Many on the religious right would consider Frank Schaeffer an apostate. The son of an important founder of the modern religious Right, Francis Schaeffer, Frank Shaeffer has moved from his previous positions and is now one of the worst enemies of the modern religious right, because he knows where the bodies are buried - and in some case, I wonder if that expression should be taken literally.
Shaeffer has a post over at Brad Blog, to which my spouse pointed me. It is devastating. Consider just this paragraph:
Rushdoony who Prince, Huckabee and others follow, said the Bible must replace civil laws and constitutions with the Old and New Testaments, including the revival of the death penalty for homosexuality, incest, adultery, losing virginity before marriage and apostasy. Rushdoony once told me: "Democracy is a heresy."
there is more. . .
Frank Schaeffer moved over to Orthodox Christianity (often called Eastern Orthodox because the national churches that follow Orthodoxy include many in Eastern Europe, like the Russian, Bulgarian and Rumanian churches) shortly before I left. He is quite articulate, as anyone who has seen him on Rachel Maddow realizes.
This piece is occasioned by what is happening in Uganda. Schaeffer begins:
Nothing illustrates the danger we face from our own Taliban better than the way American "Christians" are now tangled up with the homophobic --- now potentially gay murdering --- Ugandan Christian/political leadership.
That should give you a taste of what is to come. He goes through many of the major players, starting with the late R. J. Rushdoony:
Here’s what the late R.J. Rushdoony, Reconstructionist theologian and founder of the modern movement of that name, wrote in a letter to gay rights activist Mel White: "God in His law requires the death penalty for homosexuals."
Our own troutfishing and Jeff Sharlet have both helped us understand the importance of The Family. Schaeffer examines that organization, Rick Warren, Rushdoony, Erik Prince (who - gag - now wants to become a high school history teacher), and some others not as well know, like
George Grant is one of the far right/theocratic mentors. He appeared with Rushdoony in the video, "God’s Law and Society." Grant was the co-author for Huckabee’s 1998 book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence. That was the book where Huckabee and Grant said homosexuality and pedophilia, sadomasochism and necrophilia were all "institutionally supported aberrations."
and like
Bill Gothard, who runs an outfit called the Institute In Basic Life Principles. Gothard teaches that "character choices" result in societal "ills" : "homosexuality, divorce, contraception, crime."
Gothard runs "training institutes" that teach that families must be ruled by his Reconstructionist beliefs. Hundreds of thousands of American (mostly home schooled) children have been raised according to his ideas. He forbids dancing, dating, rock music and "wrong clothes." Wives must submit to their husbands. Adults must submit to their fathers, and there must be no birth control.
This is a piece that should be widely shared, so that people who do not understand how threatening to the very idea of democracy some of these people are begin to grasp how real that threat is.
Let me quote one more part, the final paragraph, to make this clear:
Reconstructionists persist and the movement is growing while key figures in Congress, to big time pastors, routinely deny they are part of this political/religious movement. Meanwhile they’re fixin’ to go to a hangin’ in Uganda, with the blessing of the smiling nice guys like Rick Warren and and a wink and a nod from the Reconstructionist handmaid Sarah-Tea-Bagger-Palin.
In a sense, Frank Schaeffer reminds me of David Brock, who after he left the Right began to expose how they operated, including telling us in detail about things like the Arkansas project aimed at destroying Bill Clinton. Remember, that helped lead to the impeachment of a President (who left office with a higher approval rating than did the Right's sainted Ronald Reagan). Shaeffer has been exposing the dangers of some of these folks for a while now, and I think deserves our full attention - he knows the ground and the players.
Frank Schaeffer left this distortion of Christianity because of the hate he was seeing. I am not a Christian, but in the almost two decades I spent in Christianity, it was quite clear that the traditional Christian message, while at times has been subject to being abused for hate and power, bears little connection with the "thinking" represented by some of the players Schaeffer exposes.
Read the entire piece. Then pass it on.
Oh, and if you want, you can follow @Frank_Schaeffer on Twitter.
Peace.