Frank Schaeffer seems hell bent on not only cutting all ties to conservative evangelicals but seems determined to stab the them in the heart, being not the least bit ashamed to stomp on his father's grave to do so.
Frank writes a blog for the Huffington Post, the same site that Fox News tried to confront over comments rejoicing over things like the cancer of Tony Snow. Frank recently defended Barack Obama over the firestorm of his association with Pastor Jeremiah Wright. He has every right to support Obama if he wishes, but the gist of his defense is rather incendiary.
Obama is in trouble for a 20-year association with a pastor whose theology identifies the gospel with liberation from white supremacy. Reverend Jeremiah Wright has been associated with the theology of James Cone, a theology that includes notions such as "Black theology refuses to accept a God who is not identified totally with the goals of the black community. If God is not for us and against white people, then he is a murderer, and we had better kill him. The task of black theology is to kill gods who do not belong to the black community.
"... Black theology will accept only the love of God which participates in the destruction of the white enemy. What we need is the divine love as expressed in Black Power, which is the power of black people to destroy their oppressors here and now by any means at their disposal. Unless God is participating in this holy activity, we must reject his love."
Basically, as World Magazine and countless other news sources have reported, "Wright has described America as 'the #1 killer in the world' and Americans as people who 'believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God.' He also has said, 'We started the AIDS virus,' and, 'We are only able to maintain our level of living by making sure that Third World people live in grinding poverty.'"
Obama's efforts to defend himself have been given enough ink. But Frank Schaeffer defends Obama and Rev. Wright by in essence saying there is really no difference between Wright's energized preaching and the statements of many white preachers calling down judgment on America for other sins, such as abortion or redefining marriage. And he more or less says his dad was one of the prime examples of such incendiary rhetoric.
"Every Sunday thousands of right wing white preachers (following in my father's footsteps) rail against America's sins from tens of thousands of pulpits. They tell us that America is complicit in the "murder of the unborn," has become "Sodom" by coddling gays, and that our public schools are sinful places full of evolutionists and sex educators hell-bent on corrupting children. They say, as my dad often did, that we are, "under the judgment of God." They call America evil and warn of immanent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild."
Mild? We started the AIDs virus is mild? Really? Hmm.
To make his point, Frank quotes his father's late book A Christian Manifesto apparently trying to link his dad to some sort of movement toward a violent overthrow of the government.
"Here's Dad writing in his chapter on civil disobedience: If there is a legitimate reason for the use of force [against the US government]... then at a certain point force is justifiable."
Francis Schaeffer's statements were quite measured. There is a moral law that stands above all human law. When human laws are unjust, the duty of the citizen is to use every normal, non-violent means possible to stand for justice. When any human ruler repeatedly refuses to abandon practices that are life and death issues, it may be the moral thing to do to use force. Such force, as a last resort would need to accout for additional moral principles similar to just war theory, measured, appropriate force that minimizes damage and avoids harm of the innocent. These ideas are not out of the mainstream. Presumably Frank has heard of the Revolutionary War and the Boston Tea Party.
Frank quotes his dad again, a quote which illustrates my point better than his:
"There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate... A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion... It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God's law it abrogates it's authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation..."
Let's clear the air here. Pro-lifers, including Francis Schaeffer and a guy who used to be known as Franky Schaeffer, considered abortion to be state-sanctioned murder of 1.5 million human beings a year. This was not a small issue of mere political disagreement. This is, in fact, a life-death issue. It was equated to the extermination of at least six million Jews by a racist dictator. One would think those who are concerned about race would see a connection.
As relates to Rev. Wrights concerns, it should be noted that pro-life people made a direct correlation between the Supreme Court's illogical decree that the unborn were not "persons" with an earlier Court decision that blacks were not fully "persons", thus allowing state-sanctioned slavery. Such injustice led to actions of civil disobedience, such as harboring runaways slaves and even force. Presumbably Frank has also heard of the Civil War. So we're talking here about white evangelical conservatives agreeing with blacks that slavery was wrong, that government complicity in slavery was wrong and that a horrible war that was partially the result of that conflict was justifiable.
In short, if there was a situation in this country where blacks were being rounded up and exterminated, many of those white preachers would likely be taking up arms to defend them. True, many, like the German populace who looked the other way during the holocaust would not, many would.
So I find Frank's following comment rather bizzarre:
"Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason."
I beg to differ. Black preachers have used words similar to Francis Schaeffer's words and not been castigated by the right. Black politicians as well. There is no problem whatsoever with any preacher decrying the sins of a nation and few conservative evangelicals I know are the least bit troubled with condemnations of racism, lamentations over our participation in slavery, lack of concern over the plight of people in Rwanda or Darfur.
What gets Obama in trouble is that Wright said things that are not merely decrying sin and calling for repentance, not merely a warning that sin can lead to judgment, but seeming to desire that ills befall America based on accusations that are untrue.
No religious right leader has suggeted the U.S. invented aids as an act of genocide. Powerline Powerline posted a radio interview in which Obama "was unwilling to distance himself from Wright's most irrational and noxious claims, including the ridiculous assertion that the United States government created the AIDS virus in a laboratory to kill African Americans. Instead of denouncing such ridiculous claims, he tap-danced around Rev. Wright's 'narrative.'"
Did Francis Schaeffer do something equivalent to publishing a Hamas terrorist manifesto, sanitized of references to Hamas, defending terrorism as a legitimate form of resistance on a church website? Is there any evidence Francis Schaeffer or any other significant religious right preacher equated civil disobedience with terrorism? Comparing a terror group's official charter – which calls for the murder of Jews – to America's Declaration of Independence? Blowing up non-military targets and civilians as groups like Hamas are prone to do? Just where in Schaeffer's "Christian Manifesto" is there any endorsement of terrorism? Franks words were: "By comparison Obama's minister's shouted "controversial" comments were mild." Really?
There is a qualitative difference between saying, as many preachers have done, that God will hold a nation accountable for its sins and saying as Jeremiah Wright has said "God damn America!"
Barack Obama may not be Jeremiah Wright. But if he cannot clarify where he differs from Wright on issues such as terroist tactics and killing the white man's God, then I think he will have difficulty portraying himself as a uniter on issues of race.
And there is a difference between taking a view of things that differs from one's father and spitting on his grave.
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