Ryan Lizza may be a good reporter, but he is decidedly left of center. Formerly of the New Republic, Lizza now writes for the New Yorker. This past week, Lizza did the American public a great service — he helped Americans see both how ignorant many reporters are about Christianity and how much of an echo chamber exists in the media. In his article, “Leap of Faith,” Lizza grossly mischaracterized Protestant theologian Francis Schaeffer and used Schaeffer’s son Frank to explain some of what Francis Schaeffer meant.
Lizza fails to disclose, though he surely knows, that Frank Schaeffer has not just left the evangelical movement, but has largely rejected Christianity. Frank routinely serves as the “useful idiot” Christian for MSNBC to trot out and offer wholesale rebukes and denials of mainstream Christian thought, relying on his last name for street cred.
