Frank Schaeffer is Crazy For God

John Fea at the Religion in American History blog has a review of Frank Schaeffer's newest book, Crazy For God. He gives a better summery of the book than I do in my own review, and I agree with him that many people, evangelical or not, are going to read the book in the hopes of getting some good dirt on the Schaeffer family. There's little enough of that in the book, though -- Frank tends to paint his father as an intellectual who was used by the nascent Religious Right movement back in the '70s, and his mother as dutiful housewife who sometimes regretted her own missed opportunities. But we do read of Francis' temper, and Frank's own youthful indiscretions, so maybe there's something there for the gossip-mongers after all.

I really think, as I wrote at Blogcritics back in November, that the real value of the book is for Christians, especially Christian leaders. Frank was thrust into a role that he really wasn't cut out for -- he was the heir apparent to his father's ministry. It didn't matter that he enjoyed art, and was a skilled painter and movie maker; he was called to carry on the family business.

Unfortunately, it seems he was called by humans, not by God. And when you enter a ministry without the calling of God on your life, you will not succeed. It seems that now Frank has found his true 'calling' in life; unfortunately, he lost his faith in the process.