Posted by Kevin on April 5th, 2009
I just got back to Providence after a pair of events in Oberlin, my lovably liberal Ohio hometown.
Big ups to the Oberlin Bookstore, Mindfair Books, Rev. Greg McGonigle (my new favorite Unitarian Universalist minister), and the OC Office of Religious Life for hosting me, setting up the event, and getting folks out to see it. The reading was well-attended (around 200 people, only 10 of whom were directly related to me), and my new multimedia presentation went off without a hitch.
After the presentation, I got to meet some of Oberlin’s religious leaders, including Father Brian Wilbert, who leads Christ Church, an Episcopalian congregation across town..
Just as a reminder, I’ll be doing three more book events this week, all of which are wide open to the public. The first, at 7 PM on Tuesday, is right here on Brown’s campus (Salomon 001). The second, at 7 PM on Friday (a good Friday indeed!) is in Lynchburg, Virginia, at the Wards Rd. Barnes & Noble right next to Liberty’s campus. The third is also in Lynchburg, at Givens Books, beginning around 10 AM. Hope to see some blog readers at all three!
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Posted by Kevin on April 3rd, 2009
As I’ve mentioned before, getting The Unlikely Disciple stocked in the Liberty campus bookstore has been harder than passing a camel through the eye of a needle. First, Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr. pulled it from the shelves. Then, after being reviewed (and approved) by a faculty committee, the book returned to the shelves, accompanied by a three-paragraph disclaimer, which you can see hovering above the books in the photo below.
The full text of the disclaimer reads:
Readers of the Unlikely Disciple should be aware that many factual inaccuracies were identified in this book by Liberty University faculty and staff reviewers. Some examples of the factual errors: the book quotes Dr. Falwell as saying the third world doesn’t need food and water, only the gospel. He never made such a statement and often preached that Christians should not expect the hungry and the homeless to accept the gospel until Christians had first met their needs to be fed and clothed.
The book also perpetuates the myth that Dr. Falwell accused Tinky Winky of being gay. In fact, Dr. Falwell had never heard of Tinky Winky when an AP reporter asked him about an editorial in his National Liberty Journal newspaper that cited reports from the Washington Post that Tinky Winky might have been meant to portray a “gay” character. The book is well written but contains quite a bit of fiction.
In the opinion of the reviewers, these inaccuracies raise questions about the credibility of the author and the accuracy of any unverifiable statements or quotes contained in the book. Readers should be skeptical about the veracity of any information contained in The Unlikely Disciple. Readers are also cautioned that The Unlikely Disciple contains offensive sexual references that Liberty University does not recommend for student readers.
I wasn’t going to address the disclaimer publicly, but I’ve gotten enough e-mails from Liberty students asking about the alleged inaccuracies in the book that I felt I had to respond. Until I’m sent a list of the “many” factual errors in the book, I can assume that the only two worth rebutting are the ones mentioned on the disclaimer. So let’s talk about those.
1) “The book quotes Dr. Falwell as saying the third world doesn’t need food and water, only the gospel. He never made such a statement.”
In a convocation speech he gave during my Liberty semester, Dr. Falwell said, “What is it that world citizens need most today? As hungry as some are, it’s not food. It is not material things. It is not education. What this world needs most is the word of God.”
For the audio clip of this quote, click here.
2) “The book also perpetuates the myth that Dr. Falwell accused Tinky Winky of being gay.”
Not only does the book not perpetuate the Tinky Winky myth, it actively dispels it. From page 193:
“At one point, we’re talking about my upcoming interview with Dr. Falwell, and Max tells me that I should ask him about the time he “outed the gay Teletubby.” I remember learning that Dr. Falwell’s comments about Tinky-Winky may not have been entirely his – they originated in an unsigned editorial in his National Liberty Journal newsletter.”
3) As for the “offensive sexual references” bit, I’ll plead guilty as charged. However, I don’t think that Liberty students are too delicate to read a little blue humor, especially given that the vast majority of the sex references in the book were made by Liberty students.
I have tons of respect for Liberty and its students, many of whom have written me supportive notes since the book came out. And as I said before, I’m glad that the bookstore committee decided to stock the book (and that they called it “well-written” — blurb for the paperback edition?). But this disclaimer has me shaking my head. It’s one thing to dislike my book. It’s another to attack my credibility with false allegations. In the face of a book that attempts to portray Liberty fairly and even-handedly, formulating a sloppy, ad hominem response like the one posted in the Liberty bookstore hardly seems like the reasonable – or the Christian – thing to do.
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Posted by Kevin on April 3rd, 2009
Esquire.com is now running an excerpt of my book, a section about Liberty’s GNED and GNED II classes and the interesting, controversial things I found being taught in them. Check it out here.
(Liberty students: I’ve heard that LU’s internet filter blocks Esquire.com, funnily enough. I’ll look for a workaround, but in the meantime, try reading it off-campus.)
If you’re counting, that makes four excerpts from The Unlikely Disciple available for free online. I feel like the freaking Wikipedia over here. The other three are below:
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Posted by Kevin on April 1st, 2009
As the book tour kicks off, I’ll be speaking about The Unlikely Disciple and my semester at Liberty tomorrow evening, April 2, at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio (my hometown!). If you’re local and want to stop by, please do — the event will be in the Science Center, West Lecture Hall, at 8 PM, and I’ll be hanging around and signing books after.
Also, a few more press mentions rolled in this week.
- The Providence Journal reviewed TUD in the Sunday Lifebeat section. The whole thing is here, and here’s the closing paragraph: “The Unlikely Disciple is by turns appealing and appalling, laugh-out-loud funny and sobering, serious and silly — just like a semester at college. Kevin Roose has produced a book that is fair, empathetic, thoughtful, touching, consistently entertaining, and a harbinger of more good writing to come. Way to go, Rooster!”
- The Christian Science Monitor liked the book, too. Full review here, and a quote: “Telling a story only an outsider on the inside could report, Roose shines in his ability to present fundamentalist Christian life with crystal-clear detail. His fresh eye and knack for levity…serve to effectively illuminate life at Liberty. “The Unlikely Disciple” deserves a big “Amen.”
- Finally, SMITH Magazine’s Memoirville project just posted a radio-style audio interview, in which I talk to Jessica Naudziunas about the motives, misadventures, and lessons from my Liberty semester. Thanks to Jessica for conducting a fun interview, and to John McGarry of Brown Student Radio for producing the piece.
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