Book Club #6: Crazy for God by Frank Schaeffer

[Bethella]

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

 

I liked this one. Something about his openness about what he though during his evangelical days appealed to me. One thing that stuck out to me in the craziness of his childhood was the overly-frank sex talks/information he got from his mother. Was anyone else disturbed by it? While I think that parents should be teaching their children about sex, it seemed like his mother crossed a line talking about her own sex life to a young child. But maybe I'm just a prude.

 

I haven't had any exposure to Schaeffer's work outside of this book, so I'm wondering what other people who know more about him think about his claims regarding his influence in the development of the evangelical pro-life movement. Do you think he was as influential as he made himself out to be? Or is he inflating or exaggerating his importance? I can't help wondering if the movement would have developed the way it did without his contributions. Given the other fundies who were out there at that time (that I know more about) I suspect that it would have developed anyway, but maybe not. What did other people think?

 

 

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Updated Schedule

July 1: In the Beginning: The Story of the King James Bible and How it Changed a Nation, a Language and a Culture by Alister McGrath

August 1: Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by John Krackauer

September 1: Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction by John Fea

October 1: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

[Arete]

I think Frankie's father was influencial in shaping the evangelical movement in the US, not Jr. Schaeffer Senior was the big player in evangelical power politics, in terms of giving it theological/intellectual justifications. Jr eventually converted to Orthodox Christianity, and for a while tried to set himself up as some sort of lay spokesman. He was always angry and alway bitter toward the people he called the "cradle Orthodox", or people who were Orthodox by birth. He had given up the evangelical politics at that point, in exchange for holier-than-thou religious legalism. I'm not sure if he is even Orthodox anymore, but it would be a relief to hear he has stopped and found another way to work through his daddy issues.

Sorry, I know he is a righteous liberal now, but I have always found him to be a righteous bore with a highly overinflated sense of his own importance.

[ADoyle90815]

I got to see Frankie speak at something about the fundie Christian takeover of the Republican party, but he said that it was his father who had a major influence in that movement.That was a little over 2 years ago, but at the time, he did claim to be an Orthodox Christian, but I'm not sure if he would make that claim now.

[Gertie]

I agree that the way his mom talked to him about her sex life seems kind of over-the-top (and I'm not a prude, I don't think). But he made it seem like his mom was an over-sharer on many topics, not just that one, e.g. telling Frankie and his sisters the secrets/confessions of the girls staying at l'Abri.

I don't know of the Schaeffers at all, apart from this book. I also wasn't familiar with l'Abri, which apparently is still going strong. So this was a whole new topic for me. I'm not done the book yet--I'm only at the part where Frank is filming the "how should we then live" movies. I go back and forth between finding it interesting, and finding Frank annoying (but I think I always have this problem with memoirs... they are by nature very self-centred, which tends to irritate me). I'm looking forward to getting the part where he starts to have a crisis of faith.

I found this article from a little over a year ago, where he basically says that he doesn't believe anything at all, but still goes to the orthodox church and receives communion, which he explains here but I still don't understand it (something to do with redemption): http://www.theird.org/page.aspx?pid=2285

[Gertie]

Ok, I'm now at the end of the book, and to my surprise (having only read the title and not having a clue who Frank Schaeffer was), his title claim "Helped Found the Religious Right" seems ridiculously exaggerated. The religious right was already there. He sold them books and movies and went on their shows and did talks for them, but I don't see how he helped found it in any way. I wonder if that is his own exaggeration, or if (my guess) the publisher thought that title was more interesting/dramatic.

It was interesting to read about the "politicization" of the religious right.

In general I didn't like Frank very much based on this book (and I didn't enjoy the book that much either, but it was ok enough to make it through to the end). I did however like this quote:

But what if the absolute consistency on any issue from the left or right, religious or secular, is an indication of mediocre intelligence and a lack of intellectual honesty? What if the world is a complex place? What if leadership requires flexibility? What if ideology is a bad substitute for common sense? What if ideological consistency, let along "purity," is a sign of small mindedness, even stupidity?

I don't necessarily agree that absolute/ideological consistency is a sign of stupidity (I imagine there are other factors involved in how/why someone gets trapped in religious ideology), but I think this is on the right track--the world is a complex place and ideology is used as a substitute for common sense. In fact that's one of my biggest problems with religion--ignoring common sense and your own in-built morals and justifying acts (e.g. discrimination, honor killings, etc.) using your ideology.