"Sequels are never equals". There is much truth in that contemporary saying that could be applied to Franky (now Frank) Schaeffer, the son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer. Frank has proving to be the troublesome progeny of two of the most important figures within intellectual evangelicalism.
But apparently that heritage is not something Frank is too proud of. He has already written novels depicting life in a strict, fundamentalist household including Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma. His recent book is titled 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. His official website describes him as a "survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood." When one compares Evangelicalism to a deadly and devastating disease that has claimed thousands of lives it leaves no room for misunderstanding where he stands.
Throughout the book Frank takes aim directly at his mother and father. Frank Schaeffer's biting criticisms are nothing new. Sadly, age has not diminished his vicious verbal assaults and cruel assaults upon those who are either unable or too charitable to reply (such as his cruel demeaning of the woman assigned as his home tutor and his unfair vitriol towards Billy Graham). Frank has historically been unrestrained in his personal attacks upon anyone who disagreed with him. His power with words makes the attacks all the more savage. But what is new is that he has unleashed this heartless cruelty upon his parents publicly.
In the book he refers to his father as a "professional proselytizer" whose intellectual evangelism was little more than "indoctrination". Those who fell for it were simply "brainwashed". He claims his father's Evangelical beliefs were merely "stunted theological convictions" which Francis held onto for "emotional reasons" that were never intellectually justified. As for his mother, Frank refers to her as a "high-powered nut," who was "best at the martyrdom game".
Os Guinness has responded by saying "with sons like this who needs enemies?" Guinness, a man no one ever labeled as a firebrand, has written a sharp rebuke of both the book and of Frank Schaeffer personally. Keep in mind that Guinness is no outsider to the Schaeffer family. He lived with Francis and Edith for over three years, served several years as one of the leaders at L'abri, and was even the best man in Franky's wedding!
Guinness allows us to see the loving side of the Schaeffers that Frank is determined to hide. Speaking of Frank long-standing verbal attacks against his parents, Guinness writes about Edith: "Several times I saw her reduced to tears in private after his barbs against her. But now in her nineties, with her failing memory, she neither fully knows nor is able to respond to all he has written about her. 'If I read it,' she said to me about one of Frank's earlier books, 'it would probably break my heart.'"
Throughout the work he also has an overt tendency to exaggerate his own importance. The title boldly claims he "helped found the Religious Right", yet to my knowledge Frank never served with the leadership of the Moral Majority nor was ever seen as a catalyst or representative of the Religous Right. Yet in one article article he confidentely asserts, "without my family’s involvement in the pro-life movement it would not exist as we know it. Evangelicals weren’t politicized until after my late father and evangelical leader Francis Schaeffer, Dr. Koop (Reagan’s soon-to-be Surgeon General) and I stirred them up over the issue of abortion in the mid-1970s. " In the book claimed to be "the prime mover and shaker when it came to making sure that Dad got truly famous within the evangelical subculture." He directed a couple of documentaries with lousy cinematography and now this guy wants to be declared potentate emeritus of Evangelicalism! The pro-life movement, like the anti-slavery movement of old, was born out of deeply held biblical convictions. While certainly Frank played a (very minor) role, it was the legalization of abortion for the first time in US history that created the massive and nearly universal Evangelical reaction. As for the fame of his father, it was Francis' brilliant mind and substantive discourse that attracted a following. At best, Frank was the dorky side-car attached to his father's impressive Harley-esque influence.
Throughout the book Frank takes pot shots at everything his mother and father stood for. He belittles his former fan base and advocates a faith which is pointedly postmodern and anti-propositional. The very truth that Francis so nobly championed has been thrown aside by his hot headed son.
How could such a thing happen? Guinness, who witnessed the inner workings of the Schaeffer family for years, offers an explanation: "The real truth is that Franky, as he then called himself, was spoiled. He was more like a poster child for Benjamin Spock than the son of 'fundamentalist missionaries.; Having been born well after his sisters, and having survived polio as a child, he was rarely challenged, disciplined, or denied. As a result, he grew up a "little Napoleon," as some of the L'Abri students called him. He would boast that he could twist his parents around his little finger, and time and again he proved it."
Francis Schaeffer did fail at many things. Like all of us he was an imperfect man. While he invested his life into the hearts and minds of thousands (thus producing an adult son who has been consumed by jealous anger), he failed to capture the heart and mind of his boy. May we serve our God well both on the field and in the home. Our mission field begins in the living room.
JG
