Crazy for God

By: Frank Schaeffer

Narrated by: Frank Schaeffer

Length: 10 hrs

Publisher's summary

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

By the time he was 19, Frank Schaeffer’s parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had achieved global fame as best-selling evangelical authors and speakers, and Frank had joined his father on the evangelical circuit. He would go on to speak before thousands in arenas around America, publish his own evangelical best seller, and work with such figures as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Dr. James Dobson.

But while coming of age as a rising evangelical star, Schaeffer felt increasingly alienated, and as a result, he experienced a crisis of faith that would ultimately lead to his journey out of the fold - even if it meant losing everything.

©2008 FrankSchaeffer (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

“ Crazy for God offers considerable insight into several issues that have bedeviled American life in the past thirty years…. it gives us not only a handle on the mess we are in but also quite a few laughs.” (Jane Smiley, The Nation)

“ 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.” ( New Statesman)

“Schaeffer describes a life that was by turns happy, difficult, idyllic, and completely nuts…. He’s a world-class storyteller.” ( Christianity Today)

loved it!

this is a beautifully written book...as a former evangelical myself, i could relate to so many things in the book...a joy to listen to!

The Franky Schaeffer We Knew

Honesty is refreshing to gain insights into beliefs. I recommend this read to learn more than you might like to find out.

Wonderful

It was delightful, full of whit, and thoroughly enjoyable cover to cover. Thank you for making this recording.

Thank you

I’m so grateful for the clarity Frank has given me by writing this book. Clarity to bring to light so much confusion as a young women. I grew up from age 20 with a lot of confusion from the PCA. I have been married to a spiritually abusive man. Hung in there because of the massagey message of the church.
Thank you Franky and Jeanne for loving life and faith with truth! Nancy

Recommended!

I expected to read a book that criticized a strict the author's religious upbringing, and instead was delighted to hear the author's empathetic, sensitive description of his parents' struggles with religion, their changing views over the years, and the public vs. the private face of their convictions. He expresses a great fondness for his family, and describes his unusual childhood with candid wit. In the final third of the book, Shaeffer exposes the hypocrisy of televangelism and the Republican party's cynical co-opting of evangelical Christianity for political gain. Unlike the previous reviewer, I didn't find his descriptions offensive ?????? he writes with a dark sense of humour, and what he writes has the ring of honesty.

Honest and riveting.

Must read important history of Christmas Right with amazing memoir from the man who caused it

Surprising, and brutally honest book

Any additional comments?

I must have been living under a rock, because I had never heard of the conservative evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer, let alone his son, Frankie.

Purportedly one of the founders of the pro-life movement, later a low budget filmmaker and then a popular secular novelist, Frankie's family's impact on right wing America was news to me.

An interesting, brutally honest book, now I just need to learn more about his family to figure out if I can trust his account.

Everything fell into place with this book

Coming from a childhood of toxic evangelical, Christianity. I am only now beginning to understand the terrible toll it took on me. This book put all the pieces of the puzzle together for me. It confirmed that my intuition as a young person and today was correct and always is. Thank you so much for this book.

Actually I respect the Schaeffers more after reading?

Long story short it's actually a very insightful read and I am joyed it; it also made me think higher of the Schaeffers because they are human just like the rest of us?
It's definitely no masterpiece, and Frankie's reputation of always feeling sorry for himself of you that I have heard from numerous people ever since he was a kid through today can definitely be seen throughout this book or he constantly laments and feels sorry for himself on the same time constantly praising himself. Either way it's insightful and worth the read but you will definitely get the whole "wow… Frankie really was a spoiled brat and still is?" Type feeling throughout. :-)

A Revelatory Memoir

I first read this book years ago and liked it so much that I wanted to hear the author read it on Audible. It's a brutally honest self-confessional masterpiece. He treats his family and many others the same way but shows how he loves them anyway. He shows his and his family's surprisingly important roles in the current disaster of right-wing politics and bitterly repents for the same.