More from the Degenerating Frank Schaeffer
My last post, "The Progeny of Schaeffer and Rushdoony," addressed a recent interview by Frank Schaeffer's new book. Now that Frank Schaeffer interviews are popping up in the blogosphere, I realize Frank has a clear agenda: He's playing the role of the "PR guy" after the fact. Listen to his response to Jeff Sharlet's (our next target) question about the relationship of Francis Schaeffer to Rushdoony:
And what exactly, Frank, is "reconstructing Old Testament law" supposed to mean? Christian Reconstruction has nothing to do with "reconstructing Old Testament law." It means to reconstruct all things in terms of Biblical law--all of it, both Old and New Testament.
Does anybody see what Frank is doing? He's demonizing the Religious Right and R. J. Rushdoony. By doing so, he's catering to a new audience of disenchanted secularists wearied by Christian political domination since 1980, and separating himself and his father from both.
Schaeffer then discusses the difference between his father and his intellectual offspring like Charles Colson:
Frank seems to operate in cycles, and with each phase there usually comes a name change. Next time, he may refer to himself as "the author formerly known as Franky."
What was your father’s relationship to some of the other fundamentalist intellectuals? I’m thinking here of Rushdoony. Your father read his work pretty early on, didn’t he?I don't believe a word Frank is saying. First, he refers to Chalcedon headquarters as a commune. Pardon me, but wasn't it a commune at L'Abri (the shelter)? On Chalcedon's property is the home of R. J. Rushdoony and some office space. Nobody lived there but the immediate family. Second, he claims he heard "stoning homosexuals, putting adulterers to death, reconstructing Old Testament law." This sounds fishy to me. Those items are taken right out of EVERY critique of Christian Reconstruction ever written. Am I to believe that it just so happens that the day the Schaeffer's arrived in Vallecito, that Rushdoony was covering all of his most controversial doctrines?
I remember this vividly: I’d just come back from Rushdoony’s Chalcedon commune, or whatever, out in California, where I’d heard all this really weird stuff. Stoning homosexuals, putting adulterers to death, reconstructing Old Testament law. It was some of the most bizarre stuff I’d heard. And I went home and I said to my dad, “Who is this guy? I’ve never heard anything so weird.” And my dad just said, point blank: “Oh no, he’s crazy.” And then he said, “That’s not a figure of speech. I believe he has psychiatric problems.” Later, when all the political stuff started happening, those people tried to muscle in to what dad was doing. Gary North would show up, Rushdoony was writing him letters. But my father was not at all happy about the connection.
And what exactly, Frank, is "reconstructing Old Testament law" supposed to mean? Christian Reconstruction has nothing to do with "reconstructing Old Testament law." It means to reconstruct all things in terms of Biblical law--all of it, both Old and New Testament.
Does anybody see what Frank is doing? He's demonizing the Religious Right and R. J. Rushdoony. By doing so, he's catering to a new audience of disenchanted secularists wearied by Christian political domination since 1980, and separating himself and his father from both.
Schaeffer then discusses the difference between his father and his intellectual offspring like Charles Colson:
Let me put it like this: Somebody like, say, [Fellowship member] Chuck Colson and my father could not have been further apart. I can’t imagine Chuck Colson at a Jefferson Airplane concert with his kids and passing a joint to the person next to him and really listening to the music. My dad wasn’t smoking the joint, but he didn’t care about it. Dad used to say that he learned more from the students than they learned from him. And it was true. Dad got his first Dylan album, Route 66, I think, from a student who was carrying it in her back pack.Yea, you're right, Frank. I can't imagine Mr. Colson at a Jefferson Airplane conference WITH HIS KIDS sniffing second-hand marijuana smoke. Nor can I imagine him picking up a Dylan album from someone's backpack.
Frank seems to operate in cycles, and with each phase there usually comes a name change. Next time, he may refer to himself as "the author formerly known as Franky."
