Book Alert / God's Harvard

God's Harvard -- A Christian College on a Mission to Save America by Hanna Rosin, Harcourt $25, 296 pages, ISBN #0151012628. Endnotes, no index, bibliography or illustrations.

If what comes to mind when you think of conservative Christians is televangelism, you're behind the times, according to Washington Post writer Hanna Rosin, who spent 18 months immersed in the right wing's latest venture, seven-year-old Patrick Henry College, just outside Washington, D.C.

The founders of Patrick Henry focus laser intensity on their mission -- to educate the best and the brightest of young conservatives and to integrate them into the next generation of America's political, scientific, business and entertainment leaders. Who then are these students and why should they matter?

They are mostly home schooled, many have scored a perfect 1600 on their SATs, and a number turned away Ivy League schools to attend Patrick Henry. Many have taken vows of chastity until marriage. Their stated mission is to save a culture gone awry, and rather than railing at sin from the margins, a la Jerry Falwell, they seek to blend in with the culture itself. Rosin foresees their influence will be felt in elective politics as early as the 2008 election.