Amy Coney Barrett and the Evangelical Anti-Abortion Movement: An Interview with Frank Schaeffer

In a recent episode of MindShift Podcast, I spoke recently with Frank Schaeffer, the son of the late Francis and Edith Schaeffer. They founded the L’Abri center in Switzerland and were hugely influential on the origins of the Christian Right, American evangelicalism, the evangelical and Republican anti-abortion movement, and Christian apologetics. Francis in particular was well-known as a Christian intellectual, writing numerous books, speaking worldwide, and making a number of film series with the help of Frank. As a young man, Frank was an aspiring filmmaker and eventually came to believe in the causes Francis supported — in particular, the anti-abortion movement.

He has since disavowed the entire movement and has walked away from both the Christian Right and the faith — but describes himself as “an atheist who believes in God.”

As an example of his early activism, he worked closely with his famous father, producing the influential 1977 10-film series entitled “How Should We Then Live?” This series, which many early leaders in the Christian Right credited with inspiring their views on religion and politics, was based on Francis Schaeffer’s 1976 bestselling book How Should We Then Live: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture. Influential figures…