Frank Schaeffer
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Frank Schaeffer (born August 3, 1952) is an American author, film director, screenwriter and public speaker. He is the son of the late evangelist Francis Schaeffer. He became a Hollywood film director and author, writing several internationally acclaimed novels depicting life in a strict, fundamentalist household including Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma.

Background

In 2007 he published the autobiographical Crazy For God, in which he goes into much more detail regarding what it was like to grow up in the Schaeffer family, and around L'Abri.

In 2006 he published Baby Jack, a novel about a Marine killed in Iraq. He is also known for his best selling non-fiction books related to the United States Marine Corps, including Keeping Faith--A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps, co-written with his son John Schaeffer, and AWOL--The Unexcused Absence Of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country, co-authored with former Clinton presidential aide, Kathy Roth-Douquet.

Frank Schaeffer has distanced himself from many of his father's Calvinist views and converted to the Greek Orthodox church in 1990 which he says "embraces paradox and mystery." In 2008, prompted by the controversy over remarks by the pastor of presidential candidate Barack Obama's church, he wrote: "[W]hen my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr."¹

On February 7, 2008, before Senator Barack Obama was nominated by the Democratic Party, Schaeffer endorsed the senator in an article entitled "Why I'm Pro-Life and Pro-Obama."²

After the 2008 Russian-Georgian War, he wrote about the conflict from a pro-Russian, pro-Orthodox perspective in an article called, "Why Russia Invaded Georgia: Payback Time from the Orthodox World to the West." ³ This article actually came a few days before a revealing article by Republican commentator Pat Buchanan which implicated the Republican Party's presidential nominee John McCain's foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann for his involvement in instigating the 2008 Russian-Georgian War.⁴

On October 10, 2008 a public letter to Senator McCain (and Sarah Palin) from Schaeffer was published in the Baltimore Sun newspaper.⁵ The letter contained an impassioned plea for John McCain to arrest what Schaeffer perceived as a hateful, and prejudiced tone of the Republican party's election campaign. Schaeffer was convinced that there was a pronounced danger that fringe groups in America could be goaded into pursuing violence. "If you do not stand up for all that is good in America and declare that Senator Obama is a patriot, fit for office, and denounce your hate-filled supporters ... history will hold you responsible for all that follows."⁵

Books

• 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, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, (September) 2007. ISBN 978-0786718917
• Baby Jack: A Novel, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, (October) 2006.
• AWOL: The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes from Military Service -- and How It Hurts Our Country (with Kathy Roth-Douquet), New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. ISBN 978-0060888596
• Voices From the Front: Letters Home From American's Military Family, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2004. (Third of Military Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786714629
• Faith of Our Sons: Voices From the American Homefront - The Wartime Diary of a Marine's Father, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2004. (Second of Military Trilogy)
• Zermatt: A Novel, New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2003. (Third of Calvin Becker Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786712595
• Keeping Faith: A Father-Son Story About Love and the U.S. Marine Corps (with son John Schaeffer), New York: Carol & Graf Publishers, 2002. (First of Military Trilogy)
• Saving Grandma: A Novel, New York: Berkley Books, 1997. (Second of Calvin Becker Trilogy)
• Letters to Father Aristotle, Salisbury, MA:Regina Orthodox Press, 1995.
• Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion, Brookline, MA: Holy Cross, 1994.
• Portofino: A Novel, New York: Macmillan, 1992. (First of Calvin Becker Trilogy) ISBN 978-0786717163
• Sham Pearls For Real Swine, Brentwood, TN: Wolgemuth & Hyatt, 1990.
• Is Capitalism Christian? (Editor), Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1985. ISBN 978-0891073628
• Bad News For Modern Man, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984.
• A Modest Proposal (with Harold Fickett), Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1984.
• A Time For Anger: The Myth of Neutrality, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982.
• Addicted to Mediocrity: 20th Century Christians and the Arts, Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982.

Films

• Baby on Board (1992). Slapstick comedy starring Judge Reinhold and Carol Kane.
• Rebel Storm (1990). Futuristic action film starring Zach Galligan and June Chadwick.
• Headhunter (1989). Occult horror film starring John Fatooh, June Chadwick, and Steve Kanaly.
• Wired to Kill (1986). Post-apocalyptic action film starring Devin Hoelscher, and with Merritt Butrick.
• Whatever Happened to the Human Race? (1979). A Christian response to abortion, euthanasia, and infanticide, narrated by Francis Schaeffer and former Surgeon General Dr. C. Everett Koop; it was released with a book by the same title.
• How Should We Then Live? The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (1976). Francis Schaeffer's critically acclaimed film series (now on DVD) on the rise and decline of Western culture from a Christian viewpoint; it was released with a book by the same title.

References

1. ^ Schaeffer, Frank (March 16, 2008). ""Obama's Minister Committed 'Treason' But When My Father Said the Same Thing He Was a Republican Hero"". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.
2. ^ Schaeffer, Frank (February 7, 2008). ""Why I'm Pro-Life and Pro-Obama"". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 2008-09-17.
3. ^ Schaeffer, Frank (August 12, 2008). ""Why Russia Invaded Georgia: Payback Time from the Orthodox World to the West"". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 2008-09-17.
4. ^ Buchanan, Pat (August 22, 2008). ""And None Dare Call it Treason"". TownHall.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-10.
5. ^ ^{a b} Schaeffer, Frank (October 10, 2008). ""McCain's attacks fuel dangerous hatred"". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved on 2008-10-10.

See also

Crazy for God (expression)

External links

• Official Frank Schaeffer website
• Francis Schaeffer at the Internet Movie Database
• Frank Schaeffer entry at Orthodoxwiki.org
• Interview with Schaeffer and Kathy Roth-Douquet on AWOL at the Pritzker Military Library
• Interview with Schaeffer by Krys Boyd on Crazy for God at KERA public radio.
• Interview with Schaeffer by Steve Lawson at Greenbelt.