(I used to like this guy when I was younger. I thought he might be able to bring some intellectual integrity to the religious claims of evangelicals. Now that I am older I prefer his son's perspective which acknowledges the goofiness and tries to live and speak authentically even when it doesn't support the "God said, I believe it, That settles it" mentality that so distorted my own early 'born again' training.)Even Schaeffer's father said the powerful preachers they hobnobbed with were "not our sort of people." Schaeffer goes further in "Crazy for God": "In public they maintained an image that was usually quite smooth. In private they ranged from unreconstructed bigot reactionaries like Jerry Falwell, to Dr. [James] Dobson, the most power-hungry and ambitious person I have ever met, to Billy Graham, a very weird man indeed who lived an oddly sheltered life in a celebrity/ministry cocoon, to Pat Robertson, who would have a hard time finding work in any job where hearing voices is not a requirement."
http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/12/18/frank_schaeffers_roundabout_journey_to_find_faith/
That sort of talk has made the book a hit with the left, including a long review from novelist and onetime L'Abri tourist Jane Smiley in The Nation. But Schaeffer emphasizes that he was trying to tell his own story, not simply become a culture-war turncoat. And he has not turned away from religion, having joined the Greek Orthodox faith.
"At one point in your life, you think faith is an actual thing in itself that you've made some conclusion about. You say things like 'I believe.' I think what Mother Teresa woke up to maybe at some point and that certainly would describe my own journey too, in terms of faith, is that you can't really say 'I believe.' What you say is, 'I hope' something. 'I hope this is true.' And to me that's what faith is."
Crazy for God (and that ain't necessarily a good thing)*
* contrary to what many preachers and evangelists might tell you.
1 comment:
Thanks for this link Len. Years ago I read "Dancing Alone," Franky S's conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy. A fine book and story but somewhat reactionary. I'm heartened to read that he is more reflective these days. For all of us it's the balance between mystic and rebel.
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