The best title for a movie about the past twenty-five years in religious America would be Elmer Gantry Returns, and Frank Schaeffer is here to tell you its cast of holy rollers is worse than you think:

"In private, they ranged from unreconstructed bigot reactionaries like Jerry Falwell, to Dr. Dobson, the most power-hungry and ambitious person I have ever met, to Billy Graham, a very weird man indeed who lived an oddly sheltered life in a celebrity/ministry cocoon, to Pat Robertson, who would have a hard time finding work in any job where hearing voices is not a requirement."
-- Quoting Schaefer in a review of Frank Schaeffer's Crazy For God

"Crazy for God" is a personal memoir of transformation, epiphanies, and an understanding of how dogma and ego can hijack personal faith. It is in parts of moving, revealing about personal contacts with the "leaders of the religous" right, and humorous.

Schaeffer's father was ground zero for the genesis of the religious right. His family was was made up of the most influential people in the religious right's media empire from the 70s through the early 90s. They had an awesome machine that sold books, movies, speeches, tapes, retreats, etc to the born-again-but-unthinking crowd.

Schaeffer's father had a crisis in faith near the tragic end of his life (like most people who battle depression, his final years were miserable). His wife and daughters seemed lost in the turmoil as their world unraveled. Young Frank began doubting, and then cut all ties with the ultra-conservative ultra-blind-faith-religious world. He hasn't lost his faith, but he is now much more grounded in the mainstream of the American religious community (Greek Orthodox).

Note: Frank's mother and sisters did get the apocalyptic money-machine rolling again.

Frank Schaeffer may have lost his blind adherence, but he didn't lose his capacity to use the entertainment media to spread a message. Today's message is different:

"I think we have come through a very, very bad time and unfortunately, I'm sorry to say, my dad and I, when I was a young man and he in his career had a lot to do with it. Because we were the people, who along with others like James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell and the others, we put all of this crap in place. And now the reason I wrote 'Crazy for God' is because the title is literally that if we approach God in a certain way, it will drive you crazy. And this has been a period of craziness."

Well worth reading on many levels; Crazy For God