NewsBusters has a case which is right up there with that survey that found Atheists believe in fairies.
This is just too funny! A liberal Ivy League student decides to enroll at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University in Virgina and write a book exposé (The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner’s Semester at America’s Holiest University) supposedly showing the intolerance that must be there, or so he thought. The liberal student, however, was surprised to find little of the expected intolerance but is now finding plenty of it from the left because his book was not an outright condemnation of Liberty University nor of Jerry Falwell whom he met during his semester there. An AP story by Eric Tucker sets the scene:
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Kevin Roose managed to blend in during his single semester at Liberty University, attending lectures on the myth of evolution and the sin of homosexuality, and joining fellow students on a mission trip to evangelize partyers on spring break.
Roose had transferred to the Virginia campus from Brown University in Providence, a famously liberal member of the Ivy League. His Liberty classmates knew about the switch, but he kept something more important hidden: He planned to write a book about his experience at the school founded by fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell.
Roose explains the reason for his infiltration:
“As a responsible American citizen, I couldn’t just ignore the fact that there are a lot of Christian college students out there,” said Roose, 21, now a Brown senior. “If I wanted my education to be well-rounded, I had to branch out and include these people that I just really had no exposure to.”
We have to give Roose credit here. Unlike most liberals, he actually opened himself up to contrary ideas.
Always a mistake if you’re wrong in the first place!
Something his parents found hard to understand:
Roose’s parents, liberal Quakers who once worked for Ralph Nader, were nervous about their son being exposed to Falwell’s views. Still, Roose transferred to Liberty for the spring 2007 semester.
He was determined to not mock the school, thinking it would be too easy _ and unfair. He aimed to immerse himself in the culture, examine what conservative Christians believe and see if he could find some common ground. He had less weighty questions too: How did they spend Friday nights? Did they use Facebook? Did they go on dates? Did they watch “Gossip Girl?”
Did they Twitter? Did they use electricity? Did they eat with utensils?
He lined up a publisher _ Grand Central Publishing _ and arrived at the Lynchburg campus prepared for “hostile ideologues who spent all their time plotting abortion clinic protests and sewing Hillary Clinton voodoo dolls.”
Instead, he found that “not only are they not that, but they’re rigorously normal.”
GASP! But how can that be? Haven’t all good liberals been taught that Liberty University students are a bunch of ignorant hateful yahoos foaming at the mouth? Kevin Roose appeared to have strayed dangerously from the Party Line.
…And now something that will really disturb the “tolerant” liberals:
Once ambivalent about faith, Roose now prays to God regularly _ for his own well-being and on behalf of others. He said he owns several translations of the Bible and has recently been rereading meditations from the letters of John on using love and compassion to solve cultural conflicts.
He’s even considering joining a church.
This latter must be very upsetting to liberals including his own parents. Sonny Boy! Where did we go wrong? To see just how upset the liberals are over this book, just read a few examples of intolerace in the Huffington Post comments section:
Wow, that must be a pretty good brainwashing program they’ve got there. That or this guy is weak sauce. You wouldn’t catch me praying to some magic sky daddy if I spent a THOUSAND years at Liberty “University.”
He should have gone to a deprogrammer to complete the experience.
I wish he’d done an MRI before and after. It appears he’s been brainwashed. Long periods of time with cults will do that.
I’m a little worried about Kevin’s soul now that he’s been programmed. He seems strong and intelligent though, so there’s still hope for him. I’ll be praying for his salvation from the radical right.
I hope he’s been debriefed and re-socialized into the real world. Never visit the darkside.
So it turns out that Kevin Roose did discover intolerance due to spending a semester at Liberty University and, as we can see from these comments, it is now coming from the left.
An thus the irony. He did discover intolerance, just not where he thought it came from.
Ah, the left never fails to deliver, does it?
Comments on: "Irony in Spades" (1)
A guy was on the radio talking about a book he has written on how his life was completely transformed, for the better, by becoming a father to twin boys.
I’ve gone through the same process myself, and could relate to what he was saying.
In a very similar way, the same liberal left would be putting this down to brainwashing, greeting the news that I feel happier and more content with life when my children came on the scene, and have become a better person for it.
To me, the reaction shows disrespect for an individual’s opinion and choice, and a dangerous unwillingness to be open to learn something.