of dress code? Watch the whole thing here.
- Chancellor Falwell mentioned me! I don’t have a timestamp, but it’s near the end of the address, when he’s talking about how students are Liberty’s most valuable asset. He said something like, “Even Kevin Roose was impressed with the Christian love Liberty students showed him.” That’s true, and it also makes me wonder if the “Even Kevin Roose…” meme will catch on among Liberty students. (”Even Kevin Roose would like this hymn.” “Even Kevin Roose wouldn’t pee in the shower.”) Not likely, but a boy can dream.
- I was genuinely impressed by Chancellor Falwell’s proposal for Liberty’s academic future. Basically, since Liberty’s founding in 1971, the school has operated on a come-one-come-all system. Last year, 96% of applicants were admitted. And as Chancellor Falwell seems to understand, that kind of admittance rate doesn’t make for an academic powerhouse, even if it does give you massive institutional growth. So when he said on Wednesday that the University has decided to limit its growth in the coming years, and to “improve Liberty’s reputation” by building a more robust academic program instead of adding new buildings, I was pleasantly surprised. Not that anyone asked me, but I have a few ideas about how Liberty could, as Chancellor Falwell said, enter “a new phase of history” without sacrificing the school’s Christian mission.
- Expand the tenure program for professors. Liberty has prided itself for many years on the fact that it grants only one-year faculty contracts, and can hire and fire professors at will. The school has given out a few tenured positions in recent years, but has yet (from what I’ve heard) to extend tenure to all departments, or even most of them. In secular academia, even people who want tenure to go away generally support multi-year faculty contracts. By offering tenure, or at least long-term contracts, Liberty will attract better professors, and those professors will be more inclined to exercise academic freedom and educate students more fully in the classroom. Everyone wins.
- Stop censoring the newspaper. It’s no secret that The Champion, Liberty’s on-campus student newspaper, is reviewed by an administrator before going to press. I learned this when I wrote an article about Jerry Falwell during my Liberty semester, and bumped up against it again last week, when a Q&A I did with the Champion got cut from the paper. As a college journalist, this is a pet issue for me, and Liberty’s journalism students need to be allowed to hone their skills in an environment of free speech. This is what I argued in the spiked Q&A, which I’ll post on the blog soon.
- Revamp the GNED curriculum. As I wrote in my book (in a chapter excerpted on Esquire.com), Liberty’s required Christian Ethics course for freshmen contains some pretty heated lessons on issues like abortion and gay marriage. I’m aware that these issues are central to Liberty’s religious mission, but Liberty should let students learn them in church. Putting lectures like “Myths Behind the Homosexual Agenda” in general ed classes makes Liberty a sitting duck for people who want to paint it as an anti-intellectual Potemkin school. These haters may not be right, but they’re out there (see the comments on my Huffington Post article for a couple hundred examples), and taking the most politicized GNED lessons out of the curriculum would make Liberty that much harder to mock. Plus, it’s not like removing pro-life and anti-gay lessons from the classroom would deprive Liberty students of the chance to hear those views. They’d just get them from other sources – like, say, Miss California.
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Posted by Kevin on April 30th, 2009
Back in February, I announced a new blog series, called “Jerry’s Kids,” in which I’d be interviewing students, faculty, and alumni of Liberty University “every Monday or so.” Ha. Anyway, I’m continuing the series this week with a Liberty student who is a little less iconoclastic than the last one I interviewed. He signs his notes, “For the KING,” and has Philippians 3:10 (“I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead”) as his e-mail signature. He comes from Hawaii, works as a lifeguard at the LaHaye Student Center, and has a weakness for blondes. Blog readers, meet Dane Pascoe.
Name: Dane Pascoe
Class year: Sophomore
Major: Biblical Studies
Why/how did you end up at Liberty?
During my junior year of high school, some students went to a college fair at a local college. After a couple hours of walking around hearing about different colleges and not particularly liking anything I heard, I became pretty discouraged. When it was time to go, I noticed an attractive blonde representative smiling at me on my way to the exit. She was holding up a sign that read “Liberty University.” Having nothing to lose, I approached her and flirtatiously asked about Liberty. I quickly forgot about how gorgeous she was, and became more and more fascinated with the idea of attending Liberty. I liked that Liberty was Christian, has a big student body/campus, is affordable, has D1 athletics, and is in Virginia. God baited me.
What’s your favorite thing about Liberty? Your least favorite?
Favorite thing: Despite the direction our culture and country is headed, Liberty is a place where students can come and get a great Christian college education. There aren’t too many colleges nowadays who hold true to their original mission. I’m also extremely thankful for the generous amount of financial aid I’m receiving!
Least favorite: That 96% of applicants get in. I’d like to see a degree from Liberty actually mean something– right now admission to LU doesn’t mean much. With the amount of applications the admissions office boasts about receiving each year, I’d like to see LU get a little more selective.
Who’s the most inspiring person you’ve met at Liberty?
Dr. Don Fowler, a religion prof, has had a tremendous impact on my life. Fowler is a very busy guy, yet he’s always taken the time to hang out and talk with me. He’s taught me a great deal and I’m very thankful for him. Fowler is the man.
What’s the most reprimands you’ve gotten for a single rule violation? What was the violation?
I’ve actually never gotten a reprimand, although I definitely should have multiple times. Freshman year, my buddy Pete and I climbed up into the ceiling of our dorm and went around lifting up the tiles to say “hi” to guys chilling in their rooms. We had gracious RAs that decided not to punish us.
Do you think Liberty students are more or less tolerant than their non-Christian counterparts?
I consider myself moderate leaning left, and when I’ve espoused my political opinions I’ve encountered both tolerance and intolerance. I’ve been told that while the individual didn’t agree with me, they respected my opinion. I’ve also been told I’m not a Christian because I like the president, who happens to be pro-choice (even though I am not). At Liberty, it’s customary to identify with the conservative platform—even you don’t have the slightest idea what that is. Basically, if you like Obama at Liberty, be ready to be called a “socialist” (and know why he isn’t).
Liberty students/faculty/alumni: Want to be interviewed? E-mail me.
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Posted by Kevin on April 27th, 2009
My “Book TV” appearance, which was taped in early April and aired on C-SPAN 2 for the first time on Sunday morning, is online! Click below to watch.
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Posted by Kevin on April 27th, 2009
Regular readers of this blog will be familiar with my Liberty bookstore saga, detailed here and again here. For those of you who are just getting here, the story in a nutshell:
First, THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE was banned from being sold at Liberty’s campus bookstore. A few weeks after publication, though, Chancellor Falwell decided to send the matter to an advisory committee composed of LU faculty members and administrators, who deliberated on whether or not the book was appropriate for sale in the bookstore. After a 3-1 vote, the committee voted to stock the book, but to place a three-paragraph disclaimer above the display (visible in the photo below) alleging factual inaccuracies on my part and “offensive sexual references” in the text. I responded to the committee’s allegations with concrete evidence for the facts in question, but the disclaimer stayed put.
Last week, Liberty has opened a brand-new, 25,000-square-foot bookstore, and the disclaimer is still there. Except now, it isn’t being displayed on a sign above the shelf. It’s been slipped inside each copy of the book. See the photo below:
My friends over at The Liberty Freelance have done a good job debunking the disclaimer, so I won’t dwell on the errors. But between the continued use of a sloppy disclaimer and Chancellor Falwell’s assertion, in last week’s AP article, that my view of Liberty was “distorted” since I come from “a culture that has very little tolerance for conservative Christianity and even less understanding of it,” I’m disappointed that my book, which reflects an earnest attempt to bring two worlds closer together, is still provoking anger from Liberty’s administration.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” might not be a biblical expression, but it seems to apply here anyway.
[Post edited 4/30, given more accurate chronology.]
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Posted by Kevin on April 24th, 2009
What a week this has been. My apologies for being blog-negligent for a couple days, but I’m back with a vengeance and have no plans to slow down. Let’s take this from the top:
– On Sunday, I trekked to Westtown School, my lovable Quaker high school in the Philadelphia suburbs, for a book event, part of Westtown’s Shoemaker Lecture Series. Turnout was great (it helped that upper school students were required to attend), and the Q&A was lively and intelligent. I had a great time meeting current Westtown students and seeing old friends on the faculty, and even got to eat dinner with a group of journalism students. The only problem was a good one: we sold out of books!
– On Monday, Newsweek ran a Q&A I did with Jessica Bennett about my Liberty semester. Jessica is a great interviewer, and I think the piece turned out really well. I hope it was at least the most exciting thing on page 9. (Which wouldn’t be saying much – the other piece, a financial article about the housing bubble, included the words “sales-tax moratorium.”)
– On Wednesday, the AP ran a story about my Liberty semester, and it got picked up everywhere. Front page of Yahoo News, front page of The Huffington Post, the USA Today, lots of blogs big and small, and newspapers around the nation. I’m astounded at the responses to the article, from the nice to the not-so-nice, and incredibly grateful for the exposure.
– On Thursday, I headed to Yale Divinity School to speak at their Student Book Supply. I had an awesome time, saw a bit of the campus, and learned some of YDS’s quirks. (For example, the campus café is called “Holy Grounds,” and the atheist/agnostic student group is called “Left Behind.”) Funny place.
– Today, I had a full slate of radio interviews, and will cap it off with an appearance with Alan Colmes (formerly of Hannity & Colmes) on his FOX News radio show during the 11 PM hour (EST) tonight. You can catch the show live on the web, or tune in to your local FOX News radio channel to hear me talk about the book and the events of this week. I’m not sure who listens to talk radio at 11 PM on a Friday night, but I hope they buy books!
– On Sunday, I’ll be appearing on C-SPAN’s “Book TV” at 7 AM (again with the weird timing). The program, which I’m told actually appears on C-SPAN 2, should be a good one. It was taped three-ish weeks ago at an event I did here at Brown, and from what I remember, I didn’t make too big a fool of myself. Check it out before church (if that’s your thing) or set your TiVos. A blurry photo from the event is above.
A few miscellaneous items:
- Because one of the winners of last week’s Easter Giveaway didn’t contact me back, the new winner of 2nd place (A Liberty University bottle-opener, a plush “Sparky the Eagle” doll, and a signed copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE) will be Christina, who commented on April 12, 2009 at 9:03 PM. Christina, congratulations, and I’ll e-mail you soon.
- A few press hits that didn’t make it onto the blog for one reason or another: Last week, TIME Magazine named THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE #1 on their list of the Top 10 Literary Stunts! The Onion’s AV Club gave it an “A” rating, and Playboy.com ran a hilarious Q&A about sex and dating at Liberty (NSFW/NSFLiberty).
- And because I feel bad writing a blog post that is 100 percent self-promotional (as opposed to the usual 97 or 98 percent), I’ll point you to this article from The Scientific American, a fascinating look at the science behind gay-conversion programs – like the one I visited at Liberty – and the new evidence that Masters and Johnson, the authors of the famous studies upon which the gay-conversion movement was originally based, may have fabricated some or all of their findings.
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Posted by Kevin on April 19th, 2009
The Unlikely Disciple Easter Giveaway has been a huge, huge success, garnering around 270 entries as of this morning. I just picked the winners using the random number generator at Random.org, and here’s what I came up with:
1st Place (iPod Shuffle pre-loaded with Christian music, Liberty U. pennant, “Politically Incorrect Since 1971″ t-shirt, and signed ARC of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE): Kati (comment posted April 14, 2009, 10:42 am)
2nd Place (LU bottle-opener, plush “Sparky the Eagle” doll, signed copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE): Furious Jones (comment posted April 13, 2009, 3:14 pm)
3rd Place (LU pennant, copy of “Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy,” signed copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE): David Clark (comment posted April 18, 2009, 3:39 pm)
Thanks to all who entered/tweeted/bought/reviewed/ranted. You guys are the best. I’ll be contacting the winners by e-mail later today.
For the rest of you, you can still pick up your copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE (named the Top Literary Stunt by TIME magazine) on Amazon.com, BN.com, and other sellers. For more on the book and my experiences at Liberty, check out today’s NY Times review, the official video trailer, or browse this site.
As I said, I have a lot more Christian stuff piled up from my Liberty semester, so check back soon for another giveaway! Also, if you happen to live in the Philadelphia area, stop by Westtown School at 7:30 PM tonight to hear me talk about the book. Over and out.
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Posted by Kevin on April 18th, 2009
Last Friday, one of the most exciting stops on my book tour came to pass: my return to Lynchburg, Virginia, home of Liberty University.
Returning to the setting of my undercover book to sign and talk about said book could have been extraordinarily awkward. (One friend compared it to the scene in “Harriet the Spy” when Harriet comes to school to find her scandalized friends reading her diary entries about them.) But even though it was Good Friday, we had a great turnout at two book signings (one at the Barnes & Noble right down the street from Liberty’s campus, and one at Givens Books), and everyone I met was hospitable and friendly. Even the woman who followed me to the bathroom in B&N to tell me I was going to hell had a smile on her face!
Devin Olson (he of Liberty video fame) and his friend Chelsea Davis took some great photos and video during the B&N event. The video will be posted next week to the “Extras” page, and a bunch of their photos are after the jump.
Also, three quick items of business:
- The Unlikely Disciple Easter Giveaway is still going on until tomorrow, April 19. If you haven’t entered already, this is your last chance to win an iPod Shuffle, assorted Liberty paraphernalia, and more.
- I’ll be heading to Pennsylvania tomorrow to give a talk (part of the Shoemaker Lecture series) at Westtown School, my alma mater. If you’re in the Philly area and can make it out, I’d love it! Directions are here, and the event begins at 7:30 PM. More info here.
- And last but definitely not least, The New York Times Book Review’s take on THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE went online today! It’s a great review, and I’ll let you read the whole thing, but the quote that will (probably) end up on the paperback is this one: “[A] vivid, sunny and skeptical portrait of life among the saved.”
More…
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Posted by Kevin on April 15th, 2009
After a week of travel, I’m finally back in Providence. I’m uploading photos from my book tour stops, and will post everything in a day or two. Until then, I’m bringing you photos from last night’s book party.
The party was co-hosted by A.J. Jacobs (my former boss and author of “The Year of Living Biblically”) and Scott Poulson-Bryant (co-founder of VIBE magazine, author of “Hung,” and a 2008 graduate of Brown who, at 40, is leaving his teaching gig at Brown to get his Ph.D. at Harvard – don’t ask). My parents flew in from Ohio, a bunch of my college friends showed up (photo below) and a good time was had by all.
My camera crapped out early on (if you were there and have photos, e-mail me!), but a few more photos are after the jump. FishbowlNY’s coverage of the party is here.
Also, don’t forget: you still have until Sunday to enter The Unlikely Disciple Easter Giveaway and win an iPod Shuffle and a whole bunch of Liberty schwag.
More…
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Posted by Kevin on April 12th, 2009
While unpacking my suitcase from another trip to Liberty this weekend, I realized that I’ve accumulated a lot of LU-branded souvenirs on these Lynchburg visits. Too many, in fact. (Does a guy really need three “Team Jerry” mugs?) Which is why I’m using today, Easter Sunday, as the occasion for my first-ever blog giveaway! Hand-me-down Christian tchotchkes aren’t exactly hot-ticket items (or so says my publisher, anyway), so I dug up a few additional prizes to spice things up. The contest will run through next Sunday, April 19, at which time I’ll use a random number generator to choose the winners.
THE PRIZES:
1st Prize:
An iPod Shuffle (3rd generation) pre-loaded with my entire library of Christian music. This is the new iPod Shuffle, the one billed by Apple as “the first MP3 player that talks to you.” It holds 4 GB worth of music (about 1,000 songs), and has a brand-new VoiceOver feature that apparently speaks the name of each song as it plays. (Atheists/aesthetes: the Christian music library is optional, but some of it is actually pretty good.)- A red Liberty University pennant
- A navy blue Liberty t-shirt whose front reads “LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: Politically Incorrect Since 1971.” Great for Halloween costumes, not so great for wearing on liberal college campuses. Trust me.
- A signed Advance Reader’s Copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE. These copies, which are bound in paperback and contain a very unfortunate typo on the spine (”Diciple” instead of “Disciple”) were distributed in limited numbers to media and reviewers back in December. I only have two left, and they’re not available anywhere else.
2nd Prize: 
- An official Liberty University bottle-opener keychain. I was given one of these during my last trip to campus – they’re sold in the campus store, and have the LU logo on them. Liberty’s 46-page code of conduct outlaws alcohol of any kind, so I guess they’re meant to open…root beer? Cream soda? I’m not exactly sure. In any case, it’s the perfect hipster drinking accessory.
- A plush doll of “Sparky the Eagle,” the official mascot of the Liberty Flames. Admittedly, Sparky is a little creepy, and a bald eagle is more than a little generic as college mascots go, but the doll is soft and wears an LU t-shirt!
- A signed copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE, hardcover edition.
3rd Prize:
- A red Liberty University pennant
- A copy of the book, “Jerry Falwell: His Life and Legacy.” This book was written by Macel Falwell, Jerry’s widow, and was released in 2008. It’s a brief, uncritical look at the personal life of the father of the Christian Right.
- A signed copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE, hardcover edition.
HOW TO ENTER:
Leave your e-mail address in the comments for this post.
Also, additional entries will be given for the following good deeds.
- Spreading the word about this giveaway, either by blogging about it, re-tweeting it on Twitter, or posting it on Facebook, will get you TWO entries. Just drop me a note saying you’ve done it (we’ll go on the honor system), and I’ll enter you two more times.
- Buying a copy of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE on Amazon (or, maybe given this weekend’s #Amazonfail flap, on BN.com or Borders.com or Powells.com) and e-mailing a copy of your receipt (dated today or later) to kevin@kevinroose.com will get you FIVE entries. Photos/scans/etc. of receipts from offline stores will work, too, but only for purchases made from today until April 19.
- And since some of you probably already have your copies, writing a review of THE UNLIKELY DISCIPLE on either Amazon or BN.com will also get you FIVE entries.
Thanks, guys, and good luck! I have a lot more Christian crap left, so hopefully we’ll do another one of these before too long.
274 Comments »
Posted by Kevin on April 10th, 2009
In the spirit of Easter…
(cross-posted from Forbes.com)
This week, millions of Americans will head to their houses of worship to celebrate Easter and Passover, the high Judeo-Christian holidays. When they arrive, they’ll hear familiar sermons and stories drawn from both the Old and New Testaments, Exodus and the Gospels. And when they leave, they’ll relegate those lessons to a small, dusty corner of their brain, where they’ll sit all but forgotten until this time next year. That’s the sad truth implied by recent studies of America’s religious literacy, anyway.
For all the talk of America as a nation founded upon Judeo-Christian values, one humbling fact remains: As a culture, we know startlingly little about the Bible. As Stephen Prothero points out in his book Religious Literacy, studies have shown that only half of U.S. adults know one of the four Gospels by name. More than half are unable to identify Genesis as the first book of the Bible, and 60% can’t name five of the Ten Commandments. Sadly, our collective slide into biblical illiteracy doesn’t seem to be reversing itself among the younger set–according to Prothero, 50% of high school seniors think Sodom and Gomorrah were a married couple.
Until my sophomore year in college, when I left Brown University and spent a semester experiencing far-right Christianity as an undercover student at Liberty, Jerry Falwell’s “Bible Boot Camp” for young evangelicals, I, too, was guilty of massive Bible ignorance. I grew up in a liberal college town with a reputation as a godless enclave, and I was educated in schools where I was never taught even the most basic facts about the Bible, its historical importance or the various faith communities who consider it holy writ. I had acted in a school musical about the Garden of Eden, so I knew the basic plotline of Genesis (Adam names the animals, Eve bites an apple, and we all break into jazz squares, or something like that). But as far as actual Bible knowledge? I didn’t know Job from Jehoshaphat.
When I began taking classes at Liberty, of course, I had a lot of catching up to do. My classmates, for the most part, were lifelong Sunday school students, and exam questions that were mind-bendingly hard for me–like, “According to Galatians 5:22-23, what are the fruits of the spirit?”–were second nature for them. Over the course of the semester, I stuffed mountains of knowledge into my head, both about the Bible itself and about the interpretations and factions that have accompanied it through the years. I found out what Jesus said in the Parable of the Sower, and what the Council of Trent decided about the nature of God’s grace. I learned that Goliath was uncircumcised, that Stephen was the first Christian martyr and that it’s never a good idea to sell out a friend, even if 30 shekels are on the line.
By getting a solid foundation in the Bible in my Liberty classes, I gained access to an incredible amount of cultural capital. Suddenly, hidden metaphors in classic works of literature leapt out at me from the page, and I caught the subtle scriptural references embedded in political stump speeches. Thanks to Liberty’s required course in creationist biology, I came to know Genesis like the back of my hand, and was finally able to understand the ideological controversy driving one of our nation’s most heated debates.
Religious illiteracy has caused problems for well-meaning secularists for years, especially where the media is involved. Consider the International Herald Tribune article on the funeral of Pope John Paul II that described the symbolic “crow’s ear” tucked under the pontiff’s arm (the staff-like implement is actually a “crozier”), or the BBC producer who wrote in an on-screen caption that a group of “Karma Light” nuns were mourning the pope’s death (the more traditional spelling is “Carmelite”).
In fact, the most prominent Bible snafu in recent memory can be found in a 2006 magazine article about my former school. While reporting on Liberty University’s top-ranked debate team, a reporter from Newsweek quoted the Rev. Jerry Falwell, Liberty’s late founder, as having said, “We are training debaters who can perform assault ministry.” What Rev. Falwell had actually said–”a salt ministry,” a reference to a passage in the Gospel of Matthew in which Jesus says “ye are the salt of the earth”–was both much more orthodox and much less controversial than a call for widespread Christian thuggery.
Outside the classroom and the newsroom, biblical literacy is also important in our personal lives. For better or worse, America is a nation with a deeply entrenched religious divide, and knowing the language of the Bible can help secular liberals reach across faith boundaries and build common ground with even the most conservative Christians. President Obama used his familiarity with biblical rhetoric to great effect during last year’s election season and continues to do so when addressing religious groups today. Being aware of the theological architecture of Christian faith helps us understand the lives of deeply religious family members, co-workers and neighbors, not to mention that guy who holds up “John 3:16″ signs at NFL games.
The Bible is, quite simply, the most influential book in history. It’s the all-time best seller, the book whose pages have inspired wars and toppled regimes, whose words have given hope and comfort to billions of believers. And knowing almost nothing about it–as I did before my semester “abroad” at a Christian college–greatly hinders a person’s ability to participate knowledgeably in our country’s most important cultural discussions. Atheist or believer, Jewish or Christian, I hope–and pray–that this holiday season will inspire us all to learn a little more about the book in whose shadow we all live.
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