“For the last eighteen years I’ve gone to the Greek Orthodox Church. It was a relief to replace tyrannical simplicity with Byzantine paradox, tidy theology with messy mystery, smug certainty with forlorn hope. Nevertheless the old Calvinist preoccupations stick. God still worries me. And he probably doesn’t like you either.”
Frank Schaeffer, the son of Christian apologists Francis and Edith Schaeffer, has had a hard time growing up in the shadow of his famous parents and seems to have spent his fifty plus years of life trying to overcome the negative effects of having had parents who taught him about God, the Bible, prayer, and the Christian faith. Pobrecito. He says, “Those of us with evangelical/fundamentalist backgrounds are doomed to a lifetime spent trying to re-imagine the divine.” Maybe so, or maybe it’s just those with such a background who fail to grow up and get over their childish rebellion and disappointment that are “doomed.” I come from such a background, and I’ve certainly never felt doomed, nor could I say that I’ve ever believed that God doesn’t like me or you.
In his blog posts, Mr. Schaeffer makes fun of his parents, of their mission to explain the Christian message to post-modern Americans, and of most things evangelical. It’s all very bitter, as if Frankie Schaeffer takes it as a personal affront that his parents weren’t perfect and some evangelical Christians make decisions with which he disagrees.
“When people converted they often gave up their ‘worldly pursuits’—especially when it came to “dubious things” like being a dancer, singer, or movie maker, let alone a night club performer—for the Lord. We liked it when smart people came to believe what we told them. And the more they gave up for the Lord the better we liked it. Often they were ‘led’ by being prayed at.
Prayer was a sneaky teaching method, as in, ‘Lord please show Lynette what You would have her do.’ Translation: ‘She isn’t doing Your will now and needs new leading.'”
Schaeffer claims to know other people’s motivations, as in this instance when he says that a Jewish dancer (Lynette) who became a Christian was made to give up her ballet career by people who were “praying at her.” Of course, his mother’s prayers were never at all selfless or well-meaning, but rather sneakily designed to manipulate people to do her will or what she perceived to be God’s will. And, of course, Mr. Frank Schaeffer knows exactly what other people’s motivations are.
“Even as children we find ways to challenge the orthodoxy that surrounds us . . . Teasing Mom was one of my favorite childhood pastimes.”
Finally, here, Schaeffer tells us the motivation of the one person whose mind he can read, and it’s not a pretty sight. A child who enjoys teasing his mom about her most sacred beliefs is one thing, but a middle-aged son who can’t resist the urge to pull mom’s strings and make fun of her in public on a blog, is a sad spectacle.
“Mom would spend a lot of time telling God things he must have already known . . .”
And can any of us tell God anything He doesn’t know? What is prayer if it’s not telling God things He already knows? Is it God who needs to hear our praise, or we who need to praise Him?
I’m truly sorry that Frankie Schaeffer still has scars from his evangelical childhood; I hope he manages to find a spiritual director in his Orthodox tradition who can help him to forgive his parents their faults and short-comings and to come to a mature view of and relationship with God. If not a spiritual director, maybe a psychotherapist would help. I think the first thing either one of those people would tell him is to lose the blog. Spilling out your bitterness on the internet is not the path to healing. In fact, it could be very hurtful to his mother, who as far as I know is still living, and to his sisters and other family members. All for the sake of “challenging the orthodoxy that surrounds us?”
