Son of Late Religious Right Minister Defends Reverend Wright.

I read the most extraordinary article yesterday on The Huffington Post written by Frank Schaeffer who is the son of the late Reverend Frances Schaeffer. Essentially Mr. Schaeffer (the son) insists Reverend Wright is being demonized for remarks that are not too unlike those expressed by his father in earlier years. The difference of course is that Reverend Schaeffer’s remarks were considered heroic by the Republican Party of Reagan, Bush I and Ford at the time while today had the same words been spoken by Reverend Wright they would be considered treasonous.

Mr. Schaeffer points to the obvious double-standard for Reverend Wright.

When Senator Obama's preacher thundered about racism and injustice Obama suffered smear-by-association. But when my late father -- Religious Right leader Francis Schaeffer -- denounced America and even called for the violent overthrow of the US government, he was invited to lunch with presidents Ford, Reagan and Bush, Sr..

Mr. Schaeffer goes on to cite incendiary samples of his father's writings on civil disobedience from his book The Christian Manifesto. This book, according to the son is an “American-bashing” book.

There does come a time when force, even physical force, is appropriate... A true Christian in Hitler's Germany and in the occupied countries should have defied the false and counterfeit state. This brings us to a current issue that is crucial for the future of the church in the United States, the issue of abortion... It is time we consciously realize that when any office commands what is contrary to God's law it abrogates it's authority. And our loyalty to the God who gave this law then requires that we make the appropriate response in that situation...

Mr. Schaeffer exposes the anti-American message preached by the Christian Right in the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Take Dad's words and put them in the mouth of Obama's preacher (or in the mouth of any black American preacher) and people would be accusing that preacher of treason. Yet when we of the white Religious Right denounced America white conservative Americans and top political leaders, called our words "godly" and "prophetic" and a "call to repentance."

We Republican agitators of the mid 1970s to the late 1980s were genuinely anti-American in the same spirit that later Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson (both followers of my father) were anti-American when they said God had removed his blessing from America on 9/11, because America accepted gays. Falwell and Robertson recanted but we never did.

My dad's books denouncing America and comparing the USA to Hitler are still best sellers in the "respectable" evangelical community and he's still hailed as a prophet by many Republican leaders. When Mike Huckabee was recently asked by Katie Couric to name one book he'd take with him to a desert island, besides the Bible, he named Dad's Whatever Happened to the Human Race? a book where Dad also compared America to Hitler's Germany.

He then points to the blatant hypocrisy of the Christian Right.

The hypocrisy of the right denouncing Obama, because of his minister's words, is staggering. They are the same people who argue for the right to "bear arms" as "insurance" to limit government power. They are the same people that (in the early 1980s roared and cheered when I called down damnation on America as "fallen away from God" at their national meetings where I was keynote speaker, including the annual meeting of the ultraconservative Southern Baptist convention, and the religious broadcasters that I addressed.

The entire article can be read below.
”Obama’s Minister Committed ‘Treason’ But When My Father Said the Same Thing He was a Republican Hero