Ich bezweifle, dass Rachel Marie Stone die Familiengeschichte von Edith und Francis Schaeffer richtig interpretiert. Ihre Sicht der Dinge hinterfragt die Perspektive von Franky leider kaum. Trotzdem will ich auf ihre „Hommage“ an Edith verweisen.
Still, in Sex, Mom, and God, Frank lets us in on a telling conversation with his mother: „Mom, the only reason I’m a writer is because of all those books you read out loud to me. You were a good mother… You opened the doors to everything I love most.“
Edith was from a different time; a time when people didn’t air dirty laundry and where maintaining outward appearances was considered an important part of being a good „witness for Jesus.“ I will not defend her self-abnegating vision of Christian womanhood (to the point that she seems to have tolerated abuse), nor the fact that she presented a picture of family bliss that was not, according to her children, at all accurate.
But acknowledging her shortcomings doesn’t diminish the fact that this creative and thoughtful woman opened doors not just for Frank but for many of us in the evangelical world, helping us to realize that things like literature, music, dance, good food, and beauty aren’t unspiritual or worldly, but pathways to enjoying God and God’s good gifts, a message we might today take as a given, but one that was, in her time, a spirited rejection of the status quo. And for that energetic conviction, I will remember her with gratitude and admiration.
Die Beerdigung findet übrigens am 19. April um 14.00 Uhr in Gryon (Schweiz) statt.
Hier der Artikel von Rachel: www.christianitytoday.com.