On The Front Lines
Frank Schaeffer Talks Candidly in OldSpeak Interview About Life in the Schaeffer Household, the Failings of the Evangelical Movement and His Own Journey of Faith
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - OldSpeak, an online publication of The Rutherford Institute, hosts a provocative interview with author Frank Schaeffer regarding his most recent book, Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back. The interview, "Crazy for God," is a candid discussion of the evolution of the evangelical movement between two individuals, Schaeffer and John W. Whitehead, who were present when the movement began and, in fact, played key roles in its growth.
New York Times best-selling author Frank Schaeffer, the son of Francis and Edith Schaeffer, is a "survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood," an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features that Frank has described as "pretty terrible." As Whitehead observed in his introductory remarks, Crazy for God "is the journey of one person through the labyrinth of evangelical Christianity, one that Frank describes as a freak show. Agree or disagree, Crazy for God will stir debate." Whitehead's words have already proven prophetic, with reviews coming in from such disparate publications as World and The Nation. Writing for The New Statesman, Jeff Sharlet remarked, "Crazy for God is a brilliant book, a portrait of fundamentalism painted in broad strokes with streaks of nuance, the twinned coming-of-age story of Frank and the Christian right." Jane Smiley added to the praise in The Nation: "Crazy For God offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years, and... when taken in conjunction with [Frank Schaeffer's] other works (notably the Calvin Becker Trilogy, [Portofino, Zermatt and Saving Grandma]), it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs..."
OldSpeak, the online journal of The Rutherford Institute, is dedicated to publishing interviews, articles and commentary on subjects often overlooked by the mainstream media in the areas of politics, art, culture, law and religion. The Rutherford Institute is an international, nonprofit civil liberties organization committed to defending constitutional and human rights.
