Anne Rice Breaks Up With Christianity via Facebook

[MormonHero]

Anne Rice’s announcements via Facebook.

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Notice that she hasn’t give up on Christ, just “Christianity”.

 

[Dale_M]

Notice that she hasn’t give up on Christ, just “Christianity”.

A few posts earlier, she invoked Gandhi’s famous quote: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

She seems to be rejecting organized religion. I am not sure if that puts her into the “spiritual by not religious” category. I think she is saying she is saying she is still Christian, just in kind of a “do it yourself” kind of way.

 

[Neil_Anthony]

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen O’Brien on October 4, 1941) is a best-selling American author of gothic, erotic, and religious-themed books from New Orleans, Louisiana.

She writes erotic books and religious books? Maybe its just as well she “breaks up with” Christianity?

 

[Dale_M]

She writes erotic books and religious books? Maybe its just as well she “breaks up with” Christianity?

She’s had a long career. Her erotic novels came well before her return to her Catholic faith, which was only a few years ago. At that time, she had pretty much also put aside her gothic/horror books, and turned to religion. I don’t think she wrote about religion until she became a revert.

 

[EmperorNapoleon]

She’s had a long career. Her erotic novels came well before her return to her Catholic faith, which was only a few years ago. At that time, she had pretty much also put aside her gothic/horror books, and turned to religion. I don’t think she wrote about religion until she became a revert.

Indeed. She only wrote three “erotic novels” all part of a single series back in the early 80s. Her exit from organized Christianity doesn’t surprise me in the least. She’s always been a very socially liberal person.

 

[utah_rose]

Anne Rice’s announcements via Facebook.

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Notice that she hasn’t give up on Christ, just “Christianity”.

She has essentially revoked all of the dogmas of the Church, and she seems to be confused also. The Church is not anti-gay. just against cohabitation between gays. I read before that she was pro-abortion, and she sure does seem to be rejecting Christ. The priest that brought her back I don’t think explained that she can’t be a cafeteria Catholic but must accept all that the Church teaches.

She should know we are not anti-feminists, as women do participate in the Mass as lectors and Eucharistic ministers.

It looks like she needs a lot of prayers, to Our Lady especially. She is a talented writer, but I wonder if some of this relates to her Christian books not being best sellers as her vampire books were. Looks like she has decided to be a secularist.

We need to pray to St. Anne and Mary especially for God’s mercy and the Holy Spirit’s intervention.

 

[Stylites]

If only more people who obstinately fail to adhere to Church beliefs and practices would quit as well.

 

[jpjd]

She and others like her miss the point. Jesus is the reason to be a Christian. Any and all disciples of Jesus are sinners and will disappoint. To “quit Christianity” because of the failings of disciples is simply to not understand what Christianity is all about. The point of Christianity is not to show how perfect we have become, because that will never happen. (Not to mention that many who profess to be Christian have not had true conversion of heart to begin with, nor on-going repentance.)

Our mission is to carry on the mission of Christ: sanctification, evangelization, and charity & justice. Sanctification: receive the sacraments, worship the Lord, spend time in prayer, read the Bible, etc. The grace we receive sanctifies us and helps us to live the life of Christ. Evangelization: spread the Gospel message to others through word and deed, teaching and practice. Charity & justice: serve others. Be your brother’s keeper. That we do to the least among us, that we do unto Christ.

We should always be working toward union with God, but at times will inevitably fall short. If Ann and others see people who profess to be Christian but act otherwise, pray for them and seek out those who are saints among us.

 

[SalesianSDB]

She’s like Bono, not into organized religion. She’ll read her Bible and follow Christ, she just doesn’t like how Christian denominations “distorted” Christ’s teachings.

If it is anything like Bono, she’ll pray and concentrate on her own personal relationship with Jesus without the middleman (churches).

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

If only more people who obstinately fail to adhere to Church beliefs and practices would quit as well.

But then who will save their souls?

Seriously. Though her tantrum deeply offended me, and sounds like she drank Mr. Clean, then fell off the roof and landed on her head, what of her soul?

 

[Apollos]

I guess her 1998 re-version was because she thought Christianity was “nice”. Now she sees it isn’t “nice”, so she takes a step back from it.

 

[Publisher]

Anne Rice’s announcements via Facebook.

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Notice that she hasn’t give up on Christ, just “Christianity”.

She certainly speaks my mind.

 

[lax16]

She’s like Bono, not into organized religion. She’ll read her Bible and follow Christ, she just doesn’t like how Christian denominations “distorted” Christ’s teachings.

If it is anything like Bono, she’ll pray and concentrate on her own personal relationship with Jesus without the middleman (churches).

Will she pray and concentrate on her own personal relationship with Jesus on facebook as well? Seems to me she didn’t cut out the middleman - and I wonder how many she will take with her?

How arrogant to think that one’s own personal struggles with religion are so note-worthy to publish them for all to read. She obviously wants people to follow “her” and not a church. Sometimes people think waaay to much of their own opinions.

 

[Sailor_Kenshin]

She certainly speaks my mind.

Luckily she does not speak for the majority, who still cling to Eternal Truths, neither bending this way and that in the wind nor following current fashion.

 

[Publisher]

Luckily she does not speak for the majority, who still cling to Eternal Truths, neither bending this way and that in the wind nor following current fashion.

I don’t believe she…nor I for that matter…have abandoned Eternal Truths…we both cannot blind ourselves to the image of Christ we see in those who are so very different from us…as Ghandi said…“I have no problem with Christ…it is His followers I have problems with.”(paraphrase)

The “leper” she is called to reject in the name of Christ…wears the face of Christ Himself…and THAT she cannot do…I understand her anguish.

 

[Eklecktika]

It is not the ‘leper’ Christ takes issue with, it is the actions of the leper.

The ‘being’ of homosexuality is not the issue, it is the ‘action’ of homosexuality that is. There is nothing wrong with having homosexual urges and inclinations, it is the indulgence of those desires that causes problem.

I am most definitely straight. However, if I were to be intimate with another woman, who also was straight, that action would be condemned, even though neither of us were truly homosexual.

Indeed-the face of the ‘leper’, as it were, is the Face of Christ. That doesn’t mean that we must condone the actions. If they truly do wear the Face of Christ, are we not required to call wrong wrong, rather than allow them to persist in that which will ultimately damn them? How is failure to do so, as encouraged by the more socially liberal, a kindness?

 

[PatriceA]

Will she pray and concentrate on her own personal relationship with Jesus on facebook as well? Seems to me she didn’t cut out the middleman - and I wonder how many she will take with her?

How arrogant to think that one’s own personal struggles with religion are so note-worthy to publish them for all to read. She obviously wants people to follow “her” and not a church. Sometimes people think waaay to much of their own opinions.

I may not agree with her opinions but I am interested in what she is thinking. I don’t think its arrogant of her at all, she is a very famous author, of course people are going to be interested in what she has to say.

 

[Zooey]

I think that’s one of the :crying:saddest things I ever read…
Anne Rice’s spiritual autobiography was so deeply inspiring to me. She touched my heart with the simplicity and purity of her love of God.
To read this today makes me feel like :crying::crying:crying.

We all need to pray for her. She sounds terribly confused…I do know that her only living child is a gay man…Maybe there has been something in that relationship leading to this???
Poor, poor woman…:byzsoc:

 

[Publisher]

It is not the ‘leper’ Christ takes issue with, it is the actions of the leper.

The ‘being’ of homosexuality is not the issue, it is the ‘action’ of homosexuality that is. There is nothing wrong with having homosexual urges and inclinations, it is the indulgence of those desires that causes problem.

I am most definitely straight. However, if I were to be intimate with another woman, who also was straight, that action would be condemned, even though neither of us were truly homosexual.

Indeed-the face of the ‘leper’, as it were, is the Face of Christ. That doesn’t mean that we must condone the actions. If they truly do wear the Face of Christ, are we not required to call wrong wrong, rather than allow them to persist in that which will ultimately damn them? How is failure to do so, as encouraged by the more socially liberal, a kindness?

You and I disagree…friend Anne sees the issue I believe. She cannot “reject” out of hand simply because one’s religious beliefs condemn…science, psychology, sociology and other non-religous disiplines throw light upon the whole issues of human sexuality. The conservative branch of Christianity is wrong…completely…and Anne sees that very clearly…and rejects any notion that she must put her own God-given intellect aside and embrace teachings of a human organization that uses it’s own outdated psychologocal and sociological constructs to vilify the “stranger in it’s midst”.

Discrimination against gay and lesbian people IS based on WHO THEY ARE…not what they do…no matter what frame of reference is used to justify it…those of us branded “liberal” do not abandon God…we abandon falsehoods perpetuated in the name of “religion”.

You and I disagree…that’s ok…we can disagree…Truth is often “fought out” in the public arena…eventually one by one hearts are changed…one by one people begin to see the gulf between what the modern sciences teach and what conservative religion teaches…those of us who are “liberal” embrace both the science and the spirit…we don’t “throw the baby out with the bathwater”…the water the baby is sitting in is dirty…we need a clean tub to wash the child…and one by one hearts are changed.

 

[soren1]

Anne Rice’s announcements via Facebook.

“As I said below, I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”

“For those who care, and I understand if you don’t: Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I’ve tried. I’ve failed. I’m an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Notice that she hasn’t give up on Christ, just “Christianity”.

This seems less like a rejection of Christianity than a rejection of a certain caricature of Christianity than is really only embraced by people who have already denied it. It reminds me of a passage in Dan Barker’s book Godless, where he reports that after he convinced his mother of atheism, she expressed relief that she didn’t have to hate anyone any more. It makes you wonder what she ever thought Christianity was in the first place.

It makes me wonder is Rice really converted to Christianity in a meaningful sense in the first place. Perhaps she was caught up in a wave of religiosity and indulged it, without actually turning away from her secular values. People who convert on that basis, unless they wallow in ignorance, will eventually discover that Christ teaches certain things that don’t really fit with those values. And if they remain fixed to those values in spite of it, then they can develop a hostility to those who do embrace Christ’s teachings, resulting in the kind of straw-man attack she has produced above. Not that I know much about her, but I think this rant is pretty transparent in its own right.