Anne Rice: from Catholic to atheist to Catholic to ex-Catholic

[PRmerger]

Yes I am puzzled by you, but maybe it’s just me. I am sorry I am at a loss to explain further without repeating what I said in my last few posts. Thank you for engaging me, you can have the last word.

Peace!

I think your confusion may lie in conflating the external discernment of someone’s integrity with an internal awareness of conscience. They can be separate entities. One can make a judgment about one without knowing the essence of the other.

 

[erichael]

Perhaps you’re responding this way because you see that your original points have been refuted.

I don’t see that my posts #57, 59, 61 and 66 have been refuted at all. I stand by what I wrote. If you think you have refuted everything I’ve said, I won’t argue with that. That’s only your opinion.

Well, your points may not have been invalid, but you definitely kept changing your objections.

My points were not invalid nor uninformed. I merely conceded because I choose not to argue with you. I don’t have an ax to grind concerning her, though I do regret leaving a dozen yellow races (her favourite) on her gate to the house in New Orleans many years ago.



Which, of course, this being a public forum, you are free to do.

However, your position as being “authoritative” on this subject is curious indeed!

What is so curious about someone following a beloved author’s career. At that time in my life I didn’t have much on my plate and following her ups and downs on and off the page was a keen diversion for me. In retrospect I wish I had spent as much time studying my Bible and Catechism.

That’s the nature of a forum. Sometimes we respond to one large body of the post. Sometimes we respond to only one line. Sometimes we do go, line by line, and “dissect” the post.

There are many ways to dialogue on a forum.

So it seems. I’m still learning.

Sarcasm is the protest of the weak, erichael. I rarely use it.

Or the very tired late at night when intellectual words escape me. I would not describe myself as weak, but I bow to your opinion.

I’m glad our dialogue has provided so much amusement to Willy.

 

[erichael]

Or the very tired late at night when intellectual words escape me. I would not describe myself as weak, but I bow to your opinion.

I’m glad our dialogue has provided so much amusement to Willy.

Should have proofread my remarks. That was roses not races if anyone is interested.

 

[Willy_Jose]

Or the very tired late at night when intellectual words escape me. I would not describe myself as weak, but I bow to your opinion.

I’m glad our dialogue has provided so much amusement to Willy.

erichael,
Just to be clear, I didn’t mean that comment as a put-down (“I am amused”) at your comments or the person you are arguing with. I was just entertained but you and prmerger provided some great insights.

 

[erichael]

erichael,
Just to be clear, I didn’t mean that comment as a put-down (“I am amused”) at your comments or the person you are arguing with. I was just entertained but you and prmerger provided some great insights.

Willy, I absolutely got that. I wasn’t being sarcastic. I also find these posts amusing. Without a voiceover, sometimes it is hard to know what a person is actually saying.

Love in Christ

 

[PRmerger]

Or the very tired late at night when intellectual words escape me. I would not describe myself as weak, but I bow to your opinion.

I’m glad our dialogue has provided so much amusement to Willy.

erichael, please use the quote feature correctly. Otherwise I cannot respond to you. All that shows up when I hit “quote” is the above, because the rest of your post is nested within mine.

See this thread for assistance.

 

[erichael]

erichael, please use the quote feature correctly. Otherwise I cannot respond to you. All that shows up when I hit “quote” is the above, because the rest of your post is nested within mine.

See this thread for assistance.

I know it’s a mess. I didn’t know how to fix it. I’m going now to follow that thread to learn how. Apologies!

 

[Fran65]

If I may interject, as I would hope that Anne Rice is familiar with the Catechism she should have read the teaching about homosexuality being ‘objectively disordered’, but that as Catholics we should treat people who call themselves homosexual with ‘respect, dignity and compassion’. This means that as Willy said, the Catholic Church does not disrespect gays.

This would suggest to me that Anne Rice may not regard homosexuality as objectively disordered, as there is nothing else pertaining to homosexuality that she could disagree with.

Similarly with women, the only teaching that could be disagreed with is that of a male only priesthood. In every other respect the Catholic church is the most respectful of women of all of the faiths!

 

[kitkatty]

Interject Fran, please interject!,this thread needs to get back on topic!

 

[PRmerger]

Interject Fran, please interject!,this thread needs to get back on topic!

Oh, how I hate the “let’s get back on topic” mantra.

I rather like little conversational tributaries. They sometimes are more interesting that the original topic. And, they mimic real life conversations. When these conversational digressions occur, it’s almost like we’re in a coffee shop dialoguing about religion or sharing a glass of wine in someone’s kitchen.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

I actually exchanged a few posts back and forth with Ann Rice before on the Amazon.com Religion Forum. I first saw her there about two years ago, she was pretty disrespectful of the atheists on the forum (not necessarily a bad thing, they have some pretty nasty atheists trolling that place). The thing about her though was she seemed way too into near-death studies, she read every book on them and posted all the time in threads a near-death. Now some of the near-death authors write in a manner that doesn’t contradict Christian beliefs, but most of them are more “new age” and talk of past lives and reincarnation and stuff that can’t be reconciled with Christianity. So her Christianity never really seemed to be what most would consider “orthodox”, and most of her posts reflected that. Now that she’s . . . uhem, “left” the Church, she’s gone from being nasty and disrespectful of atheism to being nasty and disrespectful of organized Christianity. She’s basically not a very nice person. Btw, I saw a post from her there yesterday, here’s a link to the thread;
amazon.com/tag/religion/forum/ref=cm_cd_fp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx417AUXOWKSRN&cdThread=Tx2P8YYN6WMNGGJ

 

[PRmerger]

I actually exchanged a few posts back and forth with Ann Rice before on the Amazon.com Religion Forum. I first saw her there about two years ago, she was pretty disrespectful of the atheists on the forum (not necessarily a bad thing, they have some pretty nasty atheists trolling that place). The thing about her though was she seemed way too into near-death studies, she read every book on them and posted all the time in threads a near-death. Now some of the near-death authors write in a manner that doesn’t contradict Christian beliefs, but most of them are more “new age” and talk of past lives and reincarnation and stuff that can’t be reconciled with Christianity. So her Christianity never really seemed to be what most would consider “orthodox”, and most of her posts reflected that. Now that she’s . . . uhem, “left” the Church, she’s gone from being nasty and disrespectful of atheism to being nasty and disrespectful of organized Christianity. She’s basically not a very nice person. Btw, I saw a post from her there yesterday, here’s a link to the thread;
amazon.com/tag/religion/forum/ref=cm_cd_fp_ef_tft_tp?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx417AUXOWKSRN&cdThread=Tx2P8YYN6WMNGGJ

Interesting post on the amazon site. Thanks for sharing!

I, too, had exchanged a few emails with her about her recent departure from Catholicism.

If she seeks, she will find. Of that, I have no doubt. May God’s grace abound in her, and in all of us!

 

[mark_a]

npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128930526

Just heard her interview on NPR today.

Not ever a fan of her Vampire chonicles, but was intrigued when I heard she had re-converted to Catholicism after being an atheist for years.

Now, it seems, she cannot abide by the hierarchy, the scandals, the hypocrisy. :sad_yes:

Yet, in the interview she speaks of the Eucharist with a longing. Her voice, I think, trembles at the loss of this Sacrament.

Please pray for her re-re ))-conversion!
It is to her credit that she has great integrity and cannot be a Catholic if she isn’t going to embrace the whole thing.

Where to now?

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

Yet, in the interview she speaks of the Eucharist with a longing. Her voice, I think, trembles at the loss of this Sacrament.

Please pray for her re-re ))-conversion!

It is to her credit that she has great integrity and cannot be a Catholic if she isn’t going to embrace the whole thing.

PRmerger, I don’t know what she said in the interview, but judging from the posts she made the other day at Amazon I had just linked to where she says;
“I do NOT believe in any organized religion,
or any set of dogmatic beliefs other than those stated above,
and have rejected completely
theories of biblical inerrancy,
of bloody atonement theory (Jesus saved us from His Father)”

and

“I for example privilege the tradition of Jesus being born in
Bethlehem (I have no idea whether it’s true or not), whereas some
devout “atonement theory” Christians don’t at all, yet insist that
Christ died to appease His Father, which I don’t accept at all.”

I would imagine she now considers the Eucharist as part of some superstitious ritual Catholics use in their “bloody atonement theory”.

Like I said, she never was an orthodox catholic, more of a near-death experience new-age mish·mash of beliefs, with the beauty of catholic cathedrals thrown on top to give her smorgasbord belief system some foundation in traditional religion. And the woman never was very nice to anybody, atheists or Christians. If the fact that the Twightlight series and True Blood series out did her campy books in the vampire genre and she’s now throwing her new age brand Christianity overboard in an attempt to be relevant again, I say good bye Ann, and good luck

 

[PRmerger]

I would imagine she now considers the Eucharist as part of some superstitious ritual Catholics use in their “bloody atonement theory”.

This, of course, is all a rhetorical discussion for none of us knows, really, one whit of what she rejects and what she accepts.

I will, however, posit that she believes in the Eucharist, that it is Christ present body/blood/soul and divinity, and that she misses this eucharistic union quite dearly. This I say based on the interview on NPR and based on her private emails to me.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

This, of course, is all a rhetorical discussion for none of us knows, really, one whit of what she rejects and what she accepts.

I will, however, posit that she believes in the Eucharist, that it is Christ present body/blood/soul and divinity, and that she misses this eucharistic union quite dearly. This I say based on the interview on NPR and based on her private emails to me.

I hate to nit-pick, but how can you believe in the Eucharist if you don’t believe in, as she calls it “bloody atonement theory”?

Isn’t the Eucharist intimately tied to the atonement?

 

[PRmerger]

I hate to nit-pick, but how can you believe in the Eucharist if you don’t believe in, as she calls it “bloody atonement theory”?

Isn’t the Eucharist intimately tied to the atonement?

My understanding is that she rejects the belief that Jesus saved us from His Father, as if God is a vengeful being who we need to be saved from.

And, I think even if I rejected the atonement theory I could accept the Eucharist, if one understands Spousal Love.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

My understanding is that she rejects the belief that Jesus saved us from His Father, as if God is a vengeful being who we need to be saved from.

well, if she wants to create these strawmen cartoon characters where Jesus saved us from His Father, who is a vengeful being who we need to be saved from, not only is she silly and juvenile (not an easy thing to do at her age), but I would point out that the whole point of the Eucharist, which IS vicarious participation in the atonement, goes out the window. In her smorgasbord new-age near-death experience brand of “christianity” did Jesus institute the Eucharist as a fun way for us all to bond or something?

 

[PRmerger]

well, if she wants to create these strawmen cartoon characters where Jesus saved us from His Father, who is a vengeful being who we need to be saved from, not only is she silly and juvenile (not an easy thing to do at her age), but I would point out that the whole point of the Eucharist, which IS vicarious participation in the atonement, goes out the window. In her smorgasbord new-age near-death experience brand of “christianity” did Jesus institute the Eucharist as a fun way for us all to bond or something?

I really couldn’t say how she’d respond.

 

[ronnie_bonigli]

I really couldn’t say how she’d respond.

I understand. btw, I gave you the link to Amazon.com forum, every now and then take a peek in on the Religion forum and also the Christianity forum there for her latest posts, I suspect after a while you’ll come around to my thinking, that she is not a very nice person, and has nothing but contempt for catholics and other christians as well.