Intersections: Where Faith Meets Life – by Bob Weathers

Suddenly, there he was. Kevin Roose, at a televised Brown University forum, making a carefully written presentation of his book, “The Unlikely Disciple.” I sat down and turned up the volume.

Bob Weathers

Roose, you may know, is the Brown University senior who infiltrated Liberty University for the purpose of writing this book. For Roose it was a clandestine operation. He professes to be a Quaker, but does not equate that with being a born-again Christian. He transferred from the liberal bastion of Brown to the famously conservative Liberty for one semester. He did not tell anyone at Liberty that he was planning to write a book, or that he would be returning to Brown. Like an undercover journalist, he immersed himself in life at Liberty, doing all that he could in one semester. He took as many classes as allowed, attended counseling sessions, joined extracurricular groups, and even participated in a short-term evangelistic mission trip. Never revealing his true identity.

Deceptive? Sure. So I expected to hear the young journalism student snobbishly portray the Christians at LU as ignorant and hateful.

But mostly I found that Roose was truly a student of his environment. Smart, honest, articulate, and respectful of his LU peers, his narrative caused me to pause and consider how, indeed, evangelical Christians are perceived by the unchurched and the lost.

First, he wrestled with the disparity between the loving attitudes of the Christians he met and their political views. He voiced an unwavering commitment to “tolerance” and so perceived the Liberty students to be completely intolerant based on their stances against homosexuality, abortion, and so forth. As I listened to him, I was reminded how often people cannot get past our political views to see the Jesus we preach.

Nevertheless, second, he disclosed his fear that once his true identity and purpose were exposed, his new Liberty friends would be livid and would retaliate by cutting him off. Many of these people, he said, had become good friends and he genuinely liked them. But to their credit, most of them took it in stride and extended to him love, forgiveness, and friendship.

He was relieved. And so was I. Because the one thing that will impact the world even more than our politics is our love.