What he said was ABSOLUTE GOLD!
Here is the video, Mr. Schaeffer comment starts at around 5:40. If you can't see the video, I
wrote a transcript for you. It's pure gold. If you can't see it
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Frank Schaeffer: author of "Crazy For God"
The main-stream culture does not take stock on the fact that within our culture there is a sub-culture, that is a fifth column of insanity, that is bread from birth through home-school, christian school, evangelical college - whatever, to reject facts as a matter of faith.
And so this substitute for authentic historic christianity, and I may add as a little caveat here, I'm a church-going Christian, really brings up the question:
Can Christianity be rescued from Christians?
and that's an open question and when you see a bunch of people going around thinking that our president is the anti-christ, you have to draw one of two conclusions, either these are racists looking for any excuse to level the next accusation, or they're beyond crazy, and I think beyond crazy is a better explanation.
And that evangelical subculture has rotted the brain of the United States of America.
we have a big slice of America waiting for Jesus to come back, they look forward to Armageddon, good news is bad news to them.
When we talk about the Left Behind series of books that I talk about in my book Crazy for God, what we're really talking about is a group of people who are resentful because they know they've been left behind by modernity, by science, education, by art, by literature.
The rest of us our getting on with our lives, these people are standing on a hilltop waiting for the end and this is a dangerous group of people to have as neighbors and they're our national neighbors and this is the source of all these insanities we see leveled at the president.
One way or another they go back to this little evangelical subcultue, uh.. it's a disaster.
Rachel MAddow talks a bit about a poll in New Jersey and other strange beliefs on the far fringes of society. Then she asks the question:
"How do you work to move people away from these beliefs?"
Frank Schaeffer:
You don't work to move them off this position. You move passed them.
Look, a village cannot reorganize village life to suit the village idiot. It's as simple as that, and we have to understand that we have a village idiot in this country, it's called fundamentalist Christianity.
And, until we move passed these people, and let me add as a former life-long Republican, until the Republican leadership has the guts to stand up and say it would be better to not have a Republican party than to have a party that caters to the village idiot, uh, there's not end in sight.
The next thing they'll do is accuse Obama of being the anti-christ and then who knows what comes next? On and on it goes.
There is no end to this stuff, why, because this subculture has as it's fundamentalist faith, that they distrust facts per se.
They believe in a young earth, six thousand years old, with dinasaurs cavorting with humans, they think that whether it's economic news or news from the middle east, it all has to do with the end of time and Christ's return.
This is la-la land, and the Republican part is totally enthralled to this subculture, to the extent that there is no Republican Party.
There is a fundamentalist subculture which has become a cult, it's fed red meat by buffoons like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and other people who are just not terribly bright themselves, and they are talking to evenn stupider people, that's where we're at. That's where all this is coming from, and it's becoming circular, it's becoming a joke, unfortunately a dangerous joke, because once in a while one of these loony-tunes as we see, brings guns to public meetings, who knows what they do next?
It's a serious thing we all have to face, but the Democrats and sane Americans just have to move passed these people, say "go wait on the hilltop for the end, the rest of us are going to get on with rebuilding our country.
Rachel Maddow: Is there anyone on the right who could be constructive here if they wanted to be? To the extent that people could be moved off of these conspiracy theories? I understand your point that not all of them could be, but is there anyone who could be influential to try and stop the impact of these conspiracies?
Frank Schaeffer:
Look, in the year 2000 I worked for John McCain to try to get him elected in the primaries instead of George Bush, but John McCain sold out by nominating [..] Sarah Palin who comes directly from the heart of this movement and carries with her all that baggage, so he sold out.
I don't see anybody on the Republican Side of things these days who has the moral standing to provide real leadership or will risk their position to do so.
