Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author. He is a survivor of both polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood, an acclaimed writer who overcame severe dyslexia, a home-schooled and self-taught documentary movie director, a feature film director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as "pretty terrible." Frank's nonfiction includes "Keeping Faith-A Father-Son Story About Love and the United States Marine Corps" and AWOL-The Unexcused Absence of America's Upper Classes From Military Service and How It Hurts Our Country." Frank's latest book is, "Crazy for God: How I Grew Up As One of the Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right and Lived to Take All (or Almost All) of It Back." Jeff Sharlet (The New Statesman October 25, 2007 ) writes, "'Crazy For God' is a brilliant book, a portrait of fundamentalism painted in broad strokes with streaks of nuance, the twinned coming-of-age story of Frank and the Christian right." Jane Smiley (The Nation October 15, 2007) writes: "'Crazy For God' offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years, and... when taken in conjunction with [Frank Schaeffer's] other works (notably the Calvin Becker Trilogy, ['Portofino,' 'Zermatt' and 'Saving Grandma']), it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs..." Frank's three semi-biographical novels about growing up in a fundamentalist mission: "Portofino," "Zermatt," "Saving Grandma" have been translated into 9 languages. "BABY JACK," a novel about the class division between who serves and who does not, was published in 2006. USA TODAY said, "The reader marvels at how Schaeffer makes this concise chorus of social conviction moving and memorable..." Frank can be contacted at frankschaeffer.com

Blog Entries by Frank Schaeffer

The Republicans' Death Obsession

7 Comments | Posted December 22, 2009 | 09:37 AM (EST)


During the Sunday (Nov 20, 2009) Senate debate on health care, Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) called on the American people to pray that a Democratic Senator would be unable to vote on the health care bill, in order to defeat Democrats.

"What the American people oughtta pray is that somebody...

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Republicans Hijack Religion in Health Care Debate

3 Comments | Posted December 18, 2009 | 09:40 AM (EST)


"Herod care" anyone?

The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, head of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference led last night's "prayercast" co-sponsored by the Family Research Council.

In the "prayercast," Rodriguez prayed:

Heavenly father, righteous God, in this season as we celebrate birth of our savior, the one who came...
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What's Really Going on with Evangelical's War on Gays

8 Comments | Posted December 9, 2009 | 11:19 AM (EST)


Fact: The Ugandan so-called "anti-Homosexuality Bill" by legislator David Bahati forces horrid punishments on gays -- jail terms and/or death.

Fact: Uganda is a predominantly evangelical and Bible-based society. (Pastor Rick Warren "recognized" this when he said "Uganda is a purpose driven country" in his book Purpose Driven Life. Warren...

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Killing Uganda's Gays: The Long Reach of American "Reconstructionist" Fascism

11 Comments | Posted December 3, 2009 | 09:06 AM (EST)


Nothing illustrates...

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Is Mike Huckabee Culpable?

34 Comments | Posted December 2, 2009 | 11:09 AM (EST)


Mike Huckabee broke his silence on Monday and defended his decision to give clemency to a convict said to be responsible for the ambush murder of four Seattle police officers. I have an odd connection to Huckabee. He told Katie Couric, during the 2007 primary race, that the book by...

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It's Time To End (Deadly) "Religious Freedom"

10 Comments | Posted October 14, 2009 | 08:55 AM (EST)


Gay marriage and gay parents aren't a threat to children but a certain frighteningly widespread kind of Christianity is not just a threat but a death sentence. With the growth of the so-called charismatic faith healing denominations in America it's time to put child welfare ahead of our concept of...

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Bad News! Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

31 Comments | Posted October 9, 2009 | 06:53 AM (EST)


Here's how Obama's critics will react to the news of his winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Religious Right will take this is further proof that Obama is the Antichrist.

The neoconservatives will trumpet this as the ultimate evidence of Obama being a socialist, embraced by notoriously socialist Norway.

The...

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Organizing to Stop Far Right Violence

10 Comments | Posted October 5, 2009 | 04:33 PM (EST)


Since President Obama took office I've felt like the lonely -- maybe crazy -- proverbial canary in the coal mine. As a former right wing leader, who many years ago came to my senses and began to try to undo the harm the movement of religious extremism I helped build...

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When Freedom Is a Dirty Word

144 Comments | Posted September 22, 2009 | 04:27 PM (EST)


On what had to be one of the most disheartening media appearances I've ever made -- in terms of my usual shtick as an author and commentator -- I was just on Court TV yesterday. Court TV was fine. The case we were talking about made me want to throw...

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Remember What Civility Was? A Book to Remind Us

12 Comments | Posted September 15, 2009 | 05:44 PM (EST)


In a dream world where the shouting stopped, where of course Americans argued with each other, but where we all assumed that we were all in this together, that we all wanted a better America, that it was about building community and treating each other with decency and respect, what...

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Glenn Beck and The 9/12 Marchers: Subversives From Within

190 Comments | Posted September 12, 2009 | 04:37 PM (EST)


Who are these people?! Where do they come from?! Ordinary Americans might wonder why anyone would stoop so low as to follow Glenn Beck, Fox News and Dick Armey (and their corporate sponsors masquerading as "FreedomWorks") as they organize their "9/12 March On Washington" to cynically exploit the 9/11 attack....

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Max Blumenthal vs. The Far Right "God" Of Dumb Hate

30 Comments | Posted September 8, 2009 | 06:28 PM (EST)


For me reading Max Blumenthal's Republican Gomorrah--Inside The Movement That Shattered The Party, (Nation Books) is like looking into a mirror. That might be because Blumenthal extensively interviewed me and drew rather heavily on my book Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the Elect, Helped...

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Military Contractors and Our Buck-Stops-Nowhere "Wars"

16 Comments | Posted September 5, 2009 | 10:21 AM (EST)


The truth is that if (post-9/11) America wanted to fight two wars simultaneously -- and apparently endlessly -- protect our shores and project power into other parts of the globe simultaneously we needed draft. But we are a culture that refuses to make hard choices and likes happy endings, in...

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Obama Is Right, His Critics (Right and Left) Are Wrong

191 Comments | Posted September 1, 2009 | 11:23 AM (EST)


To the right, President Obama faces a Republican Party that is now more of a fundamentalist cult, wedded irrevocably to myth and deliberate misinformation, than a political party. (I did my part to make it that way by being a religious right anti-abortion leader and side-kick to my far-right evangelist...

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How the Right and the Left Destroyed the Public Option

70 Comments | Posted August 19, 2009 | 11:47 AM (EST)


What's the common denominator linking crummy public transport, military contractors and the public option being taken off the table in the health care reform fight? Why is a single-payer health care provider "unthinkable"? The common denominator is that the United States is in the thralls of a demented cult that...

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The Left Is Also Obama's Problem

183 Comments | Posted August 17, 2009 | 12:27 PM (EST)


Can the left learn to keep its mouth shut once in a while? Does the American left know how to win wars or just skirmishes? Does the left want change or does it demand perfection? You can't have both in this life.

No one has been a tougher critic...

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An Open Letter To The "Respectable" Evangelical/Republican Party Leadership

26 Comments | Posted August 13, 2009 | 10:10 AM (EST)


You evangelical leaders have a choice before you: rejoin American society as it is and love the actual country you're part of, or stick to your mythical Disney remake of a Little House On the Prairie fantasy and fade away -- forever.

To you "moderate" and "respectable" evangelical Christians...

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Evangelicals Are the New Anti-Americans

67 Comments | Posted August 5, 2009 | 06:29 PM (EST)


From the media influence of the "birthers" to suggestions that the President wants to euthanize the elderly, a propaganda campaign against Obama is in full swing. Who, exactly, is behind it? In his book The Family, Jeff Sharlet has done a masterful job of exposing the machinations of the of...

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Krugman Is Wrong (Again) About Us Obama Backers

1 Comments | Posted August 5, 2009 | 06:15 PM (EST)


It's funny, I just read Krugman in today's NY Times. Krugman has it wrong where he says, at the end of his piece, that "Mr. Obama's backers seem to lack all conviction." Krugman's in a "beltway" mindset of his own and not really in touch with us Obama backers. (Of...

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The Trivialization of The Presidency: Obama Becomes Oprah

28 Comments | Posted August 1, 2009 | 03:39 PM (EST)


Oprah consciousness has invaded the White House. Is there a limit to the touchy -feely public reconciliation syndrome? Apparently not. Oprah rules! I have nothing against Oprah. Her providing a forum for public confessions and reconciliations makes for great TV. And she helped turn one of my books (Keeping Faith-A...

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