Deconversion (Sort Of) Of Frank Schaeffer (Son Of Francis Schaeffer)

[Llwellyn]

He’s gone from steeped-in-the-blood Christian to vocal nonbeliever, from Christian conservative to liberal Democrat, from Hollywood director to novelist, from angry young man to slightly less angry older man — chronicled in two best-sellers, “Crazy for God” and “Sex, Mom & God.”  But the new book, “Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God,” is less memoir and more distillation of wisdom he’s culled from his own journey.  “One of my aims is to unhook them from allegiance to the Bible as something they follow instead of their conscience or, ironically, the example of Jesus,” he said. “That’s the choice you have to make if you are going to be a humanist Christian. I want to introduce younger evangelicals to the idea that they have to recalibrate their loyalty. They can live by the Bible or live by Jesus. They can’t do both.”

 

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/06/12/atheist-believer-frank-schaeffer-bit/

 

[Blood]

I'm shocked. Francis Schaeffer was a major voice of the nonsense known as "presuppositional apologetics."

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Schaeffer

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Good, thinkers who really think. So many believers get stuck in the "I've got to do contortions of reasoning to prove it is true, even though it is all by faith". My nephew has a great mind, and instantly starts going to obscure logic defenses when trying to do apologetics, which I have to point out has nothing at all to do with why he believes or converted.

[DoubtingNate]

His novel 'and God said Billy' is absolutely hysterical. It's about a guy who thinks he is called by God to go to Hollywood and make Christian movies. His inner monologue is so deluded and twisted as he jusyifies all the awful things he does as part of Gods plan. I think you guys would all get a kick out of it.

[Llwellyn]

I haven't read the book you just mentioned, but I've read the "Calvin Becker Trilogy" which is semi-autobiographical.  There were moments reading those books that I though the neighbors were going to be disturbed by my high-volume laughter.  Being a child of a Calvinist missionary myself, I can definitely identify with Frank Schaefer and his character Calvin Becker.  I haven't read this most recent book, though.  My father met Francis Schaefer in Switzerland when he stayed at the L'Abri. I've also been through an "Eastern Orthodox Phase," so, there are definitely points of connection between me and junior.  Would like to meet him some day as I admire him and his honesty.

[♦ ficino ♦]

When I was in college and in IVCF, Francis Schaefer was about as high as one could get in influence. Everyone hung on everything he wrote. He seemed not only intellectual but cool in not simply ignoring modern culture as raving fundies did. Instead, he gave the impression of understanding, sympathizing (to a bit - i.e. with how "modern man" is lost), and then critiquing.

 

Anyone who had gone to L'Abri came back with some of the aura.

 

I wonder who plays that role today.

[bornagainathiest]

The L'Abri fellowship?  Now there's a name that brings a bitter taste to my mouth.  

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Ok, I'd better explain myself.

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P, the man who was my to become my spiritual 'father' and who lead me to Christ felt that he was being called by God to go to Switzerland and partake of the outpouring of the holy spirit that was happening under Schaefer's (Senior) tutelage. And sure enough (as Ficino indicated) P came back radiating holiness - much as Moses came down from Sinai, shining from his close proximity to God. (Sarcasm, on both counts.)

 

This happened years before P invited me to his church's Bible study meetings and before I gave myself to Christ.

I know about P's history in our local church because people fell over themselves to tell me all about him.  Even now, decades later, they still hold him in high regard and still talk about L'Abri and Schaefer in glowing terms.  Living in the same small community where I was born, raised and went to church, I still get to see P from time to time and still cut him dead whenever I do.  

 

Why do I do this?

Because I'm an atheist?  Because I feel uncomfortable about my Christian past?  Because I can't frame a suitable argument against his unshakable faith?  

 

Nope.  None of the above.

P encouraged me to go into a business venture with him (and why shouldn't I have trusted a brother in Christ?) and everything looked just dandy for a while.  Then life threw me a series of curve balls and my faith began to waver.  My dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and I was laid off from work.  Money became tight and our family needed more and more funds to pay for dad's medical costs.  

 

Ok, there was a LOT of prayer uttered on our behalf by the church and SOME money was forthcoming from them. 

But not nearly enough.  So I went to see P in private and asked if he would return to me what I put in to his venture.  You'll note that I didn't ask for any profits returned on the venture - only what I put into it.  That was the honest, honorable and 'Christian' thing to do, right?  

 

So P readily agreed, calling my contribution, his 'debt of honor' that he'd certainly pay back to me.    What I didn't know then and what I never even suspected (why would I suspect my spiritual father of any wrongdoing?) was that P had pocketed my money and 'configured' the financial arrangements so that I wouldn't be able to get a red cent out of him or his company.  That was back in 80's.  Now fast forward to 2014.

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WHERE'S MY ****ING $12,500, YOU SMILING, DECEITFUL, TWO-FACED S.O.B...?

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That's why I never speak to P and why the names Schaefer and L'Abri make me sick.