Ken Medema, Frank Schaeffer, and Some Thoughts I Had About, You Know, Just Some Things

A couple of weeks ago, I stumbled across this video on YouTube in which Frank Schaeffer was talking with Ken Medema back in 2016 at the Wild Goose Festival, essentially an arts and music festival geared toward more of a progressive/liberal form of Christianity. The reason the video caught my eye was because both men played pretty significant roles in my childhood.

In 1970s Evangelicalism, at least the Wheaton Evangelicalism in which I grew up, Ken Medema was a pretty significant figure in the music industry. In the Anderson family, Medema’s albums Fork in the Road, Son Shiny Day, and People of the Son were constantly being played throughout my grade school years. As I look back at my childhood, I think it is safe to say that Ken Medema’s music had the most significant impact in my life on my understanding regarding what Christianity is. Yes, my later Biblical Studies and my love of 80’s Christian music had a huge impact as well, but Ken Medema’s music, being that it was a huge part of essentially my grade school life, was at the root of my Christian understanding.

Frank Schaeffer, of course, is the son of Francis Schaeffer, possibly the most influential Evangelical thinker and writer in the 70s-80s. I really got into Frank (then Franky) Schaeffer during my junior year in high school, when I went through what I call my “little Christian militant” phase. His books, Bad News for Modern Man and A Time of Anger really convinced me for a short time that Evangelicals had to “get on fire” for Jesus and “take back our culture” from the horrible influence of liberalism.

Without going into a full autobiography, I had a pretty significant spiritual change of course during the summer before my senior year in high school in which I feel I really started on my spiritual journey that led into adulthood. A few years later, I came across his book, Sham Pearls for Real Swine, and it had a huge impact on me. Essentially, it was a critique of the artistic shallowness and cheesy commercialism in modern Evangelicalism. The essential argument was this: Why is so much Christian music and art so laughably bad? It is because it sacrifices true creativity and honesty for safe platitudes. Truly good art is truth-telling art.

A few years after that, I learned that Frank Schaeffer had ditched Evangelicalism and had embrace Orthodoxy. At that time, I didn’t really know anything about Orthodoxy, but I guess you could say I made a mental note of that and subconsciously thought, “Mmmm…I might have to check that out one day.” And, as it turned out, about 15 years later my spiritual journey led me to Orthodoxy.

Of course, over the past 10-15 years or so I’ve been turned off by Frank Schaeffer. A lot of his recent books have just struck me as angry, really angry. To the point, in the 80s, he was this angry Evangelical firebrand who attacked all liberals and Democrats as the enemy who was trying to ruin the country. But now, he comes across as an angry progressive firebrand who attacks all conservatives and Evangelicals as the enemy who is trying to ruin the country. And quite frankly, he can get pretty vicious. Now, I love talking about politics and culture, and I have my opinions, but (partly because I’ve been rather turned off by Schaeffer now) I do my best not to broadbrush entire groups with inflammatory vitriol.

All that said, I stumbled across this video…and it got me thinking. So, let me share a few random thoughts.

I Had No Idea Ken Medema was a “Progressive” Christian (and I don’t have a problem with it)
Needless to say, given what I’ve just shared, it was quite surprising to see Medema and Schaeffer on the video. Schaeffer shouts his political views from the rooftops every single day, both in his books and on social media, whereas I don’t believe I ever knew Medema’s stances on anything that could be deemed “liberal” or “conservative.” All I knew was his music and the Gospel message in his music. Therefore, it was a bit surprising to see him talk a little about his personal life story and views.

To be clear, I didn’t find that bad or upsetting at all. I just found myself thinking, “Oh, he seems to be more ‘liberal’ than probably what most people would think.” But at the same time, what he was actually describing really wasn’t “liberal” to me—it was simply living out the Gospel. It pretty much was just an extension of his music, and his music had really shaped my entire Christian outlook from my childhood. His music was always about caring for the down and out and needy, stepping out in faith in Christ in the midst of your doubt and questioning, and taking the time to praise God for blessings in your life. Those things aren’t “liberal” or “conservative.” Those things are Christianity.

Obviously, Medema has applied and interpreted those core things in certain ways in his own life, in his own cultural and immediate societal context. And that is going to look slightly different from my life, or your life, or anyone else’s life—and that is completely okay. With all the popular talk about “diversity” these days, I think this is the kind of “Christian diversity” that should characterize the Church—strive to apply and interpret Christ’s teachings in your own life, realize different Christians will have different political and cultural views, and just focus on what you’re doing, without having the compulsion to scream at and attack other Christians who might not vote the way you do.

In the video, Medema mentions that he spends a lot of time in his music ministry in rather conservative Evangelical circles. At one point he says, “If you’re a musician, people think you can’t hurt them. If you’re a speaker, you’re dangerous.” I really like that. I think what he means is that as a musician he can use his creativity and artistry to subtly and gently teach and challenge fellow Christians without beating them over the head, like some hot-headed fire-and-brimstone preacher.

How to Address Cultural Issues
I also think that Medema can serve as a good example for the way all Christians should try to interact with others who might not see everything in the same way. Especially today, it seems that most American Christians across the political spectrum have unwittingly allowed their allegiance to a particular political party to “set the agenda” for their Christian faith. Take the abortion debate or the debate over how to address the recent mass shootings. Everyone just runs to their respective foxholes and starts lobbing rhetorical hand grenades at the other side, because if you don’t agree with my political view, then…you hate babies, you hate women, and you endorse mass murder.

Call me crazy, but I don’t think that mindset is really Christ-like. Now, we all have are respective political and cultural views, but the power of things like good art and music is that gets us to see a lot of issues in life from a slightly different perspective, so that we are, in fact, challenged to always stay humble and open in our own views. But to be actually good art, it can’t do it in some blatant, politically-motivated way—that’s the kind of thing Schaeffer was criticizing in his book Sham Pearls for Real Swine. Such “art” becomes cheap propaganda. But because our God is a Creative Creator, that means that good art creatively challenges our perspectives and helps grow in Christ. And it does it in a way that is loving and not vindictive and berating.

Now, not everyone is a poet, artist, or musician. Still, we can all be creative in other ways because we are, after all, creative beings made in the image of the Creator God. And I think if we seek ways to tell the truth about things in our own creative ways, we’ll be able to live out Christ’s calling to be salt and light in the world in a much better way than screaming at each other.

Still, Conflict is Inevitable (and shouldn’t be avoided at all costs)
That being said, we still live in free society, and in a democracy, that means we as a people are ultimately responsible for our country’s politics…and that means it is our duty as responsible citizens to (gulp!) actually discuss and debate really tough (and potentially volatile) issues. And that means (as I’ve come to realize) that when it gets right down to it, conflict is inevitable. The only way to grow individually and as a society is to be challenged. And this realization has brought me to yet a second realization: We all can and should try to discuss and tackle tough issues with people with whom we might disagree, but that also means we will inevitably fail to always do it in a measured and mature way.

Simply put, we are all going to get frustrated and butt heads with other people when we try.Why? Because none of us are as mature and as Christ-like as we think we are. But our inevitable screwing up should not be an excuse not to engage and talk with people with whom we might disagree. We shouldn’t avoid engaging with others because we don’t want any conflict at all. Some conflict, some frustration, is good—it serves as a challenge for us. One of the things that has always bugged me, in both the Church and Christian schools, is when people just avoid talking about anything potentially controversial because they just don’t want to make waves. They just keep their opinions to themselves and just talk about certain issues with people who share their point of view. It’s safer that way…but it also stunts your spiritual growth, in my opinion. And in the long run, that kind of mindset ends up fostering further, more entrenched division, for if you avoid people who see things differently than you, you’ll never be forced to understand their point of view, work with them, or really have anything to do with them. And in the long run, you just hate what you fear, and you fear what you don’t understand.

By contrast, when you step out in faith, engage with someone with whom you disagree, inevitably butt heads, get hurt a bit (inflict some hurting also!) in the process, and find a way to heal, reconcile, and understand that person a bit better—that is when you come to a more mature understanding of that person and of that issue. Simply put, you go through that in order to grow and become more Christ-like. It’s a bumpy road, but it is one we should take if we want to become better people.

That being said, we shouldn’t go looking for conflict. And, to relate all this back to the original focus of this post, that is something I wish Frank Schaeffer wouldn’t do as much. We shouldn’t be afraid to tackle tough issues, but we shouldn’t purposely go out of our way to inflame and offend. Granted, it is inevitable that we will, in fact, do that occasionally, because we’re petty human beings! But we should strive to grow up and become better people, and we don’t become better people by avoiding conflict at all costs. We become better people by working through the conflict we experience in life. And that requires forgiving others when they do it to us and repenting and doing some self-reflection when we do it to others.

Conclusion
Well, that is what I’ve been thinking about these past few days. I highly recommend giving those Ken Medema albums a listen (they’re on YouTube). I want to also recommend a few books by Frank Schaeffer that I have always liked: Sham Pearls for Real Swine, Portofino, Saving Grandma, and yes, even Crazy For God. (Not a fan of his more recent works).