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From Publishers WeeklyPart autobiography, part parental tribute and share examination of how American evangelism got to where it is, versatile author Schaeffer tells a moving story of growing up and growing wise in his latest (after Baby Jack: A Novel). Raised in Switzerland in the utopian community and spiritual school his evangelical parents founded, Schaeffer was restless and conscious even at a young age that "my life was being specified by my parent's choices." Still, he took to "the family business" well, following his dad as he became one of the "best-known evangelical leaders in the U.S." on whirlwind speaking tours. While rubbing shoulders with such empire builders as Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell, Schaeffer witnessed the birth of the Christian anti-abortion movement, and became an evangelical writer, speaker and star in his own right. His disillusionment, when it came, hit hard; while he would finally achieve modest fame as a filmmaker and author (of novels and nonfiction), the primary stages of Schaeffer's post-religious life were anything but glamorous; a peculiarly moving passage describes Schaeffer shoplifting pork chops rather than return to the evangelical fold. Schaeffer does not mince words, making his narrative honest, inflammatory and at times rather funny; in spite of it is excess length and some mixing up chronological leaps, this story of faith, fame and family in modern America is a worthy read.
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633 of 661 people found the following review helpful.
"Shock and awe" iconoclasm.
By Erik Olson
I became an evangelical Christian in 1984, and one of the basi heavy-hitter apologetic writers I came across was Francis Schaeffer. His son, known at the time as "Franky," was likewise writing books, and as my primary Christian consultant said to me, "Franky's a bit more radical than his father." I liked both authors, since at the time I was big on Christian conspiracies and rigid theology as promulgated by such fundamentalist luminaries as Jack Chick and Bill Gothard. I dove deep into the evangelical world, attending respective churches, serving in a great deal of ministries, and even graduating from seminary with a Pastoral Studies MA degree in 2002.

However, for the duration of the last year it all came crashing down, ironically after walking the 500-mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage trail in Spain. During my trek I had a great deal of time to think in regards to the last two decades, and in the end I came to a decision. Yes, as an evangelical I'd made a few good friends and had galore positive experiences. But the bad far outweighed the good. I'd had sufficient of attempting to jam theological square pegs into the round holes of rationality. Plus, I could take no more cult-of-personality pastors, egotistical theologians, holier-than-thou legalisms, guilty conscience trips, and plain goofiness. So when reality intruded on my faith, I either had to know it or shut my eyes even tighter. I chose the former option and abandoned evangelicalism.

As part of my traveling I read the "new atheist" books by Hitchens, Dawkins, Stenger, and so forth. Although I found them challenging and applicable (along with abrasive and polemic), these writers have in all likelihood never purchased into any religious belief. I wanted a story written by an intelligent, high-level Christian, an individual who had in the first place consecrated their life to the evangelical church but ended up leaving for conscience's sake. With "Crazy for God" I found precisely what I was looking for. Here was fundamentalist firebrand Franky Schaeffer, now reborn as Frank, telling his arousing and attention holding story of living, as the cover blurb says, to "take it all (or almost all) of it back." I could scarcely put it down.

Mr. Schaeffer pulls no punches when it comes to evangelicals, family, and even himself. The most sympathetic figure is his father Francis, who seemed trapped in a joyless fundamentalist world he didn't develop or desire. As for the author, it appears that his greatest difficulties with Christianity were it is failure to win a victory over the baser instincts of humane nature, and the ever-present stifling legalism he endured: witness the pious evangelical leaders who applied the Schaeffers to advance their ministries (and themselves), his three sisters, who put up untrue fronts of stability while burning out and breaking down under Mrs. Schaeffer's relentless perfectionism, and young Frank, who goofed off, partied hard, and fornicated with abandon in plain sight at L'Abri, the family ministry center in Switzerland.

As one might suppose in such a context, elements of this book are rather harsh - it's plain that the author is still nursing past wounds. Mr. Schaeffer is viciously transparent regarding everything from the voracious sensual appetites of his youth to the familial abuse within his household. In addition, he spares none of the evangelical royalty that his family encountered, including the "power-crazed" Dr. James Dobson, the "very weird" Billy Graham, and Pat Robertson, whose wacky exploits get more airtime than I may quote. He even rakes his radical "Franky" persona over the coals, providing a mea culpa for his entire ministry and political activist period. One glaring omission: in spite of a good deal of tantalizing glimpses, he doesn't seem to delve into whatsoever specific theological difficulties he had with evangelical Christianity. I was struggling with doctrines like eternal damnation and predestination, and I'd hoped to get Mr. Schaeffer's perceptivities on these and other troublesome topics. No such luck.

After such a wild ride, it's nice to see that Mr. Schaeffer has come to a calmer and more stable place in life. However, he inadvertently demonstrates that we may never altogether escape ourselves. He has transposed his evangelical keenness to patriotism, exemplified by his devotion to United States Marine Corps where his son honorably served in harm's way. I'm glad he's pro-America, and the USMC deserves good publicity. But as one who expended six years as a jarhead, I'd like to caution the author that the storied Corps, much like the Church he now eschews, is an imperfect institution where high ideals are fixed by humane frailties. As for Christianity, given the tone of this book I found it surprising that Mr. Schaeffer still bothers with God at all. However, awhile back he joined the Greek Orthodox Church and has found a semblance of peace within it is walls. But as for the evangelical camp, he and his house are staying far away, thank you very much.

As a former evangelical, I heartily commend "Crazy for God." Be forewarned that it's rough on evangelicalism, and a person of faith will surely struggle with the author's profanity, sensuality, and negative conclusions in regards to evangelical Christianity and some of it is glitterati. But it is Christians who need to read this book the most, so that they may engage with the uncomfortable revelations of a former evangelical star, and either come to a clearer-eyed place in their faith - or leave it wholly for their own sake.

191 of 202 people found the following review helpful.
an honorable and surprising book
By Jim Forest
Frank Schaeffer doesn't genuinely fit into a brief description. An American, he grew up in rural Switzerland. His parents were fervid Calvinist missionaries living in a Catholic culture which they regarded as scarcely Christian. Their chalet, known as L'Abri, became a house of hospitality in which a never-ending seminar on culture and Christianity was the main event. Though an Evangelical, a strain of Protestantism commonly hostile to the arts, Frank's father was an avid lover of art done in earlier centuries by, in most cases, Catholic artists -- an a feeling of excitement that in time inspired his son to become an artist. Later Frank gave up the easel to makes films, firstborn documentaries in which his father was the central figure, then more general evangelical films, and in the long run various not successful non-religious films purposed at a general audience. Eventually -- profoundly disillusioned with the form of Christianity his parents had embraced, and still more alienated from the shrill varieties of right wing Evangelical Christianity that both he and his parents had helped create, Frank joined the Orthodox Church, where he still remains, though no longer in what he refers to as the stage of "convert zeal." After his son, John, became a Marine, Frank became something of a missionary for the Marine Corps, and the military in general, at the same time avidly supporting the war in Iraq in which his son was a participant. A statement I helped to write that spurred and encouraged George Bush not to attack Iraq was the target of a widely-published column Schaeffer wrote in the early days of that war. Now he regards the Iraq War as a disaster and has become an outspoken critic of George Bush.

"Crazy for God" is a gripping read, both candid and engaging. More than anything else, I was touched by Schaeffer's unrelenting honesty. There are pages in which you feel as if you are overhearing a confession. Yet it's a very freeing confession to overhear, in the sense that it allows the reader to make deeper contact with painful or embarrassed areas of his own wounded memory. The book also serves as an admonition not to create a self for public display which is hardly connected to one's actual self.

Being raised in a hothouse of Calvinist missionary zeal, in which Schaeffer and his three sisters became Exhibit A (especially whenever their mother wrote or spoke regarding Christian Family Life) is not something I would wish on any child. I suppose Frank Schaeffer will always be in recovery from that aspect of his childhood.

Those -- and they are a heap of -- who still revere his parents (or for that matter Schaeffer's earlier self, in the amount of time of his life when he was a hot voice packing in the evangelical/Christian Right crowds) are furious at this lifting of the curtain.

Yet I found Schaeffer much harder on himself than on his parents, whom he sees as having been damaged, in a heap of ways made crazy, by the burden of a harsh Calvinist theology. Nonetheless his parents emerge as real Christians whose loving care for others, including people whom a heap of Christians would cross the street to avoid, was perfectly genuine. (I was impressed by the book's account of his parents' response to homosexuals who came to visit L'Abri. They were as warmly received as any other guest.)

While objecting to his parents' theology and the distortions that it developed in their lives and in the lives of a good deal of influenced by them, distinctly he loves them passionately and deeply respects the actual Christian content of their lives -- their "grace, generosity, love and unconditional support."

Schaeffer's book likewise reminds me that it's one of the recurring tragedies of US history that, from time to time, respective movements of self-righteous, ideology-driven Christians determine it's time to try to impose their ideas on society at large. Schaeffer has to live with the painful memory of having been one of the key figures helping to invent one of the constituencies that did the most to put George Bush in the White House in their one-issue hope that he would find ways to make abortion, if not illegal, at least less frequent. After eight years in the Oval Office, in fact abortion is no less deeply embedded in American life than it was before Bush's election. Little if anything was done by his administration to aid women who felt they had no option but abortion find alternatives.

I was touched by Schaeffer's remarks in regards to the powerful influence children may have on their parents, far more than the children commonly realize. As Schaeffer has come to understand, in reflecting on his kinship with his father, that influence is now and again far from positive.

Schaeffer -- now far more caring when it comes to the quandaries others face than he was earlier in his life -- has in the routine become conscious that self-righteousness is many times the hallmark of each and each "movement," whether religious or secular, and whether for the unborn, for peace, for those on death row, for animal welfare, for the environment, etc., etc.

In putting the book down, I find myself profoundly thankful for where Frank Schaeffer's traveling has taken him so far, yet hope for further evolution in his views in regard to the military and how those in the armed forces are used. I take it as a given that he is conscious there are men and women who passed from physical life or live crippled lives in percentage because of the affect on their lives of various of Schaeffer's earlier books which viewed the military uncritically and seemed incognizant of how ofttimes those sent into battle -- because of accidents, misinformation, panic, bad orders, or even the passion for payback -- kill innocent people. Nor does he seem conscious of the damage, oftentimes unhealable, done to those who bear obligation for such deaths. I hope Schaeffer will give more thought to why the early Church took such a radical stand in regard to warfare and other forms of killing, accidental or intentional, and what that might mean for any Christian in our own day.

Also I would have been glad to listen more in regards to what drew him to the Orthodox Church and what keeps him there, now that he is past what he calls the "zealous convert" stage. In his autobiography, being Orthodox is a minor topic.

As "Crazy for God" bears witness, life is mainly shaped by one's parents and family, peer group pressure, and -- not least -- the white water of ambition. Religious beliefs, far from being primary, are often shaped and adjusted by our social goals. I was reminded various times of one of Kurt Vonnegut's insights: "Be careful what you pretend to be. You become what you pretend to be." It's something of a miracle that Frank Schaeffer escaped from the highly profitable world of the Television Church.

"Crazy for God" likewise reminds me of what a dangerous vocation it is, more perilous than mountain climbing, when one becomes a professional Christian, writing or speaking in regards to the Gospel, Jesus Christ, the kingdom of God, making a lot of or all of your living doing this. It's a risk I live with too.

-- Jim Forest

147 of 162 persons found the following review helpful.
An Apostasy Full of Grace and Truth
By Timothy M. Ervolina
He was once the fair-haired boy wonder of evangelicalism, there at the creation of the American Religious Right. He helped define the culture war, specially over abortion. He helped invent the Presidency of Ronald Reagan, the Republican majority, the conservative Supreme Court and the New Evangelicals. Now, he's an apostate, a unborn-again seeker, a fellow member of an Eastern Orthodox church, and a a self-acknowledged failure. Which means that, strangely, he's a in the end a success.

Frank Schaeffer, the son of evangelical theologians Francis and Edith Schaeffer has, in his essay Crazy for God, provided a beautiful, touching, and painfully honorable story of growing up in the evangelical sub-culture in the age before it emerged as the culture. His portrait of his widely known and esteemed (at least in a lot of circles) parents, and their Swiss Christian community, L'Abri, will anger those evangelicals who regard the Schaeffers (especially Francis) as saints. But, if you're looking for a Daddy Dearest, you'll be mightly disappointed. There is no scandal here, other than the scandal of evangelical Christianity in America once it got itself fitted into Constantine's vestments.

Frank paints his father as an art-loving historian, a free-thinker more at home in the Florentine Accademia than on the radio with Dr. Dobson. The elder Schaeffer apparently detested the power-hungry theo-politicians like Dobson, Falwell and Robertson, and was far more concerned with reaching young people in search of life's huge questions than in reaching the halls of power. Still he permitted himself to be manipulated by the theo-politicians, to become the most sought after evangelical teacher of the 1980's. Francis Schaeffer is revered in evangelical circles, where his books and film series (produced by Frank) are still best-sellers two decades after his death. He produced the intellectual underpinnings of the Religious Right (yes, Virginia, there is such a thing) and did more than any other theologian to gain evangelicalism it is entry onto the political stage.

Edith is substantially more God-crazy than her husband, but her son without doubt or question adores her. Beautiful, stylish, and fiercely intelligent, she is the fire in L'Abri's stove, warming everything with her presence, all the while irritating the living hell out of her family with twenty minute sermons masquerading as prayers, and her passion to "save" each living being in earshot.

Frank Schaeffer is honorable when it comes to the dysfunction of his family, his sister's mental illness, his own sexual coming of age (sometimes uncomfortably so--the man apparently was a world-class wanker as a teen), the family fights over theology (which closely wrecked L'Abri), and his parents' love affair with art, music and literature. He's likewise painfully honorable in regards to his failed career as a secular film maker, and veritably regretful at giving up his early and promising career as an artisan to chase the big evangelical donors who were underwriting the Schaeffer phenomenon.

Where he's at his best is also where's at his angriest: regarding the detrimental role he played in American political life and the unleashing of the monster that ate the Republican Party. These days, he's a post-evangelical who rejects "what the evangelical community became. It was the merging of the amusement business with faith, the flippant lightweight kitsch ugliness of American Christianity, the sheer stupidty, the paranoia of the American right-wing enterprise, the platitudes married to pop culture." He likewise substantially more nuanced with regards to abortion, even though calling him "pro-choice" would be a stretch.

In this he taps into that ironic vein that has devised most of us evangelical apostates: the very success of evangelicalism, it is emergence as the dominant religious influence in America, and it is naked lust for power have driven us far from our home. One of Francis Schaeffer's most widely known and esteemed works is a film series regarding abortion and euthaniasia entitled, Whatever Happened to the Human Race? His son wants to know: whatsoever happened to the Evangelical Church?

Frank Schaeffer's apostasy is full of grace and truth. But what else would you suppose from Francis and Edith Schaeffer's boy?

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