Sharing My Story

During the Fall of 1976 while the Presidential
election was being played out between Gerald
Ford and Jimmy Carter my church hosted a
special event. Dr. Francis Schaeffer had published
a book tht year called “How Should We Then Live?”
Francis Schaeffer had become the foremost evangelical
cultural apologist of the second half of the twentieth
century. I had read some of his books previous to
this one. This book was accompanied by a film series
with the same name produced and directed by his son,
Franky Schaeffer. The film series was being shown in
my San Bernardino church, Faith Bible Church.

The book and the film series showed the rise and decline
of Christian influence within Western culture. This
book and film series showed how philosophy,
science, religious thought, politics and the arts
had shaped our culture and society over the past
2000 years. It was an ambiteous attempt to synthesize
this information in a form that the average laymen
could began to grasp the currents of history. Having
taken Humanities classes in college much of this
material was familar but the perspective was different.
In Schaeffer’s view history wasn’t just a series of unrelated
events but there was a flow to history that is ultimately
determined by divine will.

Perhaps the greatest thing about Francis Schaeffer’s
analysis of history was the idea that we Christians
should not let culture and society be determined only
by secular forces and thinking. The church’s role was not
only the proclamation of the gospel but to be salt and light
to preserve our culture and society.