Will the REAL Francis Schaeffer Please Stand Up?

Will the REAL Francis Schaeffer Please Stand Up? September 7, 2011

I didn’t grow up reading Francis Schaeffer, as so many of my evangelical friends did.  I’ve only come to know of him and his work through the writings of his son, Frank Schaeffer.  Frank’s writings are, to be sure, slanted against his father’s theology/ideology.  Nevertheless, they paint a chilling picture of the Christian thinker and author that Michelle Bachmann now says is her biggest influence.  Andrew Sullivan weighs in on a debate between a conservative and a liberal on the real core of Francis Schaeffer’s thought:

And this is the core point: Schaeffer is deeply illiberal, profoundly opposed to the Enlightenment on which the US Constitution rests and determined to replace Enlightenment thought with a Biblically based regime. The choice is pretty clear. Either you base your conception of politics on the Constitution, framed along Enlightenment principles with a Deist architect floating ethereally behind it, or you believe that religious doctrine is and must be the core basis for our society, and that a long-standing government that continuously permits and encourages absolute evil must be resisted, eventually with force.

via Christianism – And Its Defenders – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast.

UPDATE: Frank Schaffer emailed me and suggested that I and others read the interview with him HERE.


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