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A review by stevenyenzer
The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University by Kevin Roose
3.0
Roose is a gifted journalist and takes a very empathetic approach to his subject matter.
I did feel somewhat uneasy about the dishonesty of his approach, however. For one, I didn’t think the fact that he carefully avoided saying anything deceptive absolved him of any ethical responsibility. He was lying through omission by not sharing something that would have (by his own admission) drastically altered the way people behaved toward him. For another, I think it was pretty unethical for him to date “Anna” for any period of time. I felt pretty uncomfortable with that whole situation.
I liked the results of this undercover reporting, however. I was interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at life at Liberty, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the deception.
One other issue I had was with Roose’s attitude toward homophobia. He correctly identifies casual homophobia as harmful and even dangerous, but his favorite Liberty student seems to be the most casually homophobic of all. I guess since Roose liked Jersey Joey (whose humor seems almost entirely based around cleverly suggesting his heterosexual peers are gay) his homophobia is just a funny joke.
I did feel somewhat uneasy about the dishonesty of his approach, however. For one, I didn’t think the fact that he carefully avoided saying anything deceptive absolved him of any ethical responsibility. He was lying through omission by not sharing something that would have (by his own admission) drastically altered the way people behaved toward him. For another, I think it was pretty unethical for him to date “Anna” for any period of time. I felt pretty uncomfortable with that whole situation.
I liked the results of this undercover reporting, however. I was interested in getting a behind-the-scenes look at life at Liberty, and that wouldn’t have been possible without the deception.
One other issue I had was with Roose’s attitude toward homophobia. He correctly identifies casual homophobia as harmful and even dangerous, but his favorite Liberty student seems to be the most casually homophobic of all. I guess since Roose liked Jersey Joey (whose humor seems almost entirely based around cleverly suggesting his heterosexual peers are gay) his homophobia is just a funny joke.