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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
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A review of this book I wrote for publication did not make the cut. Rather than have it never see light, here it is:

Better Late Than Never

Edmund D. Cohen

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 (New York: Da Capo Press, 2008 ISBN: 978-0306817502) 448pp. Paperback $16.00

This memoir will almost certainly be the last insider expos��� from a significant figure in the Religious Right movement of the 1980s. Other secondary figures, such as Gerard Straub, Austin Miles and David Brock, published expos���s while their experiences were still current. Schaeffer has waited until he was almost elderly, to come to terms with things that took place a generation earlier. Still, his memoir--taken together with some additional disclosures in his Huffington Post pieces and interviews such as the one on "Fresh Air with Terry Gross"--is indispensable as primary source material.

Frank Schaeffer--known in those days as "Franky"--is the son of Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984.) A graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary in its early days and a prot���g��� of J. Gresham Machen, the elder Schaeffer had been formed by the marginalization of fundamentalists by modernists in the early Twentieth Century. He became prominent as the author of popular fundamentalist Christian books that were nonetheless literate and had a patina of intellectual respectability. He wrote about how the humanities and Christian faith necessarily had to be reconcilable. His readers seemed not to notice that he never quite reached the point of effecting any such reconciliation. He founded and operated a Christian retreat center at L'Abri, Switzerland, with an eye to evangelizing veterans of the sixties counterculture. Together with the renowned pediatric surgeon, C. Everett Koop, the elder Schaeffer made reaction against the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision into a key rallying point for the emerging Religious Right movement. Before the two took it up, opposition to abortion had been seen as a Roman Catholic specialty. Some conservative Protestant bodies had to reverse staked-out pro-choice positions, in order to be on what became an anti-abortion band wagon.

During his final two or three years while he was dying of cancer, the elder Schaeffer went off on a militant theocratic tangent. He made high-profile, railing pronouncements to the effect that Christians were obligated take over political power in America, and disenfranchise those not sharing their beliefs.

Frank Schaeffer grew up in L'abri. The lack of suitable schooling there shut him out of the elite stateside higher education that was normal for that family. But he showed talent for fiction writing and film-making. He honed his skills on compelling anti-abortion videos, shown in many a church basement in the eighties. During his father's last years, he often served as a stand-in speaker for him. He was present when his father hobnobbed with the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson--colorfully expressing disdain for them afterwards in private.

Within the four corners of the memoir, there ought to be more than there is, answering to its expansive title. It mostly describes the minutia of Frank Schaeffer's early life. It is as if he never got past the mode of writing for an adoring readership, hungry for any scrap of information about its royal family. The Schaeffer family may have been a bit dysfunctional, but not in any extraordinary or interesting way. The memoir further exasperates by its author's persistence in esteeming himself more interesting than he really is. It contains little analysis. There is little to put what it does cover into a context beyond its author's immediate personal experience. Were it to be judged exclusively on its merit as writing, this memoir would be a doorstop rather than a milestone marker.

That said, there is a virtue here that deserves appreciation. Frank Schaeffer still yearns for those parts of Christian doctrine that exort devotees to be patient, tolerant, benign and do no harm. What he drives at but does not articulate is his astonishment that his father, whose maturity as a Christian ought supposedly to have endowed him with a reliable ethical compass, could be led down a primrose path by such inferiors as Robertson, Falwell and Paul Weyrich.

While it may have taken him way too long to sort that all out, Frank comes off as a decent person. One gains the distinct impression that there are things he could not be induced to do. Eventually he converted to Eastern Orthodoxy. He opted for an unchanging form of Christianity, allowing no room for its clergy to establish a cult of personality, or to politicize the faithful. Epistemology never interested him. For him, religion is a practical matter of personal integration and social organization. He speaks so respectfully of other religions and of Secular Humanism that he could pass for agnostic.

Even before he arrived at the viewpoint the memoir reflects, Frank Schaeffer did attempt to warn against electing George W. Bush President. Frank was genuine enough about his pro-life views to oppose the death penalty just as he opposed abortion. For him, the proliferation of executions while Bush was governor of Texas sounded an alarm bell. When he witnessed the professing Christian governor not only refuse to delay Karla Faye Tucker's execution, but do so laughing and smirking, Frank made up his mind that such a man ought not be President. In 2000, he made the rounds of the right-wing radio talk shows, campaigning for John McCain. In 2008, he voted for Obama. Good for him!

Good soldiers clean their plates! For GI's or generals, the rule is the same, "Eat all you take on your plate." And here's a true story to prove it: Not long ago, General Eisenhower found himself facing a mountain of pork, potatoes and spinach. A cafeteria serving woman, awed by his four stars, had given him double helpings! So the Supreme Commander of the Allied Invasion Forces, remembering his own rule, gallantly ate it all. This simple rule has helped the Army save enormous amounts of food. Can civilians do any less? ..... 1944 National Dairy Products Corporation War Bond Ad, A3749A.
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This Item is an original Magazine ad, taken from a vintage magazine of the year indicated. The ad is suitable for framing and displaying in your home or office. The scan of this item was taken through plastic film, however it is an accurate representation of the item. The nominal size is 10.5 inches by 14 inches.

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 [CRAZY FOR GOD -OS]
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