By Dave Andrusko
Hat’s off and a deep appreciation to John Stonestreet and Timothy D. Padgett for their tribute to Francis Schaeffer which appeared at Breakpoint.
Chuck Colson, called Schaffer “one of the greatest prophets of modern times.” That is no exaggeration. If you are of a certain age—old—and an evangelical—which I am—it is almost impossible to overstate the importance of Schaffer to our Movement.
Stonestreet and Padgett write
In addition to helping many individuals, these years of ministry, study, and reflection bore the fruit of lectures, books, and documentaries, all of which teased out the implications of Biblical truth for life. The documentary “Whatever Happened to the Human Race?” laid the groundwork for evangelical involvement in the defense of life and the opposing of abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. His works on apologetics, theology, and culture, now decades old, proved prescient about what was to come.
I honestly remember it like it was yesterday. Schaffer and former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop were collaborators on Whatever Happened to the Human Race? which was both a book and an incredibly powerful film series. In the 1970s the film was shown in churches all over America, including mine. Their twenty-city film and lecture tour successfully awakened the evangelical community, a sleeping giant if ever there was one.
Writing on the 25th anniversary of Roe, Jean Garton reviewed Whatever Happened to the Human Race? in NRL News. The author herself of the pro-life classic Who Broke the Baby?, Garton explained, “As a result, there was a dramatic change in the abortion landscape. The powerful message of both the screen and printed versions of Whatever Happened to the Human Race? educated and energized an up-till-then largely uninvolved constituency-the Evangelicals.”
Do take the time to read Stonestreet’s and Padgett’s terrific tribute.