FRANK SCHAEFFER ON HIS PARENTS

Frank has been an effective, though often abrasive and acerbic, writer.  He has produced and directed films, most famously “How Should We Then Live?” and “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?”  In a sense, he has been on a religious pilgrimage, most recently becoming a member of the Orthodox Church, renouncing the Reformed roots of his father, a Presbyterian.  But his new book is a significant departure from his unpredictable life, because in it he offers a portrait of his parents that betrays a bitterness and anger.  He exposes his parents’ flaws and seems to mock them unfairly.  In the words of Os Guinness, “. . . the portrait he paints amounts to a death-dealing charge of hypocrisy and insincerity at the very heart of their life and work.  In Frank’s own words, his parents were ‘crazy for God.’  Their call to the ministry ‘actually drove them crazy,’ so that ‘religion was actually the source of their tragedy.’  His dad was under ‘the crushing belief that God had called him to save the world.’  Because of this, his parents were ‘happiest when fartherest away from their missionary work.’  Back at their calling, they were ‘professional proselytizers,’ their teaching was ‘indoctrination,’ and it was unclear whether people came to faith or were ‘brainwashed’ and ‘under the spell’ of his parents.  Frank’s own arguments in their support, he now says, were a kind of ‘circus trick.’”  At the heart of Frank’s new book is this conviction:  Francis Schaeffer lacked intellectual integrity.  “There was a lie at the very heart of the work of L’Abri, and the thousands of people who over the decades came to L’Abri and came to faith or deepened in faith, were obviously conned too.”

Francis and Edith Schaeffer were, as are all people, flawed and sinful, but it is hurtful and wrong to charge them with hypocrisy.  Several comments, most of them following the essay by Os Guinness:

1. Frank’s portrayal of his mother is “cruel and deeply dishonoring, monstrously ungrateful since she poured herself out for him far more than his workaholic father.”  In her nineties now, with a failing memory, Edith was the key to the ministry of L’Abri:  She was a woman of immense love, indomitable faith, tireless prayer, boundless energy, a lover of life and beauty, remarkable hospitality and joy, and someone always available to counsel people.  Incredibly, Frank describes her as a “high-powered nut” and the “best at the martyrdom game.” 
2. He is scathing and totally wrong in his portrayals of Billy Graham and Carl Henry.  His remarks seem self-serving, yet sadly inaccurate.
3. As Guinness convincingly demonstrates, Frank is wrong and grossly inaccurate in his portrayal of how his father fits into the history of 20th century evangelicalism.  He makes so many mistakes and mischaracterizations about events of this period that these alone make the book questionable and of little value.
4. Guinness makes the case that the real problem with Frank Schaeffer is that he was spoiled.  “He was more like a poster child for Benjamin Spock than the son of ‘fundamentalist missionaries.’  Having been born well after his sisters and having survived polio as a child, he was rarely challenged, disciplined or denied.  As a result, he grew up a ‘little Napoleon,’ as some of the L’Abri students called him.  He would boast that he could twist his parents around his little finger, and time and again he proved it.”

In short, Frank Schaeffer’s portrayal of his parents is a distortion and more like a personal vendetta than accurate history.  As Guinness argues, “Francis and Edith Schaeffer’s place in 20th-century evangelicalism—and their contribution to the lives of so many—is too important to surrender to such a scurrilous caricature.”  Guinness says of Francis:  “I have never met anyone anywhere like Francis Schaeffer, who took God so passionately seriously, people so passionately seriously, and truth so passionately seriously.”  Perhaps, that should be the final word on the legacy of Francis Schaeffer.

See Os Guinness, “Fathers and Sons” in Books and Culture:  A Christian Review, www.christianitytoday.com.    

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