I sent Mr. Schaeffer a list of questions to follow up on his interview with Amy Goodman this morning:

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/13/for...

And he was gracious enough to get right back to us.

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sf: Your book, Crazy for God, must have upset a lot of people in the evangelical community. Are you considered a “traitor” by them? Can you describe how that community has responded to you “telling tales out of school”? What has been the cost to you as an individual, a member of a family and a member of a community? Can you say something about your relationship to that community to help your readers “locate” you on a cultural map?

FS: It did upset some people. But what surprised me was that most of the email (literally thousands!) is from former evangelicals and not so former either who are also sick of the rightward tilt of evangelicalism in America. There is real change coming.

As for cost; family has been okay. But my book Crazy For God has been attacked but mainly ignored. You have to understand the evangelical movement is really just a series of personality cults. I was a cult figure as was my dad. Once I quit others just moved in and followers move on to the next "hot" person. Today Rick Warren, yesterday my late father Francis Schaeffer, tomorrow, who knows.


sf: Why did John McCain choose Sarah Palin? A lot of us on the left have our own ideas about that but, in your opinion, what does she bring to his ticket?

FS: He is nuts, that's really why. But his "reason" I'm sure was to connect with the fundamentalist power base that put Reagan, Bush 1 and 2 in office. But that fringe is angrier than ever and crazier than ever. So McCain got more than he bargained for and an wingnut Alaska secessionist to boot! This is the fringe of the fringe. It will take him out of the race. Most Americans just aren't this nuts.


sf: How coded is Sarah Palin’s language when she speaks at her rallies? Listeners not in that culture have the sense that more is going on than were hearing. Is there or, are do we just have over active imaginations?

FS: Very coded. Not like us = not white.

sf: It looks right now as if McCain will lose this election. What is your prediction about the reaction of the evangelical far right? How will they respond to this loss?

FS: If Obama was white he'd be 20-25 points ahead now. As it is he will win, but don't discount the actual vote may not add up to the polls. Race, again. If they lose within the next 5 yrs look out for white domestic terror. These people HATE their own governmetn. (So much for patriotism) But I believe Obama will be a great president, one of the greatest, and if he stays safe eventually things will calm down as his achievements mount up. I also think this is the end of the evangelical right. Sure they will still be there by the millions, but Jan 09 marks the beginning of the end of their power.

sf: How do you see our nation, our culture healing up from the divisions inflicted on us by far right evangelical extremists over the last decade or so? What is the way forward?

FS: Again: Obama can do it. He won't convince everyone but 4-5 years from now the more reasonable of the evangelicals will admit they were wrong about him. The rest will just do what all bitter loony groups do: talk to each other in a little enclave in their own private language.

sf: How do we as a culture maintain our respect for the private religious beliefs of individuals and at the same time, repudiate extremism in order to rebuild our sense of community?

FS: By showing better ideas work, better education, better foreign policy, better health care, less crime ... nothing succeeds like success. Obama and a Democratic majority have to really make their programs succeed.

sf: In your opinion, what mistakes has the “left” made when responding to the evangelical far right? Or, what are your favorite mistakes?

FS: The left still doesn't get that Roe v Wade was a defeat regarding tactics (the actual issue asside). No Roe, no Reagan, Bush, etc. If it had gone state by state abortion would be legal today, less polarizing, and the energy would go right out of the right.

Look at me: I've changed sides but the only really furious people who hate me (on the right ie my old friends) are all about abortion. Gay rights and the rest never irritate that kind of anger.

sf: If individuals can make a difference in their daily lives, which gestures would you recommend to counter the profound divisiveness and outright aggressiveness from the far far right that we have witnessed and lived with for all of these years?

FS: Reduce abortion, include all (reasonably sane) voices whenever possible. Things can change Obama understands this.

sf: What is the outcome you'd like to see in November? Do you have goals for the upcoming election that you can share with us? I don’t only mean the presidential race at all and am not pulling for a particular answer really. Overall, what would you like to see happen this round?


FS: We need a big Obama win. The world needs to see America at her finest again. Then at home we need Obama to actually disappoint the most ideologically committed people on the left and the right and do what works best. Then the BIG ONE: energy policy. If we can get off carbon-based energy everything changes for the better in so many ways.

sf: Your book, Crazy for God, is a unique window into a world most Americans will never see but, ironically, a world that influences our politics and our media a great deal. Can you say something about your aims in writing that book at the moment your wrote it?

FS: I'm a writer. To me Crazy For God is the end of a long quest to understand my world. I started with three novels about the subculture I come from: Portofino, Zermatt and Saving Grandma. Now in Crazy for God I go to memoir, that in fact is stranger (and just as funny) as the fiction. I wanted to write a great book and my life was too good as far as material goes to ignore.

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Thank you, Frank Schaeffer. Your viewpoint is unique and I appreciate your generosity in sharing it with us.

DUers who want to read more about Frank, visit his website:



http://www.frankschaeffer.com /

To order Crazy for God:



http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-God-Helped-Rel...