by Dr. Don Boys –
Frank Schaeffer is a pathetic figure. Son of famous, dedicated Christian leader Francis Schaeffer, he has declared his distaste for his father’s activities in the service of Christ. Frank has apostatized from his and his Father’s theology and politics as revealed in a recent television interview to promote his new book while at the same time bashing Christian authors for making gobs of money with their books! In that interview he declared that “Nobody is damned or going to Hell,” Christians are haters for being critical of abortion and gay rights; and “salvation is a journey.”
He added, “Atheism may be absolutely correct, or Buddhism may be. I could be completely wrong about theism.” Moreover, Dawkins, Hitchins, and Harris “could be right”! He declares that “Right Wing Christians” are “far more dangerous than the Dawkins [atheist] group.” Question: Why hasn’t Frank’s church brought him up on charges of heresy? Is his pastor as big a phony as he is?
He proudly said, “I’m an enormous fan of Obama. He’s a Christian and the greatest political leader of my lifetime.” He supported Obama for President although he claims to be an Independent, the only thing he and I have in common other than our gender. He is very critical of Americans who are critical of Obama, “telling lies about his birth or paling around with terrorists.” Like many worshipers of Obama, they refuse to admit Obama’s close ties with American-grown terrorists like Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Frank Marshall Davis, and others. Moreover, to call Obama a Christian (not simply a church member) would gag a #####.
Throughout the interview he constantly drops names of former friends like Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Tim LaHay, Jerry Jenkins, George Bush, Jack Kemp, etc., all of whom he now criticizes.
It is no surprise that he is an evolutionist, affirming, “We are an evolving species.” He declared that “None of us has access to the truth.” Well, Christ said, “I am the truth” and “Ye shall know the truth,” so we obviously must have access to truth. However, Frank would not know the truth if it smacked him down.
Schaeffer scrapes the bottom when he tells of traveling on trains in Europe as a teen when his mother would seek to lead people to Christ as he sat, head in hands, cringing with shame. Wonder what his mother would think if she knew how far the “apple” had fallen from the tree? Rotten apple that is.
In an article dated April 1, 2010, he linked the Michigan Hutaree Militia group to people like “the Jack Van Impe ministries.” That is outrageous and irresponsible journalism. I have had problems with Jack after he turned from his original Independent Baptist roots to “anyone who will support our ministry and buy our books and tapes” group. I think he sold out to stay on television, but that is his problem. Jack is not a hater or terrorist but Frank is a fool.
He boasts of predicting violence by Christians who are members of the “left behind cult.” However, only a fool, a liar, or a nut suggests that the hate-mongering militia groups are of that persuasion other than believing in a small portion of Christian eschatology. Moreover, not all militia groups are extremists.
He speaks of “religious paranoia boiling in the Tea Party” movement without documenting any examples. The Tea Party people, some of whom are longtime friends, are some of the best Christians and best people in America. Of course, every group has a few state-certified nuts lurking on the fringe—even the Greek Orthodox Church! Lurking is one thing Frank does best.
Frank then made a super dumb statement, but then it is difficult to delineate the dumb from the super dumb since he made so many. He wrote, “Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye’s Left Behind series of sixteen novels (so far!) represents everything that is most deranged about religion. What happened with this militia group [in Michigan] is that their paranoid, deranged fantasy jumped from the page into sick brains and was turned into action.” Evidently, Frank is a part-time psychologist or is into mind reading.
I don’t know Jenkins but I do know Tim LaHaye, and while Tim would be to the theological left of me, he is a noble, generous, kind, committed Christian leader who has been libeled by a pathetic son whose claim to fame is having been born to godly talented parents—parents who still embarrass him, yet whom he chooses to constantly “put down” whenever the cameras are rolling.
Playing the role of psychologist, I am convinced that Frank lives with “demons” because of his rejection of Bible Christianity and rejection of his heritage—all for a mess of pottage. I hope it chokes him.
A couple of years ago, I wrote a letter to Franky, with the help of several friends, seeking to reason with him and bring him back to Orthodoxy, in the spirit of correcting an erring brother (James 5:20). Our intent was also to help the weak, especially Orthodox who may be persuaded by Franky’s anti-Christian rhetoric, or non-Orthodox Christians who may think Franky’s fanatically liberal articles represent the Church. We were going to make the letter an open one, with multiple signatories, but ultimately gave up on the idea (I wish we hadn’t). In any case, I sent my letter to him from myself alone. I have not heard back from him. This is what I/we wrote:
Dear Brother Frank,
Glory to Jesus Christ!
First of all, let us say we have been very glad to have you as our brother in communion. Your journey to the Orthodox Church has inspired many, and opened doors for those interested in the Faith. Your publishing company has introduced historic Christianity to those who otherwise would have no exposure to it. Your abilities as a writer and public speaker are wonderful gift to the Church. You have helped bring public awareness to the “best kept secret in America,” and for this we thank you, and we appreciate your work, and we embrace you as our brother in Christ.
In recent years, however, we have noted with fraternal concern changes in your public comments and in your writing toward traditional Christian teachings. We are concerned because what you say and write represents holy Orthodoxy to many who read your words. It is to your recent writings and public comments that we feel compelled to address you, in brotherly love.
We believe that while it is natural and to some degree a necessity for converts to make a break from their past, those from backgrounds which hold consistencies with our Holy Tradition are not required to reject everything they were raised to believe, particularly Christian teachings of a moral character.
Specifically, you have made comments repudiating your father’s seminal works, “What Ever Happened To The Human Race?,” “A Christian Manifesto,” “How Shall We Then Live?,” and your own writings against abortion and supporting societal morality, including “A Time For Anger: The Myth of Neutrality.” This concerns us because the holy Orthodox Faith teaches us to uphold the Sanctity of Life and to be moral “light” and “salt” in our society. We believe it is a time for moral outrage when millions of innocent persons made in God’s image are slaughtered to the modern Moloch. Orthodox theologian Dr Stanley Harakas explains the Church’s historic position:
“The Church from the very beginning of existence has sought to protect “the life in the womb” and has considered abortion as a form of murder in its theology and canons. Orthodox Christians are admonished not to encourage women to have abortions, nor to assist in the committing of abortion. Those who perform abortions and those who have sought it are doing an immoral deed, and are called to repentance.”
Your comments during the last Presidential election cycle, ridiculing Christians including Orthodox faithful who by conscience refused to vote for a “pro choice” president were, we feel, unbecoming of a Christian. We believe your public position led many to confusion, and in some cases supported the weak in opposing the Church’s clear teaching on abortion.
Relatedly, we note your misguided support for destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation. You oppose what you call “the Catholic/Evangelical conspiracy to derail stem cell research.” In fact, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America has clearly stated the Church’s position, that Orthodox Christians “cannot condone the manipulation of embryonic cells in any form for research purposes, including lives developed from destroyed embryos.” The Orthodox bishops call upon the president and congress “to restore and maintain a total ban” on embryonic stem cell experimentation as “inherently immoral and a fundamental violation of human life… Embryonic stem cell research results in unmitigated harm. It should be unequivocally rejected in the interests of preserving both the sacredness and the dignity of the human person.”
We take issue with your soteriology, proclaiming “atheists or Muslims or gay men and women” do God’s will like the Good Samaritan. Your intent seems to be to admonish Christians toward compassion, but your conclusion that homosexuals will “inherit the earth,” and, “the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to…gay couples who are being denied their civil rights” misleads your readers into thinking homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle, even a virtuous one, and more virtuous than the faith of “American Christians.” Elsewhere, you state, “Gay marriage and gay parents aren’t a threat to children,” a statement which flies in the face of basic psychology, as well as Orthodox Christian common sense.
We are concerned about your public stereotyping of Christians, especially those who collectively seek to influence our nation toward moral sanity. You not only judge the hearts of evangelical leaders by name, but you publicly proclaim them “haters,” “fools” and “liars,” full of “hysteria” and “anti abortion absolutism.” You judge them –by name– as “hate-filled,” “notorious gay bashers,” and analogize the National Prayer Breakfast to a Ku Klux Klan meeting. This is slander. We fear that while you vehemently decry evangelicals, it is your angry rhetoric which is giving Orthodox Christianity a bad name. You certainly may hold opinions for or against political positions, but to condemn an entire party as a “lynch mob” is both untrue and unchristian.
But your condemnation is not reserved for evangelicals alone. You state definitively that “If it was up to the American Roman Catholic bishops there would be no health care reform,” which is a misrepresentation of the bishops’ call to take abortion out of healthcare, and is patently false. (Those very bishops were among the strongest advocates of healthcare reform; they simply wanted the killing of children out of it.) It seems anyone who disagrees with President Obama you label, “evil,” and desiring murder and violence. You even accuse those who oppose various Obama policies as racially motivated!
Your exegesis misrepresents the Orthodox Church’s teaching, and even Her respect for the integrity and truthfulness of holy Scripture itself. You misquote Jesus, writing in His voice, “If gay men and women are asking to be allowed to marry, I commanded you to give to him who asks of you.” With this sentence you disregard the Church’s teaching and pervert Jesus’ message at the same time. You present the Lord as saying, “Ignore the dumb harsh parts of the Bible. That is my message: pick the good, leave out the bad. The Bible is just a book.” You teach, “There is no Heaven or Hell,” without the necessary explanation for your readers to understand that in the age to come there is either eternal torment or the joy of Christ’s Kingdom. You falsely state that the Bible “doesn’t match reality,” and advise people to “reject the parts of one’s scriptures outright that fly in the face of fact, compassion and decency” (as understood by the fallen individual). You speak of the theory of evolution as “proven Darwinian biological evolutionary science,” and juxtapose it against a caricature of the biblical account of creation. You recently wrote, “…the best thing a believer in any actual God can do is to admit that a lot of the Bible is hate filled blasphemy.” These statements are against our Holy Tradition.
We read with concern your tendency to lump all religions into one, relatively equal faith system. You defend the “truth” that “we can’t know anything conclusively because we are evolving and not “there” yet (wherever there is!).” You write, “The next great task for the human race is to wean ourselves off literal interpretations of religion. We need to eradicate fundamentalism in all its forms.” This is contrary to all the Fathers and Mothers and Monks and Nuns and Hierarchs and Faithful of the Orthodox Church stood for, and all the Martyrs died for. “God has revealed Himself to us!,” we proclaim with joy in the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
We are concerned about your misrepresentation of apophatic theology, which can easily lead others away from the true God. It seems to us that you misunderstand the quotes you cite (“Do not define the Deity”), doing precisely what you accuse evangelicals of by taking them out of context and overly literally. Apophatic theology is not “anti-theology,” as you teach; and though, as you point out, “this way of perceiving God is found not just in Christianity but in other religions too,” our Tradition is quite specifically Christian, and we claim that Christ is The Truth for all. Apophatic theology does not endorse the subjectivity you imply, or that truth is relative to individual experience. You misunderstand the patristic use of the concept of “being” (and “wise” and “good”) when you write that God neither exists nor doesn’t exist. Likewise when you teach that “one should never claim God is ‘one’ or ‘three.’” This kind of teaching confuses and misleads many. The whole point is that God is above us, beyond our finite categories of understanding. But our Gospel message itself is about a particular God, Who is the one, true God, and Who is knowable Personally, through His only Son, Jesus Christ. Orthodox apophatic theology absolutely affirms that God is Three Persons with One Nature.
And now, again in The Huffington Post, you recently use inflammatory rhetoric against Orthodox and other Christians who oppose the building of a mosque near Ground Zero, calling them “racists.” How can you judge others’ hearts as “racists”?
We ask you to reconsider your public comments. We urge you to take public stands consistent with The Orthodox Church that teach abortion is murder and is never a “choice.” Evangelical Christians should not to be vilified or ridiculed for positions which are consistent with Orthodox moral tradition. Destructive embryonic stem cell experimentation kills a human being. Homosexual behavior is not healthy, not for participants or for children in such an environment, or for society at large. The Orthodox Church believes in and defends the integrity of the Bible. All religions are not equal. And racism does not motivate Christians who hold the opinion that it is inappropriate to build a mosque at Ground Zero.
I’m sure as Orthodox faithful we may disagree on various current events in the political realm. But as Orthodox Christians there are principles and doctrines which transcend personal opinion and which we are bound to support. These issues seem to us to be so plain and clear that we would ask you in brotherly love: if you feel you cannot correct yourself and retract your inflammatory public statements and judgments, that you refrain from public speaking.
It is with genuine love and respect that we write to you. If in anything we have offended you, we apologize. We offer you this correction in the spirit of humility, welcoming any corrective response from you.
Sincerely,
V. Rev. Fr. Mark Hodges, Lima, Ohio
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By his own admission Frank is a liar and a hypocrite. In a revealing New York Times article published on Aug. 19, 2011 Franky confirmed that he often “faked it” so he could make more money and benefit his own career. Apparently cold hard cash and his own giant ego take precedence over truth, character, and integrity.
Clearly love of money and love of self are primary motivators for this shameless impostor. Frank Schaeffaer is basically just another ideological prostitute who sells his public “opinions” to the highest bidder. He dares to lecture others on morality, justice, and ethics, while he himself built an entire career on “faked” beliefs promoted only to enrich himself and become famous. The man has ZERO credibility and is not to be trusted in anything he says and does.
To have learned at the feet of Dr. Francis, and Edith, Schaeffer, and say that he is uneducated, makes two undeniable statements. First, that he respects the parchment while despising any semblance of the wisdom made available to him, and, Second, that in so openly castigating his wise and gentle parents that has yet to mature past infancy.
The guy still maintains a website hocking Orthodox books that clearly are not inline with what he believes.
He will do anything to make money. So much for having the courage of your convictions.
is there anything thing that can even remotely be called Church discipline in the OC? I mean, really, what does a guy have to do to get pulled aside and talked to? Let it be known you subscribe to the Rush 24/7 podcast?
The problem is that Frank Schaeffer should have been honest enough to have made a break with his parents’s Proddy faith before Francis Snr died. I know from personal experience ,how distressing it can be but at least it is an honest break. My own brother trained to be a minister in the Churches (Disciples ) of Christ ,but after 4 years as a pastor he left and went to work amongst homeless youth because he felt the church was not doing anything. He travelled to socialism and is still a Green socialist,however when he found out that I was an Anglo Catholic he said that he loved the Church year . He also has a grudging respect for the Cistercian Order in the Roman Catholic Church. However when our father died and then our mother’s dementia became severe he was there with me and them. So perhaps he may come back to Christ. There is always hope