Crazy For God

Posted by Aaron Manes on Jun 5, 2011 in Reading List | 1 comment

Dear Frank,

In a conversation with a well-read friend of mine, he mentioned that I should read some of your books.  I had a B&N gift card and was browsing the religion section looking for the sort of books that I typically read when I stumbled across your memoirs.  Having grown up in a hyper-evangelical environment, I thought it would be interesting to read the story of a guy that lived it first-hand.  I have to admit, the sub-heading of the book really caught me – “How I grew up as one of the elect, Helped found the religious right, and lived to take it all (or almost all) of it back.”  On that afternoon browsing for books with money to burn, I thought that I had likely stumbled onto a story that I would identify with.

I didn’t know that much about your dad but I was aware of the name Francis Schaffer, and I knew the title of his book, “How Should We Then Live?”  I really enjoyed learning about the mission work in Europe that your parents founded and how they had a direct effect on the world that I grew up in.  What I really appreciated about the work they were trying to accomplish was that it was thoughtful and unafraid of engaging real culture.  The theological discussions on art and culture and the willingness to have academic conversations about scripture, faith and life with so many people all while embracing people with backgrounds that would have made it easy to close the mission doors to, makes me really admire your parents.  I didn’t have a pastor/missionary as a father but know as an adult having worked on the business side of ministries, and with a wife in a pastoral role at a church I know first-hand how “ministry” takes a toll on your life while at the same time leaves beautiful scars that you are thankful for.  I found the conversation about what happened behind the scenes and the insight of who you saw your parents as being when no one was looking was really great.  I felt you really treated them with great respect even in retrospective writing.

Being a student of Christianity and a lover of history and politics your book was an amazing read.  I believe that you wrote bravely about your evangelical peers in the sections on the founding of the Christian right.  I grew up in the faith world as dictated by Dobson, Falwell, and Robertson, and appreciated your conversation on your interactions with that world in its earliest form.  I really enjoyed overall how you took me from a childhood in Europe, to becoming an adult in the ministry, movie and author world.  Your chapters near the end when you would comment on your current faith were beautiful, especially this passage:

Honesty is the only thing that is satisfying about writing.  And honesty is always filled with inconsistency.  Since our opinions change, to be “sure” about anything – as if that opinion is fixed and will last forever – is to lie.  Anything we say is only a snapshot of a passing moment.  Honesty is what was missing from my evangelical writing and my evangelical and secular movies.  How could I make an honest documentary when… I was a different person to different groups?  By playing along and keeping my mouth shut, I was selling out to be able to find integrity later, something like going to whores to find a faithful wife.  But whores just led to more whores.

After John [Frank’s middle son] joined the Marine’s, I found that I gradually began to understand my life in a new way.  I wanted to try to come clean. I wanted to admit my mistakes.  I wanted to try to be the same person to everyone I met.  I wanted to try to write with the same level of honesty that the Marine Corps drill instructors demand for new recruits and live for themselves.

From my reading perspective, you have been honest and I applaud you for that.  To live honestly is to live as Jesus lived and I hope we can all aspire to that.

Thank you for your words.

Aaron

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