Franky Schaeffer Derides Christianity as “Stupid”

Institute on Religion and Democracy ^ | 10/07/2011 | Kristin Rudolph

[NativeTxn]

Well, maybe there’s hope for little Frankie because his Dad came to the same opinion and he decided to start from scratch and find out if God was real. He wrote some of the best books and lead many intellectuals to the Lord. One of my favorites is “He Is There and He is Not Silent”. Feel sad for him because he just sounds angry. Saw Francis Schaeffer at the airport once and he was about 5ft tall and in his Swiss knickers. Quite a sight. Great man!

[jonno]

Lol

[rzman21]

He goes from fundamentalist, to strict Eastern Orthodox, to secularist. Sad.

[jonno]

If a police officer talks to 8 witnesses at a crime scene and finds that each has a different version of what happened, he can’t throw up his hands and state that the truth is unknowable.

So it is with life - sometimes you have to dig a little deeper...

[ViLaLuz]

“THERE IS NO ABSOLUTE TRUTH”

...Are you absolutely sure?

Give them that reply next time someone says that to you.

[SaraJohnson]

How did he come to that conclusion? Enforced amorality and atheism for a man who wants to fit into the mainstream.

[tjd1454]

Like many of my generation, Francis Schaeffer was an icon whose books were immensely influential. My guess is that his son Franky was turned off by the hypocrisy he saw while living a storied life as the son of an Evangelical celebrity. Things are often quite different behind closed doors, and with the parade of prominent Christians making their pilgrimage to L'abri, he probably saw quite a bit of surprising - and discouraging - behavior. I understand some of that "juicy gossip" about prominent Christians is in his book.

However, each of us make our own decisions, and there are many who manage to hold to their faith despite the failings of those around them. It appears that Franky chose the route of bitterness and rejection instead of forgiving those who disappointed him, and crying out to God to help him live a more authentic and faithful Christian life.

I remember long ago talking with a man who rejected his religious faith and wrote what he said was a devastating refutation of Christianity and the Bible. However, he did not have the heart to have it published, explaining that he did not want to have a hand in destroying the faith of others. I hope that God had mercy on that man's soul.

The Apostle Paul warns: "not not let many be teachers, for they will have a double judgment." By writing what is apparently a polemical book against Christianity, I fear that Franky Schaeffer has placed himself in grave spiritual danger.

[GOPJ]

Too bad the press isn't interested in rewarding the kids of democrats who turn against their parents. We know they exist, we know they'll NEVER get a podium to stand behind.

Wasn't this a Ron Reagan thing - trash the parent as a way to 'make it'... Kind of a way for the talentless children of conservatives to get attention. Seems there are others - anyone with a list?

[Alex Murphy]

My guess is that his son Franky was turned off by the hypocrisy he saw while living a storied life as the son of an Evangelical celebrity.

Franky Schaeffer didn't start having problems until about three or four years after his father's death.

His then-dream (decades before Sherwood Films came along) was to produce and direct big-budget films that didn't compromise the Christian message, nor compromise on filmmaking quality. His first film was called Wired To Kill. It was a huge commercial and financial disaster. Franky didn't allow his financial backers (mostly evangelicals) to see the script before he took their money.

Franky's crisis of faith coincided with the fallout over his terrible films. IMO it was no coincidence. Franky's been harboring a grudge against his family and evangelicalism ever since.

[Recovering_Democrat]

The problem, Schaeffer explained, is belief with certainty. “Certainty kills,” he explained,“no one ever bombed an abortion clinic or a mosque after yelling ‘but I could be wrong.’”

Schaeffer is certain he is correct.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Francis Schaeffer was his father. His father was a great Christian philosopher, thinker, teacher.

[Arthur McGowan]

It is scary.

On the other hand (and this meant to be encouraging), when such an apostasy occurs, there is usually some glaring moral fall—i.e., something so glaring that it takes no finely-tuned “discernment” to ferret it out: an illicit affair or marriage, frequenting the bus stops or smut shops, etc. I am not speculating or attributing, just sayin’. In lives where there is no such elephant-in-the-room moral lapse, total intellectual rot is rare.

[Alex Murphy]

....when such an apostasy occurs, there is usually some glaring moral fall—i.e., something so glaring that it takes no finely-tuned “discernment” to ferret it out: an illicit affair or marriage, frequenting the bus stops or smut shops, etc. I am not speculating or attributing, just sayin’. In lives where there is no such elephant-in-the-room moral lapse, total intellectual rot is rare.

Ping to my post #49. IMO you may find your smoking gun.

[Blood of Tyrants]

People who claim to believe in nothing want to tell the rest of humanity what is right or wrong. And they usually haven’t thought out their position well enough to know that they have no basis to tell anyone anything.

[aruanan]

It just goes to show that there are no second generation Christians. FWIW, he converted from Reformed to Orthodox Christianity (Eastern Orthodox) in 1991, but he appears to have left that communion as well, in fact if not in form. Not all evangelical leaders have had the fortune of Billy Graham in having believing progeny. Andrew Himes, the grandson of John Rice, a fundamentalist Baptist leader, became a Communist organizer in Alabama (admittedly a tough job!). The Satanist Aleister Crowley was the son of a devout Plymouth Brethren family. Stalin studied for the Orthodox priesthood. Marx was the son of a family that converted to Lutheranism; he was a devout Christian in his early teen years.

Great point!

[LetMarch]

Franky has become a bitter man!
Even Pilate said, about Jesus, “I find no fault in this man.”
I believe every man would make that statement, if he focused on the: “Holy, perfect Son Of God.” Yet it is the greatest understatement of all times.

Just think: “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through His Son Jesus Christ.” (John 3:17)

“But He (God)made Him (Jesus) to be sin for us, who had no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (2 Cor. 5:21)

“Being confident of this very thing, He that hath begun a good work in you, will perforn it until the day of Jesus Christ.” (Phil. 1:6)

[narses]

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[xp38]

1 Corinthians 1:13-25

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:

“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.”[c]

20 Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

[Bed_Zeppelin]

"According to Schaeffer, we are not “stuck with the stupidity of Christianity,” but are free to create our own conception of God, reality, and morality."

Gee, isn't that close to the same line the serpent fed to Eve in the garden? "You shall be like God."--Genesis 3. Just more moral relativism. As Ecclesiastes says "there's nothing new under the sun."

[redhead]

Yah, Frankie. Christians hate sex. That’s why they have such large families. orc.