finding reality

My reading of things emergent and progressive have left me with the feeling that the people who write those things have no idea of the kinds of people they ridicule and denigrate. I've tried to think differently, no doubt many people have many different experiences than I have had in my years, and no doubt bad experiences do happen, and I know that conservative Christians can be far from perfect. But my overall impression has been that these people react more to caricatures than to real people, and to what people of their own like minds say about conservative Christians than in what those conservatives are really like.

That is what happened to this young person, one Kevin Ross, who has recently published a book called "The Unlikely Disciple: A Sinner's Semester at America's Holiest University". He was a liberal 'christian' who decided to get some first-hand knowledge of the 'enemy' by spending a semester as a student at Liberty University, the university founded by Jerry Falwell. His reasons may have been slightly questionable (he intended to write about the wrongs he found there, thinking it was full of hate and intolerance and all PC-sins). His experience was, however, much different than his expectations.

Liberal Student Infiltrates Liberty University to Write Exposé and Discovers Intolerance...From the Left

Roose researched the school by joining as many activites as possible. He accompanied classmates on a spring break missionary trip to Daytona Beach. He visited a campus support group for chronic masturbators, where students were taught to curb impure thoughts. And he joined the choir at Falwell's Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Roose scored an interview with the preacher for the school newspaper, right before Falwell died in May of that year. Roose decided against confronting him over his views on liberals, gays and other hot-button topics, and instead learned about the man himself, discovering among other things that the pastor loved diet peach Snapple and the TV show "24."

Perhaps the part that gives the best news is this here.

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.