Sex, Mom, and God

How the Bible's Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics - and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway

By: Frank Schaeffer

Narrated by: Frank Schaeffer

“Mom was a much nicer person than her God. There are many biblical regulations about everything from beard-trimming to menstruating. Mom worked diligently to recast her personal-hygiene-obsessed God in the best light.”

Alternating between laugh-out-loud scenes from his childhood and acidic ruminations on the present state of an America he and his famous fundamentalist parents helped create, best-selling author Frank Schaeffer asks what the Glenn Becks and the Rush Limbaughs and the paranoid fantasies of the “right-wing echo chamber” are really all about. Here’s a hint: sex.

The unforgettable central character in Sex, Mom, and God is the author’s far-from-prudish evangelical mother, Edith, who sweetly but bizarrely provides startling juxtapositions of the religious and the sensual thoughout Schaeffer’s childhood. She was, says Frank Schaeffer, “...the greatest illustration of the Divine beauty of Paradox I’ve encountered... a fundamentalist living a double life as a lover of beauty who broke all her own judgmental rules in favor of creativity.”

Charlotte Gordon, the award-winning author of Mistress Bradstreet, calls Sex, Mom, and God “a tour de force.... Sarah Palin, ‘The Family,’ Anne Hutchinson, adultery, abortion, homophobia, Uganda, Ronald Reagan, B. B. King, Billy Graham, Hugh Hefner—it’s all here. This is the kind of book I did not want to end.”

©2011 Frank Schaeffer (P)2011 Gildan Media Corp

Critic reviews

"There is no one today who writes with as much humanity, insight and first-hand knowledge on the Christian experience as Frank Schaeffer, and as always, he's at the top of his game in this fascinating and very enlightening book. With devastating insight he shows how the unholy alliance between the morally hypocritical religious right and the Republican Party has materially altered the landscape of American life." (Vincent Bugliosi, New York Times best-selling author of Helter Skelter)

Not What You Expect

this is an interesting perspective from someone who is no longer steeped in the leadership of the evangelistic church in the United States at large. some of it seems like insider information, but overall it's very personal. if you are at all interested in the history of how evangelism took over the United States, this is a worthy companion piece, but it will not give you what you're looking for in terms of solid history. it's more like an insider's view of a few things that were going on during that time. it's best value as a literary piece or an instructional piece is that it is very humid in the way that Mr. Schaefer presents his world and his life and his opinions about life and how they have changed over the years.

Entertaining and enlightening

I really enjoyed this book. I found it funny and touching and truly enlightening. I also feel I have a better understanding of the far right Christian movement now, and I applaud his efforts to atone for his role in creating the huge divide between right and left that is threatening to absolutely destroy the USA. And I think he makes a valid point about Roe vs Wade and the storm it unleashed. As a Canadian, where we have taken what he calls "the French approach," I can see his point that, at the very least, a civil discussion of the Roe vs Wade decision and its impact on US abortion law could be helpful in calming down the partisan politics that are crippling the US. But mostly, I enjoyed Schaeffer's frank and candid voice.

Another homerun for Scheaffer

Having read his previous book, "Crazy for God", this one is a great follow-through. Again, there is a sense of brutal honesty along with a humility that brings out a truly humane account of life.