I discovered the writings of Francis Schaeffer only a few years before he died in 1984. He was a Christian theologian and philosopher, opposed to theological modernism and encouraging a presuppositional approach to Christian apologetics. Many would say that Francis Schaeffer’s ideas were responsible for the rise of the Christian Right in the United States. That may very well be true, but it was his son, Frank Schaeffer, that helped make it huge and public - and has apparently spent much of his life regretting it.
“Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back“, by Frank Schaeffer, is a memoir of the son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. It’s a look at what it was like to grow up in the Schaeffer household, how his Mom and Dad’s beliefs, lifestyle and deep appreciation for the arts helped shape his world, the role he played in helping firmly establish himself and his Father as leaders in the evangelical/fundamentalist community, and his subsequent retreat from all of it.
I enjoyed (if that could possibly be the right word to describe it) the writings of his father, Francis Schaeffer, for many of the same reasons I enjoyed the writings of C.S. Lewis - both wrote about God and the inerrancy of the bible from an informed, articulate, intellectual vantage point that did not seem to rely solely on a “just believe it anyway” platform. In his book, Frank Schaeffer describes it like this:
“Mom and Dad were tough on intellectual ideas they disagreed with, but not on people. Ideas interested Dad, not theology per se. If he was lecturing on art, music, cultural trends, he stuck to the subject. He hated circular arguments that depended on the Bible when used against secular people who didn’t acknowledge biblical authority. He believed that you should argue on a level playing field, where both people start on common ground.
“”What’s the point of quoting the Bible to people who don’t believe it’s true?”" Dad would say.
In later years, when he started to argue for the pro-life cause, Dad always disagreed with the Bible-thumping approach that quoted verses (usually out of context) about the sacredness of life. He believed that you argued on the merits of ideas that both sides could agree on — for instance, on what the genetic potential of a fetus was, or what direction we all can agree that we want society to go in.”
This was why I enjoyed reading his Father’s works. In addition to some individual books, I still have a five volume set of The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer. I should re-read some of them now and see how his writings set with me 25 years later.
20+ years ago I read two of Frank Schaeffer’s evangelical publishing’s: A Time for Anger: the Myth of Neutrality and Addicted to Mediocrity. In Addicted to Mediocrity, Schaeffer showed how Christians had sacrificed the artistic prominence they enjoyed for centuries and settled instead for mediocrity in music, the arts, film, publishing, etc. Although Schaeffer now dismisses these books as hastily dictated and lacking artistic honesty, Addicted to Mediocrity was still significant to me at the time. I already held similar opinions (though my opinions were largely focused on the steady dumbing down of music in the non-secular world) and it was the first time I actually read someone who so completely took Christians to task over such mediocrity. Sadly, little has changed in the 25 years since it was published.
“A church split builds self-righteousness into the fabric of every new splinter group, whose only reason for existence is that they decide they are more moral and pure than their brethren.”
I like this quote for no other reason than that it so succinctly describes a church split for what it is. Clear, concise, articulate.
“When I left evangelicalism, it certainly was not because I was disillusioned with the faith of my early childhood. I have sweet (if somewhat nutty) memories of all those days of prayer, fasting, and “wrestling with principalities and powers.” We might have been deluded, but we weren’t unhappy. And there are a lot worse things than parents who keep you away from TV, grasping materialism, and hype, and let you run free and use your imagination.
I think my problem with remaining an evangelical centered on what the evangelical community became. It was the merging of the entertainment business with faith, the flippant lightweight kitsch ugliness of American Christianity, the sheer stupidity, the paranoia of the American right-wing enterprise, the platitudes married to pop culture, all of it … that made me crazy. It was just too stupid for words.”
I may not agree with all of Frank Schaeffer’s positions or current beliefs (and I feel safe in saying he would support me in that) but I can’t argue with that last statement. In my opinion, fundamental, evangelical Christianity has permanently given the word “Christian” a bad name. They have done for Christianity what traffic accident litigation lawyers have done for the legal profession - taken a group of people that are already viewed with reluctance and skepticism and indelibly branded them as deceptive, money-hungry charlatans. Sadly, most “Christian” churches perpetuate this - not only in the way they treat their own members but in the way they respond to those outside the walls of their respective compounds. There are good lawyers (really, there are) just as there are good Christians. The challenge is forming an opinion about individuals without judging them based on your perception of the whole. It would be like judging all Germans because of what happened at Auschwitz. I’m not saying it’s easy, only that it’s fair.
Next up: I’ll be reading “Tough Choices” by Carly Fiorina (former CEO of HP and the first female CEO of a Fortune 20 company). This is basically me practicing delayed gratification as I already have the new Stephen King book, “Duma Key”, sitting on my shelf waiting to be consumed. I would love to start the King book right now but I’ve had Fiorina’s book for a few months and really do want to read it.
