Monday, October 24, 2011

Sex, Mom, & God / Frank Schaeffer / 281



I checked this book out because of the title. It turned out to be a very informative book. I did not read the chapters in order. I started with a very funny one (to me) as I was paging through the book. As I found out who Frank Schaeffer was, I began reading the entire book.


Frank Schaeffer is one of the founders of the Religious Right political movement and did most of his work in the '80's. He made the anti-abortion films that started the politicizing of religion. He has now come 180 and is no longer affiliated with the right wing Christians and thinks things in this country have definitely gone awry with all the hate talk and no ability for anyone to compromise on any issue.


His parents were missionaries to the rich tourists in l'abri in Switzerland near a ski resort. Apparently his father was well-known. Francis Schaeffer, the father, was also one of the prime movers of the religious right movement. The author's parents' lives were quite disfunctional. His mother continually talked about sex, his father was abusive, he was home-schooled, but not in the traditional things one learns. He is quite open about his family life and has photos of his mother in the book. Hopefully she hasn't read the book or his other book. She should be mortified (or maybe in her case; not)


It is a fascinating, no holds barred, examination of his life, the religious right, and the climate in this country. It is great in that he actually knows the people whose names he is dropping. Colson, Billy Graham, Frank Graham, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, and many others. I just loved his descriptions of them.

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