Revelation, Redemption, and Regret

Frank Schaeffer on his journey from evangelical royalty to exile

Please check out my new podcast interview with Frank Schaeffer, a former evangelical superstar and an author whose bestselling books include Crazy for God and Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, among many others (if you watch it, please remember to ‘like’, ‘subscribe’, and ‘share’). Frank’s father Francis Schaeffer (1912–1984), was one of the founders of the modern evangelical movement which brought together Evangelical Christianity and politics. In Crazy for God, he recalls his childhood in Switzerland as one long indoctrination into his parent’s worldview:

Our theology taught us that we were mere sojourners in an alien land, temporary subjects of earth, citizens only of heaven. We were separated from the world, even from all those other born-again American Christians back home who, to outsiders, must have looked very much like us. But to we Schaeffers, most Protestants were the “other.” Perhaps they were part of ministries that asked for money rather than really trusting the Lord to meet their needs. Perhaps they had compromised on some point of theology. We did the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way.

Living with a mother and father who defended their theological ideas all day, in a household where lunch and dinner were often two or three hours long as the discussions continued—“discussions” is not really the right word, since what happened was that a guest would ask a question and then Dad, Fidel Castro-like, would hold forth for several hours—I grew up with a gift for verbal communication. And I had a flair for vocabulary that maybe only a dyslexic raised with no TV, and who had a mother who read out loud, could acquire. Adults who talked to me told my parents that I was the most well-spoken child they had ever met. What they didn’t know was that my verbal abilities were like a circus trick. Professional proselytizers were raising me: sweet, sincere—but preoccupied—proselytizers.

As a young man, he was considered a future superstar of the Evangelical scene, spending time with Ronald Reagan and Billy Graham. Jerry Falwell loaned him a private plane to tour the country, spreading the “word of God”. Slowly he realized the rampant corruption and greed inside the movement. Finally, he walked away from it.