Frank Schaeffer on NPR
December 12, 2008
There's an interesting interview with Frank Schaeffer available at the NPR website here.
FS has taken a lot of hits for his repudiation of his father's evangelicalism, his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, and for his recent book on his father, Crazy for God. I haven't yet read the latter, though the NPR interview inspired me to order it. Three things occurred to me while listening to the interview:
First, I sympathise with Schaeffer's dislike of the style of the Evangelical politicial right, though my observation of the behaviour of the evangelical left would lead me to conclude that the bitterness both left and right exhibit, and the manichean language they use about all who disagree with them, is actually more of a function of an American religious culture where all truth is apparently deeply personal, and thus all disagreements seem to be viewed through the categories of personal attack. Where does the person who is theologically conservative but politically left fit in to a religious culture which lacks the categories to handle such? I've laughed at numerous times over the last year when I've seen demands for my head on a plate -- yes, everyone agrees I need to be executed without trial; but, really, someone should decide if it's because I'm too left wing poltically or too right wing theologically.
Second, the relationship between a father and a son is always complex; and it is made more complex when father and son love each other dearly, are very close, but come to fundamentally different conclusions on the basic questions of life. It's easy to read FS as ungrateful because of what he has said about his father (and I am in no place to judge whether his claims are true or false; but it would seem to me that any criticism of an iconic father by a rebel son is going to be vulnerable to that accusation); but it could also be that what others see as ingratitude is an attempt by the son to come to terms with the complexity of his relationship with his father. Perhaps it shouldn't be played out in the public sphere; but that might simply make him guilty of bad taste, not fundamental ingratitude.
Third, the interview reminded me once again of how badly Christians and the church handle depression. I suspect there are times when there are chemical imbalances in the blood which all the introspective self-examination, prayer, and Bible reading in the world won't cure, yet somehow seeking medical help for such things is seen as problematic, or selling out to secular psychology.
FS has taken a lot of hits for his repudiation of his father's evangelicalism, his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy, and for his recent book on his father, Crazy for God. I haven't yet read the latter, though the NPR interview inspired me to order it. Three things occurred to me while listening to the interview:
First, I sympathise with Schaeffer's dislike of the style of the Evangelical politicial right, though my observation of the behaviour of the evangelical left would lead me to conclude that the bitterness both left and right exhibit, and the manichean language they use about all who disagree with them, is actually more of a function of an American religious culture where all truth is apparently deeply personal, and thus all disagreements seem to be viewed through the categories of personal attack. Where does the person who is theologically conservative but politically left fit in to a religious culture which lacks the categories to handle such? I've laughed at numerous times over the last year when I've seen demands for my head on a plate -- yes, everyone agrees I need to be executed without trial; but, really, someone should decide if it's because I'm too left wing poltically or too right wing theologically.
Second, the relationship between a father and a son is always complex; and it is made more complex when father and son love each other dearly, are very close, but come to fundamentally different conclusions on the basic questions of life. It's easy to read FS as ungrateful because of what he has said about his father (and I am in no place to judge whether his claims are true or false; but it would seem to me that any criticism of an iconic father by a rebel son is going to be vulnerable to that accusation); but it could also be that what others see as ingratitude is an attempt by the son to come to terms with the complexity of his relationship with his father. Perhaps it shouldn't be played out in the public sphere; but that might simply make him guilty of bad taste, not fundamental ingratitude.
Third, the interview reminded me once again of how badly Christians and the church handle depression. I suspect there are times when there are chemical imbalances in the blood which all the introspective self-examination, prayer, and Bible reading in the world won't cure, yet somehow seeking medical help for such things is seen as problematic, or selling out to secular psychology.
