Review of Frank Schaeffer's "And God said 'Billy'" by Ron Dart

Frank Schaeffer, AND GOD SAID, “BILLY” (Outskirts Press, 2013).

Frank Schaeffer is, probably, the most prolific Christian writer in the last two decades who has, directly and clearly, addressed the dysfunctional nature of the conservative evangelical family in the USA and beyond. Schaeffer has employed a variety of genres, in a gimlet like manner, to make it abundantly clear why the conservative evangelical mind is toxic in a variety of crude and subtle ways. Schaeffer knows why this is the case----he has dwelt in the tents of the clan for many a year—in fact, he often appears to be a traitor to the tribe---dirty laundry is hung out for one and all to see.

It is one thing to suggest, in a literary way, what an authentic spiritual seeker should be wary of and free from. It is quite another thing to articulate, in a convincing and persuasive manner, to a generation of skeptics and new atheists, why the spiritual quest is worth the doing. Schaeffer has, in The Calvin Becker Trilogy, made it limpidly obvious, how good and naive spiritual intentions can be bent and twisted to serve questionable and destructive ends. It is significant that Schaeffer has used “Calvin” as his metaphoric portal into such a journey----Calvin’s family tree from the 16^th century to the present is a questionable heritage. The Calvin Becker Trilogy clarified, in a variety of ways, what a discerning spiritual seeker should be wary of and free from. What, though, should a person with deeper longings and hungers be free for? Such is the underlying myth and theme of And God Said, “Billy”.

There is a convincing depth, time won wisdom and burnished gold in And God Said, “Billy”. The novel is written in a confessional manner and is a classic bildungsroman----Billy tells his tale well from the beginnings of his religious journey, within the narrow confines of a conservative evangelical congregation, to his departure from it, through much doubting and legitimate questioning, into a subtle and spiritually insightful Orthodox way. Billy has had to pass through many painful and tragic experiences for the eyes of his soul to be cleansed and opened well----his pastor (a reformed and charismatic church leader) left his wife and took up with Billy’s wife (Ruth) when Billy was away in Hollywood and South Africa doing his stepping stone film. Billy’s confidante, Molly (worship leader of his congregation), declared she was lesbian (not kosher for a conservative evangelical). Billy and Ruth were aligned, when young, with the pop evangelical crowd (Bill Bright/Campus Crusade, Bill Gothard, Pat Robertson/700 Club, RJ Rushdoony, Pat Boon and Cliff Richards). There is a strong end time theology and Zionist bent to such a subculture—Billy was a true believer in such a way, and he would, consistently, use Biblical verses to justify all sorts of erratic and silly behaviour--almost slap stick comedy at times but a message not to miss.

Billy’s name is Billy Graham and just as the American evangelist’s wife’s name was Ruth, so is Billy’s wife, Ruth. There can be no doubt that Schaeffer is putting a firm elbow into the ribs of an American evangelical icon who should not be questioned (just as Calvin, for many reformed types, should not be questioned). What is on the far side of Calvin and Billy Graham’s Calvinism that has so dominated, in sophisticated and immature ways, much of American Christianity? The answer to such a question is at the heart of And God Said “Billy”.     

It is significant that Billy wants to make the definitive Christian film----the acting persona plays a significant role in the novel. Billy writes scripts, becomes a co-producer to do a rather crude movie in South Africa in the late 1980s and works with actors who publically present a certain winning image but in reality lack depth and minimal integrity. How much, in short, is the conservative evangelical ethos that Billy encounters just another form of on stage acting (merely prettied up with religious language)? What, though, is the real nature of spiritual transformation and to what end does it point? –beyond the acting before the cameras and audience, what remains? Or, is there only acting and role playing on the stage of life (for both religious and secular actors)? The obvious apartheid injustices in South Africa are ignored by Billy and the Hollywood set as they pander to their thin image making. Billy has to face his shallowness and trite religious impulses (indeed die to them) before the real spiritual journey begins.

Billy faces the worst forms of Dutch Boer culture in South Africa when he is taken to the police station for theft. The Boers, like the Jewish and Christian Zionists, see themselves as chosen by God to fulfill a divine mandate. Billy slowly feels his way through such nonsense. It is significant that when Billy is in a morgue he meets an Orthodox priest and his real transformation begins. A dominant shift for Billy is the turn from a worrisome need for a brittle certainty to a vision of mystery that is best lived into by living a loving life---paradox and uncertainty, faith and love replace the need by textual, confessional and words of the Lord certainty—certainty, needless to say, is the opposite and enemy of genuine faith---such is a constant refrain in the novel. Healthy doubt and questioning is the golden key that frees Billy from his insulated and unhealthy religious journey. 

Billy is assisted in his flight from South Africa by rather unorthodox yet Orthodox monks. Most of And God Said “Billy” (75 %) is about Billy’s immersion in a rather crass Hollywood culture and his inept attempt to make sense of his religious and Hollywood ethos in South Africa through his conservative evangelical interpretative lens---such a worldview cannot explain the painful and tragic reality that Billy lives through at a variety of personal, ecclesial, ethical and political levels. The latter half of And God Said “Billly” (25 %) is pure gold----desert wisdom, aphorisms and stories that massage soul and heart and sages who have lived into the centre of Divine Love---indeed, spirituality at its inviting best wins the day. And yes, Orthodoxy can be as fundamentalist as the conservative evangelical family that Billy has left behind—Schaeffer knows this well and exposes the reality wisely. Billy is walked into the transformative core of Orthodoxy rather than many of the legalistic forms or idealized portrayals of it.

The final two chapters of the novel are worth many a meditative read. Billy was killed in the desert in 1990 and his daughter (Rebecca) had heard nothing from her father for decades---needless to say, she was hurt and angry. The Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa brought to light Billy’s murder and an Orthodox monk made sure Rebecca was sent Billy’s spiritual diary that recorded and recounted his rite of passage from a conservative evangelical ethos to a healthy and probing atheism to the white heat core and beauty of Orthodox spirituality. The novel ends with Rebecca, in 2013, learning about the father she never knew through his confessional novel—though dead, he lives—the final few chapters are most tender and evocative.         

And God Said “Billy” is Frank Schaeffer at his literary best---gone is the reactionary tone by novel’s end----incisive wisdom, time tried insight and kindly love are the final message in this mature novel that, in the latter chapters, needs many a silent and sit reread. The thinner comedy of the earlier novels has finally been replaced by the deeper meaning of comedic vision in And God Said “Billy”.

Ron Dart 

Comments

[Brian Zahnd]

Thank you, Ron.

I'll read "And God Said, 'Billy'" next. I'm sure I'll cringe with embarrassing recognition through much of it.

BZ