A Post for Posterity: Meeting Frank Schaeffer

Four years ago today, Oct. 10, 2014, I had the pleasure of hearing one of my favorite authors/speakers, Frank Schaeffer, at Vanderbilt University.  I was honored to meet him and hear him discuss his latest book (at that time), Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God: How to Give Love, Create Beauty and Find Peace.

Salt and Pepper

I was thrilled to hear one of my favorite "salty" authors/speakers, Frank Schaeffer, again last night, along with "peppery" pastor/writer John Pavlovitz, during the Vote Common Good event in Holland, Mich.

Quote of the Day

My fear of meaninglessness comes from one place: my own willfully closing my eyes to the mystery of wonder. 

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 138

Quote of the Day

Trying to nail down theological certainties is putting faith in our imagination rather than in God's.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 138

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The follower of Jesus' example -- be she an atheist scientist working on a neuropsychology project, a pastor counseling gang members, a husband bringing his wife her coffee or a mom picking up her child at preschool -- will do anything it takes to live the reality of what it means to walk in another person's shoes.  To help us do that is the only point of going to any church or, for that matter, logging on to an atheist website.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 91

Quote of the Day

There is only one defense against the rising, worldwide, fear-filled fundamentalist tide engulfing all religions (including the intolerant religion of the New Atheists) which once engulfed me: the embrace of paradox and uncertainty as the virtuoso expression of love.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 90-91

Quote of the Day

Flee from exclusionary certainty.  As the bumper sticker says, "Mean People Suck!"  And that goes especially for people who are mean in the name of love.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 90

Quote of the Day

Where we go to church, or whether we go, isn't the point.  The point is who are we becoming?  Does church help you to become the sort of person you'd pick to be stuck on a desert island with?  Good!  Go!  Does it hurt your chances of becoming that person?  Run!

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 90

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My way of trying to encounter God within a church community may well be poison for others.  We all bring our backgrounds with us.  We're all running from something.  For instance, I know several people raised in the Orthodox Church who have fled to evangelical communities and found God there, or at least found a happier version of themselves.  I know other people who share my sort of religious background and they can only find spiritual solace in gatherings of atheists.  More power to them!  We are all recovering from what we've experienced in captivity to ourselves.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 89

Quote of the Day

Then again, if I only wanted to attend a church that was good, true and without error -- according to my transitory ego-stoked beliefs -- I'd have to invent my own religion.  But wait a moment.  There'd be a problem.  I'd have to excommunicate the priest and his entire congregation!  You see, I know that particular bishop/priest/congregation too well.  With apologies to Groucho Marx: I'd never want to join a church that had someone like me for their founding bishop, especially if I was the only member!

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 85

Quote of the Day

I choose to try my best to be honest about problems in the church of my choice.  Jesus did that too.  He criticized everything religious around him yet still participated in the traditional liturgical formal worship of his day even though it was led by hypocrites he denounced.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 84

Quote of the Day

My question isn't, "Did I create God who creates me?" but, "Do I need God, however he, she or it came to be?"  My question isn't "Can I find a church, mosque, synagogue, a gathering of atheists or some other temple that's perfect to stroke me?" but "Where can I find spiritual beauty that feeds my soul?"

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 83

Quote of the Day

Scientists and theologians can't offer better than circular arguments, because there are no other kinds of arguments.  Bible believers quote the Bible, and scientists quote other scientists.  How do either scientists or theologians answer this question about the accuracy of their conclusions: "In reference to what?"

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 78

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I feel significant when I tell my stories, therefore I am.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 77

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This gorgeous universe would be such a waste if it were unobserved and unremembered.  Aren't we lucky that we're storytellers?  Isn't the universe lucky to have us!  

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 76

Quote of the Day

We have Jesus and his Enlightenment prophets to thank for the humanist ideas on which America was founded.  If you're one of the people Jesus is said to have favored -- a child, a woman, someone ill, a sex worker, someone regarded as untouchable, old, ugly, abandoned or "the other" in some way -- and you are being cared for by unbelievers, is Jesus' example being followed?  Or does Jesus only live in correct theology regardless of how little a Christian may care about your wellbeing?

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 65-66

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Who then are Jesus' followers: the secular, godless Danes caring for the poor or the don't-tread-on-me Ayn Rand-inspired libertarians and their church-going enablers?  And for all the talk about the "real America" bandied about by right wingers, the humanistic impact of Jesus' thinking was central to America's founding.  The Declaration of Independence is an Enlightenment document containing the words "All men are created equal," a direct extension of Jesus' inclusive vision.  Lincoln built on this idea in his Gettysburg Address.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 65

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Fewer than 5 percent of Danes attend church.  In godless Denmark, the national government funds a high quality education for all children, rich and poor alike, while in God-fearing America, education is funded through local property taxes, so neighborhood and income dictate a child's educational opportunities.  Add in race and ethnicity factors to create a perfectly stratified school system segregated by educational opportunity.  Yet American evangelicals would deem most of the compassionate citizens of Denmark -- who are living according to Jesus' teaching about how to treat people -- as "godless" and try to send American missionaries.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 64

Quote of the Day

Although the Enlightenment philosophers' followers rejected the institutional Church and the brutal hypocrites who ran it, they were among the first to challenge society to actually carry out Jesus' vision of compassionate humanism on a large, transformative scale.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 63

Quote of the Day

Jesus was the first of the Enlightenment philosophers.  In John 8:4-7 speaking like some sort of first century Voltaire, Jesus questioned the laws and traditions of his day.  "And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they said to him, 'Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?' ...  Jesus said unto them, 'He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.'"  Voltaire couldn't have said it better.

-- Frank Schaeffer, Why I Am an Atheist Who Believes in God, p. 60