Religious Right About-Face: Activists Frank Schaeffer, John Whitehead And Cal Thomas Have Repudiated The Theocratic Movement they Once Led. Here’s Why

By Rob Boston
Frank Schaeffer spent several years making a good living writing books promoting the Religious Right’s worldview and speaking before rapturous crowds of fundamentalist Christians.

Schaeffer, the son of evangelical guru Francis Schaeffer, was the closest thing to a rock star that politically conservative fundamentalism can offer. As the Religious Right soared in the 1980s, Schaeffer was there to ride the wave. Young, bright and charismatic, he could have founded his own Religious Right group or perhaps even launched a political career.

Twenty years have passed. What does Schaeffer think of the Religious Right today? He wouldn’t touch it with the proverbial 10-foot pole – and the feeling is mutual. A spiritual and professional crisis brought Schaeffer to the understanding that the Religious Right has it all wrong.

“My doubts really began when I realized that the people we were working with on the Religious Right were profoundly anti-American,” Schaeffer told Church & State in a recent interview. “I began to get the same vibe from them I got from my friends on the far left during the Vietnam War. They seemed to be rooting for North Vietnam. When I was working with the Religious Right, they seemed be rooting for the failure of America. Bad news was good news for them.”
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