By the time he was nineteen, Frank Schaeffer's parents, Francis and Edith Schaeffer, had achieved global fame as bestselling 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 bestseller, and work with such figures as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Dr. James Dobson. But all the while Schaeffer felt increasingly alienated, precipitating a crisis of faith that would ultimately lead to his departure—even if it meant losing everything. With honesty, empathy, and humor, Schaeffer delivers “a brave and important book” (Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog)—both a fascinating insider's look at the American evangelical movement and a deeply affecting personal odyssey of faith.
Frank Schaeffer has a problem with Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, and the rest of the New Atheists - the self-anointed ''Brights.'' He also has a problem with the Rick Warrens and Tim LaHayes of the world. The problem is that he doesn't see much of a difference between the two camps. As Schaeffer puts it, they ''often share the same fallacy: truth claims that reek of false certainties. I believe that there is an alternative that actually matches the way life is lived rather than how we usually talk about belief.'' Sparing no one and nothing, including himself and his fiery evangelical past, and invoking subtleties too easily ignored by the pontificators, Schaeffer adds much-needed nuance to the conversation. ''My writing has smoked out so many individuals who seem to be thinking about the same questions. I hope that this book will provide a meeting place for us, the scattered refugees of what I'll call The Church of Hopeful Uncertainty.
A post-coronavirus evolution-based how-to for putting living ahead of work. Bestselling author Frank Schaeffer offers a passionate political, social, and lifestyle “blueprint” for changes millions of us know are needed to rebalance our work lives with thriving relationships: Fall in Love, Have Children, Stay Put, Save the Planet, Be Happy. Even before everything was disrupted by COVID-19 (not to mention by Trump), millions of Americans were already questioning capitalism’s “values.” We were already challenging the idea that your job defines you. We already knew something was wrong. Loneliness, frustration, and alienation were already on the rise. Even the most successful of us felt too busy, too preoccupied, and too distracted to enjoy what we intuitively know are life’s greatest rewards: vibrant relationships, family life, connection to others, involvement in our community, and the thrilling experience of love. Fall in Love . . . builds a well-researched and entertaining bridge to living happier lives and to a better future. It shows us that based on a better understanding of our evolutionary selves, we can thrive in family life and in our work life, too. But to do both joyfully—and at the same time—depends on rediscovering the priority of relationships, connections, community, and love.
The story is set in the 1980s and is about Billy, a young fundamentalist Christian who feels called to go to Hollywood to make "God's movie." But everything goes off the rails when he accepts a job to direct a soft-porn slasher/exploitation film in apartheid-era South Africa"--Page 4 of cover.
Frank Schaeffer draws on his relationships with America's military families to gather a timely and powerful collection of writing from the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Like Keeping Faith and Faith of Our Sons, Voices from the Front bridges the divide between those who are in, or who have family members in the military, and the rest of us who can take that service for granted. It is a book about the intimately emotional and human side of military service. While Faith of Our Sons reflected this war through the home front struggles of a quietly courageous community of families, Voices From the Front takes us directly to the often invisible front lines in Iraq and Afghanistan: from first deployment to patrols to combat to field hospitals and, in some cases, homecoming. As Schaeffer has written of a group he has come to think of—politics apart—as the next greatest generation, "We need to know the men and women in combat better and to understand what they are going through." Powerful, moving and undeniable, Voices from the Front tells the story of this war in the voices of the Americans who are living—and dying—in it every day.
How Do We Ever Speak with One Voice Again in Our Divided and Angry Country?" It is amazing how one America is isolated from the "other" America. The red/blue state divisions run so deep that it is possible to live without any interaction—ideological or otherwise—with those who hold different opinions than oneself. We are a people alienated, from ourselves and from our government. The authors, an odd mix across the Blue/Red divide—one a founder of the modern evangelical movement, the other a liberal Jewish former Clinton aide—hold an extended conversation across many months, several states, and two countries—sometimes contentious, sometimes funny, exploring the idea of how unlikely pairings—and thus, the entire country—can come together. They argue that we're entering a new era in history, and now is the time to rise up to it; to make ourselves able to tackle the enormous problems in our laps; to, in effect, move mountains.
Calvin Becker’s family are good Bible-believing missionaries; it’s their duty to spread the Word to everyone they meet. But now they face their greatest spiritual challenge right in their own home: Grandma. Foulmouthed, foul-tempered, and heathen through and through, she’s staying in the spare room, recuperating from a broken hip—and making it next to impossible for the Beckers to do the Lord’s work. Calvin’s pious mom is determined to save Grandma’s soul, even if she’s doing it through gritted teeth. His father’s spending more and more time in his room, blasting opera records to drown out the old lady’s voice. And Calvin wishes things would just get back to normal so he could go on vacation and see his beloved Jennifer. But now Calvin’s starting to understand Grandma a little better—and appreciate her a little more. After all, misery loves company.
To win his freedom, a slave becomes a gladiator Rafe is well over six feet of muscle, with a warrior’s body marred by only one scar. Long ago, this slave’s owner promised him that if he won fifty fights in the pit—fights to the death against men of all colors—he would be granted his freedom. In his first fight, Rafe slipped, and his opponent cut his side. The pain showed him his true purpose. Since then, he has never lost a fight, and he has never again been cut. Rafe has only eight fights left before he can claim his reward, but Ezra Clayton is not certain he wants to free the greatest gladiator the South has ever known. As the deadline draws near and the blood continues to flow, Rafe knows that if his freedom is denied, he will have to take it, as he has taken so many lives: with his two bare hands.
A dual memoir written in the alternating voices of both authors follows how the youngest son of a privileged New England family joined the Marines, and how experiences reshaped his father's beliefs about the characters of people in the military service.
“This impassioned, convincing manifesto” from two policy experts with military family “calls for class integration of the military” (Publishers Weekly). Military service was once a natural part of good citizenship, with Americans of all classes serving during wartime. Not anymore. As Kathy Roth-Douquet and Frank Schaeffer assert in this groundbreaking work, there is a growing disconnect between the cultural “elite” who guide military policy and the rank-and-file servicemembers charged with carrying it out. While the privileged lack the benefits and perspective gained through military service, those who do serve feel under-supported and morally distanced from the rest of the country. And when only a handful of congressmembers have military experience, it can become too easy—or too hard—to send soldiers into combat. Based on extensive research and firsthand accounts of service, AWOL is both informative and personal. As the father of a former Marine, Frank Schaeffer knows the anguish and pride of seeing a child deployed into combat. Kathy Roth-Douquet, wife of a career officer, knows struggle of keeping a family together with a husband at war, as well as the satisfaction of raising children in an ethic of service. Intimately acquainted with the glory and the sacrifice of military service, these co-authors offer the urgent wake-up call that America needs.
Calvin is the son of a missionary family, and their trip to Portofino is the highlight of his year. But even in the seductive Italian summer, the Beckers can't really relax. Calvin's father could slip into a Bad Mood and start hurling potted plants at any time. His mother has an embarrassing habit of trying to convert "pagans" on the beach. And his sister Janet has a ski sweater and a miniature Bible in her luggage, just in case the Russians invade and send them to Siberia. His dad says everything is part of God's plan. But this summer, Calvin has some plans of his own . . . Portofino is the prequel to the noted trilogy that includes Zermatt. A huge bestseller, Portofino has been translated into seven languages.
The sequel to Keeping Faith follows one American family on a stirring journey as their son, John, joins the Marines, plunging them into that roller coaster ride of emotions that many American service families experience in times of war. Reprint.
Caught between the beauty of his grandchildren and grief over a friend's death, Frank Schaeffer finds himself simultaneously believing and not believing in God--an atheist who prays. Schaeffer wrestles with faith and disbelief, sharing his innermost thoughts. He writes as an imperfect son, husband and grandfather whose love for his family, art and life trumps the ugly theologies of an angry God and the atheist vision of a cold, meaningless universe.
Calvin Becker's strict fundamentalist upbringing means he's never seen a film, watched television or danced. He even has to hide his five second-hand copies of Mad magazine in the attic. Now he and his family - his embarrassingly devout missionary parents and his sisters, the tyrannical 18 year-old Janet and the angelic Rachael - are on their modest annual skiing holiday in Switzerland. For the Beckers, the Hotel Riffelberg had always provided a safe haven from the jazz-loving sinners who congregate further down the mountain in Zermatt, but this is 1966, the year of peace, love and the Beatles, and the world is changing. As is the irrepressible Calvin... In his innocent 14 year-old body the hormones are raging, awakening a volcanic sexual curiosity and he willingly succumbs to the ample charms of Eva, the young waitress who introduces him to ecstasies beyond his wildest dreams. But then Calvin's mother catches him supposedly in the act and things start to go awry, triggering a climactic end to his childhood (and the family holiday).
This collection of essays in the form of fictional letters is an incomplete and imperfect attempt of one private citizen of the Orthodox Church to add his voice to the ongoing debate that rages between the Church and the secularizing, desacralized spirit of this age."--P. xii.
Addition Homework Helper provides children in first grade with extra help in learning important math skills. Packed full of fun-to-do activities and appealing art, children will have fun completing the reproducible pages while learning addition skills at the same time. Answer keys are also included where needed. --Our cost-effective Homework Helpers workbooks are a must-have! They provide help for students who need extra practice with basic skills, for the accelerated student who enjoys an extra challenge, and for the young learner who is developing basic concepts and readiness skills. They also help boost self-confidence and reinforce basic skills with activities that are geared to the specific grade level. Collect all 48 titles for preschool to grade 3 covering topics such as the alphabet, numbers, shapes, phonics, math, reading comprehension, and much more!
A study of how Christians have sacrificed the artistic prominence they enjoyed for centuries and settled instead for marginal and uninspiring works, including trinkets, tee shirts, and bumper stickers.
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