Frank Schaeffer. My horrible right-wing past: Confessions of a one-time religious right icon

[madfloridian]

From Salon this week:

My horrible right-wing past: Confessions of a one-time religious right icon

I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old former Republican religious right-wing activist who changed his mind about religion and politics long ago. The New York Times profiled my change of heart saying that to my former friends I’m considered a “traitorous prince” since my religious-right family was once thought of as “evangelical royalty.”

.....The leaders of the new religious right were gleefully betting on American failure. If secular, democratic, diverse and pluralistic America survived, then wouldn’t that prove that we were wrong about God only wanting to bless “Christian America?” If, for instance, crime went down dramatically in New York City, for any other reason than a reformation and revival, wouldn’t that make the prophets of doom look silly? And if the economy was booming without anyone repenting, what did that mean?

What began to bother me was that so many of our new “friends” on the religious right seemed to be rooting for one form of apocalypse or another. In the crudest form this was part of the evangelical fascination with the so-called end times. The worse things got, the sooner Jesus would come back. But there was another component. The worse everything got, the more it proved that America needed saving, by us! Plus, it was good for fundraising.

And his last paragraph appears to be an apology for his role in the current mess we have in this country.

Some 30 years later, what we helped start — I am sorry! — continues. With the Republicans in control of the House and Senate the question arises — again — Where does the American far right find the energy to oppose everything and everyone again and again?

[belzabubba333]

1. so you create a monster turn it loose on the world now you want to apologize now that the beast

is out of controll?

[madfloridian]

2. No room for forgiveness at all?

It's been quite a turnaround for him.

[semanticwikiian]

6. C'mon the man is a criminal

who's merely promoting his book "Why I am an Atheist Who Believes in God" published May 15, 2014. What a ignorant title.

Anyway Salon is just doing its part in a media campaign for this book, so then Frankie-baby can start his next one:

"How to Get Away with Fraud, Sedition & Treason"

Nope, no room for forgiveness.

[madfloridian]

7. I have noticed that. None for Diane Ravitch's turnaround either.

Hard to not forgive.

[Raine1967]

11. How is he a criminal?

Serious question. A criminal?

[madfloridian]

12. Good question. Deserves a good sensible answer.

[semanticwikiian]

14. Sedition for sure

- such as influencing others who commit crimes like murder, just off the top of my ianal head. All in a fashion seriously breaching the separation of Church and State. If doing so is un-american, at its core, then that's treason. I could throw in things like conspiracy too.

[madfloridian]

19. He condemns those very things in his speech and writing now.

[semanticwikiian]

20. that does not equate to innocence of any kind

If this attitude isn't an expression of white privledge ("he apologized, right?&quot
... then I don't know what "white privledge" means.

[madfloridian]

23. Wow. If he were not white and apologized...

would that be different?

I don't see the connection racially at all.

You said:

If this attitude isn't an expression of white privledge ("he apologized, right?&quot
... then I don't know what "white privledge" means.

[Raine1967]

24. Not worth the effort, IMO.

I can totally appreciate people still being angry at the guy. I respect it, as a matter of fact, but between him being called a criminal and a person who expresses *White privilege* I am totally confound.

I get the point of your OP.

I would rather have people see the error of their ways than those that never do.

Peace.
Raine

[NewDeal_Dem]

21. He left the religious right long ago, the republican party not so long ago.

Schaeffer has written: "In the mid 1980s I left the Religious Right, after I realized just how very anti-American they are, (the theme I explore in my book Crazy For God)."[4] He added that he was a Republican until 2000, working for Senator John McCain in that year's primaries, but that after the 2000 election he re-registered as an independent.[4]

On February 7, 2008, Schaeffer endorsed Senator Barack Obama for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, in an article entitled "Why I'm Pro-Life and Pro-Obama."[5] The next month, prompted by the controversy over remarks by the pastor of 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."[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Schaeffer

[semanticwikiian]

26. "Calling for violent overthrow" = classic sedition

First, here's the link for Why I'm Pro-life and Pro-Obama, which I've now read.

Second, yes I have an enduring anger at these folks, until that time when they no longer can (directly) profit from their current or past criminal activities. Until these charlatans serve time in the penal system. Until their organizations are disbanded. Until their cultural poison is fully eradicated from social discourse, as generally racism now is. Until their use of white privilege to commit sedition and treason without penalty is wholly ripped as a backstop from their lives.

Please note Schaeffer never provided us, the American People, hard evidence that his father and others then and now engage in sedition. It's not enough just to write books that say I'm So Very Sorry! in myriad ways. To say mea culpa, everyone! with no recommendations for prescriptive laws to prevent its repetition by others not yet as enlightened as he has become. Or to get right to it, to say oops, my bad! and then look for the royalty check in the mail.

What I want is corrected reality, not whiny books about how foolish/criminal they were, and how they got away with it.

The man trades in his, his father's, and his movement's infamy, no better than a born-again arms merchant or malicious hacker who, once their gains are safely locked up, suddenly feel "free" to find religion. Though he may seek forgiveness for mortal sins from his own god through his prayerful writings, forgiveness in a lawful society is had through a completely different process.

[safeinOhio]

3. Funny how they think gay rights

will bring Gods rath when you look at the countries with the most liberal gay rights, Denmark and the other Western European countries and then compare them with the countries with the most draconian laws like Iran, Russia, Uganda and Nigeria. Looks like their God like countries that treat everyone equal.
Can someone ask them to explain that.

[Xolodno]

4. Because they listen to their fruit-loop pastor who says...

Gawd destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of the Gays!!!!

And yet the Bible explicitly spells out why it was destroyed:

Ezekiel 16

[48] As I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.
[49] Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.
[50] They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it.


And "abominable" can mean many things....such as eating lobster, being unkind to visitors, worshiping idols, etc. They always ignore the aiding the poor part. So countries like Denmark which treat people equally and are secular are more God-like than oppressive ones than those that invoke God...go figure.

[madfloridian]

22. Exactly. Ezekiel 16: 49,5o

All versions:

http://biblehub.com/ezekiel/16-49.htm

[semanticwikiian]

5. Gosh, Frank...

Such an honorable man. Now that you got yours ("I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old ...&quot you found personal honor and integrity.

What a shame, Frank, falling from “evangelical royalty” to the rebel-status of “traitorous prince” -- must be hard. I get it.

Oh Frank? What do you think of the blood money which pays your mortgage? Buys you fancy meals and ballet tickets?

Got enough? If not, I'd be happy to bring you some MORE MONEY.

[Bluenorthwest]

8. Frank was a thief, a liar, a hate purveyor and he still continues to trade on those actions which I

find disturbing. I am certain he kept his share of the loot he and his father bagged as well. His entire affluent life has been paid for by fraud or by trading on his status as a redeemed fraud. I think if he was really all that changed he would have developed an identity aside from his old one. That's what I think.

[LiberalLoner]

9. I think the guy is genuine. I've read some of his books, and his

Change of heart and misery at what the nation has become seems real. I cut him a break, wish others would, too.

[madfloridian]

10. I agree. There seems to be no compassion for those who admit mistakes and change.

I cut him a break as well.

[jeff47]

15. If he's so repentant, how come he's still well-off from what he did?

It's really not that hard to donate large sums of money to charities aiming to undo the harm he caused.

[madfloridian]

16. How do you know his financial status?

[jeff47]

17. He said so

I am a white, privileged, well-off, 61-year-old former Republican religious right-wing activist

[madfloridian]

18. I should say how do you know how he earns money now.

[semanticwikiian]

25. He writes books, his new one being about his repentance

which I would hope is eventually used to support an indictment.

[jeff47]

27. Well, he sells his books and makes speeches. Additionally, he's well off, so presumably

he has investments.

Even if investment income was his only source of money, he could donate enough to be "comfortable" for decades instead of "well off".

[FloriTexan]

28. K&R

[Douglas Carpenter]

29. I think that when a person who once believed in bad things and propagated bad ideas changes their

mind and comes to believe in good things and in propagating good ideas - that is a good thing. But maybe, this is just one of my silly old fashioned ideas about repentance and redemption. Maybe bad people who preached bad ideas should stay bad and keep preaching bad things forever. But personally, I don't think so.