Francis Schaeffer credited with influencing 2004 Election

Kudos to Max Blumenthal who, as far as I know, is the first journalist to trace the results of the 2004 election to the influence of Francis Schaeffer. There is no doubt that Schaeffer was instrumental in awakening an evangelical reaction against abortion and he was not shy about denouncing homosexuality.

Evangelical readers of Blumenthal’s article may feel uneasy about his linking Schaeffer’s influence to militant anti-abortion groups like Operation Rescue. There is no doubt, however, that there is a direct link between the militant rhetoric of Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto and the militancy of anti-abortion groups like Operation Rescue.

For a fuller understanding of the influence of both Schaeffer and his colleague, Rousas Rushdoony, the founder of Christian Reconstructionism, on militant anti-abortionists read Jerry Reiter’s Live from the Gates of Hell: An Insider’s Look at the Antiabortion Underground and Frederick Clarkson’s Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy.