See “The God Trilogy: Nonfiction,” by Frank Schaeffer

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG See #TheGodTrilogy nonfiction set by @Frank_Schaeffer & watch him live, Thurs., Jan. 27 at 8 pm ET, w/ “If America Fails?” on TWN, for chat on gender issues in @HandmaidsOnHulu.

From fiction to nonfiction, and books to film, Frank Schaeffer finds ways to grapple with the conditioning of his upbringing – and observing his struggle from a distance, makes it clear just how difficult it is to control the ideas we were programmed with during our formative years – particularly when we reach a “crisis of faith.”  From my perspective, the world would be on the road to becoming a better place, if more of us experienced this kind of crisis.  Faith has ruled human beings for many centuries, and implanted some very strange and deadly ideas along the way – together with more positive ethical concepts.  It’s been a mixed bag!  Beyond that, it’s not clear how well human societies could function without faith.  When you consider our human tendencies to act on instinct, it may be a good thing that the impulses of some are curbed by their sense of morality.

Frank’s nonfiction trilogy about growing up Schaeffer, includes these titles:

• 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 (2007)
• Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (2009)
• Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics–and How I Learned to Love (2011)

Reading about these books makes me wonder about the psychological and spiritual harm being done to the children of Gilead.  Let’s chat with Frank about things like this:

1. What are some of the “truth claims that reek of false certainties” you see in the “New Atheists” or  “self-anointed Brights?”
2. You coined a phrase in Patience with God, “The Church of Hopeful Uncertainty,” and I am wondering what you mean by this expression.
3. In Sex, Mom, and God you consider what the “paranoid fantasies of the ‘right-wing echo chamber’” are really all about.  How does sex factor into current conspiracy theories, if at all?

See you soon!

— LMO

“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,” by Frank Schaeffer | Carroll & Graf (October 5, 2007)

“By the time he was nineteen, Frank Schaeffer’s parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had achieved global fame as bestselling evangelical authors and speakers, and Frank had joined his father on the evangelical circuit. He would go on to speak before thousands in arenas around America, publish his own evangelical bestseller, and work with such figures as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Dr. James Dobson. But all the while Schaeffer felt increasingly alienated, precipitating a crisis of faith that would ultimately lead to his departure—even if it meant losing everything. With honesty, empathy, and humor, Schaeffer delivers ‘a brave and important book’ (Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog)—both a fascinating insider’s look at the American evangelical movement and a deeply affecting personal odyssey of faith.”  — The Publisher

“Interesting glimpses into the burgeoning religious right folded into a deeply personal memoir…Schaeffer is brutally honest…He offers particularly eye-opening accounts of his personal encounters with the likes of Pat Robertson, James Dobson et al…Candid, sometimes angry and clearly cathartic for the author.”  — Kirkus Reviews on Crazy for God

“A story about the dangers of inauthentic faith…An important book…A cautionary tale about the damaging effects on children whose parents have an excess of spiritual pride.”  — Washington Times on Crazy for God

“Patience with God: Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion,” by Frank Schaeffer| Da Capo Press; 2nd Printing edition (October 27, 2009)

“Frank Schaeffer has a problem with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and the rest of the New Atheists—the self-anointed ‘Brights.’ He also has a problem with the Rick Warrens and Tim LaHayes of the world. The problem is that he doesn’t see much of a difference between the two camps. As Schaeffer puts it, they ‘often share the same fallacy: truth claims that reek of false certainties. I believe that there is an alternative that actually matches the way life is lived rather than how we usually talk about belief.’ Sparing no one and nothing, including himself and his fiery evangelical past, and invoking subtleties too easily ignored by the pontificators, Schaeffer adds much-needed nuance to the conversation. ‘My writing has smoked out so many individuals who seem to be thinking about the same questions. I hope that this book will provide a meeting place for us, the scattered refugees of what I’ll call The Church of Hopeful Uncertainty.’”   — The Publisher

“Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics–and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway,” by Frank Schaeffer | Da Capo Press; First Edition (May 31, 2011)

“Alternating between laugh-out-loud scenes from his childhood and acidic ruminations on the present state of an America he and his famous fundamentalist parents helped create, bestselling author Frank Schaeffer asks what the Glenn Becks and the Rush Limbaughs and the paranoid fantasies of the ‘right-wing echo chamber’ are really all about. Here’s a hint: sex. The unforgettable central character in Sex, Mom, and God is the author’s far-from-prudish evangelical mother, Edith, who sweetly but bizarrely provides startling juxtapositions of the religious and the sensual throughout Schaeffer’s childhood. She was, says Frank Schaeffer, ‘the greatest illustration of the Divine beauty of Paradox I’ve encountered … a fundamentalist living a double life as a lover of beauty who broke all her own judgmental rules in favor of creativity.’” — The Publisher

SEE | The God Trilogy:  Nonfiction | by Frank Schaeffer