A Semester for a Sinner

Good Afternoon, Everyone.

My, this weather is fantastic, isn't it? Being sick is no fun when you're trying to enjoy something as wonderfully celestial as a changing season, but what can I do?

I am reading a great book at the moment. It is called "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University" by Kevin Roose. Roose is a student at Brown who decided to take a semester undercover at Liberty University, the old stomping grounds of the late Jerry Falwell. Roose did not grow up with any strong religious beliefs, nor are the people in his life particularly conservative in any sense of the word.

And yet, here he is, spending a semester learning, observing, and participating in an institution that is the polar extreme of his normal lifestyle. Liberty is the type of place where students are held to an extremely high standard of conduct. For instance, the limit on guy/girl displays of affection in public and private are limited to hand holding. You are not allowed to hug for more than 3 seconds. You have to keep your hair short. A lot of folks are planning to practice the "Full Quiver" method of child birth once they are married, which is basically the idea of having as many children as possible because this is God's greatest gift.

Without any of my own judgements on these things, they also teach classes that arm you against the theory of evolution, defend the literal significance of a young, created earth, and the historical veracity of Noah's Ark.

Like I said, this is not the place for me to make my own judgements on these things known. No one is asking and it really isn't relevant. But what is fascinating is the idea of someone who comes from a completely foreign point of view trying to understand it and experience it with an open mind. And that is the truth of the matter: Roose is a not a believer by any means, but he does have an open mind.

However, I do find it unsettling that a lot of what is represented by Liberty and by the late Dr. Falwell are shadows cast on all of Christianity. Liberty is an extreme, and yet I get the feeling that many people believe that all Christians must think the same things in the same way that some idiots believe that all Muslims must be terrorists and that all British people drink tea (well, they do).

The truth is that Christianity, for better or for worse, is as varied and complex as anything else in this life. Kind of like a field of snow, it might look like the same thing from a distant, but upon inspection we find that all of those little snowflakes are perfectly unique and different.

Nothing like ending an update with a pretty awesome cliche.

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Jason Tatum.

Regular Updates @ www.jasontatum.org

"Resurgam".