Saturday, March 28, 2009

Kevin Roose

From Liz Barry's interview with Kevin Roose, author of The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University, in the Lynchburg News & Advance:

What was it like to interview (the late) Jerry Falwell?

It was nerve-wracking. Jerry Falwell, in my family, was sort of like Voldemort. You didn’t say his name if you didn’t have to. But I really wanted to see, “Is this guy as villainous as he appears in the media?” When I got to interview him, I actually found he was a likable guy. I didn’t agree with anything he said, but after meeting him, I understood why he had this huge following and why he had touched so many people’s lives. The Jerry Falwell that most Americans know is not the real Jerry Falwell, at least not the whole Jerry Falwell.

What’s was the most outrageous thing you saw at Liberty?

Probably the most outrageous thing I saw there was the “Every Man’s Battle” group, the group for recovering masturbation addicts. To be fair, most Liberty students that I’ve talked to about that also think it’s ridiculous and can’t believe it exists. I think it’s just one of the things where I have to pinch myself and say, ‘Yeah, I went there and it exists and it still exists and people are still going to it.’

But, you know what, more power to them. To put it in Christian terms, “I’ll let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
Read the complete Q & A.

--Marshal Zeringue