Legendary author of Interview with a Vampire, Anne Rice has left Christianity. "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."
As you can imagine, this is creating a bit of stir - much of it in the Christian world being negative and yet I find it refreshing in some ways. Christianity has become like most of the world religions. It has it's laws to abide by, it's belief system, it's rituals all helpful tools to faith. But reading the different blogsites and reactions to Anne Rice reveals more ugliness than beauty. I wonder if Jesus foresaw that his followers would be more known by who and what they are against.
I find it more helpful to refer to myself as a follower of Jesus than a Christian for different reasons. My upbringing and my many conversations with other Christians have supported that if one believes certain things about Jesus and confesses other things that one is "in", "saved", "going to heaven". For me, this puts the faith on a faith system of belief (however/whoever is articulating it) rather than a faith and continued following of the person, Jesus.
What do you think?
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The things that came to mind in reading about Anne Rice yesterday, was that I understood where she is coming from in terms of not wanting to be associated with the legalism of what some sects of Christianity have created. I understand her wanting to say that she is a follower of Christ and that is where her personal relationship is rather than saying she is a part of a group or "religion". Could she have come across it in a better way? Yes.
ReplyDeleteI do see some anger in the article she wrote and it seems as if she is done with the doctrine, the rules, the legalism. It seems to have been fueled by something recently that has happened to her. Ultimately, she has to decide what is going on internally and deal with that.
To me it seems like Anne Rice doesn't like the judgements/opinions that have come about from christians. Maybe she's had a lot of bad experiences with not being embraced and/or accepted. Perhaps, she has experienced some personal criticism/scoff directly or indirectly on some level regarding her topic choices she writes about (vampires and the "dark" world) -- I don't know but something seems to have set her over the edge.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Miriam, she could have come across better. It sounds like she doesn't like or agree with the judgement/opinions that some christians and/or some churches have made on a number of topics. Perhaps it's an excuse to remain isolated; maybe she prefers to be isolated in her views and following the Lord himself is more convenient than going to church and worshipping with other believers. She doesn't have to open herself up to others, she can always be right. ;) It's sounds like she has a people issue. Christianity is made up of people who claim they are christians.
Perhaps if she didn't write off christianity as a whole, and realize we are all human and will disagree and not be perfect; she might be able to gently influence other christians/churches with her views about following the Lord? But it seems like she wants to follow the Lord and do the journey alone which is her choice. But it seems like she's missing out on the pleasure of being able to worship in the house of the Lord.
There are so many christians and churches out there that are non political and non judgemental – not one will be perfect. Maybe she shouldn't give up so soon.. she hasn't tried worshipping at the Vineyardmetro North of Saugus. :)
Up until this moment I didn't know who Anne Rice was. But then again I have met her several times over the years. Maybe even hundreds of times. To be clear on this I know many people who have searched for true religion, many who have been brought up like myself in what many consider the true religion, Catholicism. For Anne and many others like myself it has been a journey. I was brought a Catholic but as I entered College and beyond I wasn't a practicing Catholic. Not that I didn't believe in Christ/God/Holy Spirit. That was never a problem. But the Christ of Christianity did not become real to me until my mid twenties. My journey led me across America and back. Everywhere I went I met what I will call God people. People who wanted me to know God the way they understood him and follow. My experience took the appearance of a various threads woven into the fabric of my life. The dominant thread that Ifound was Jesus Christ and He became the Saviour of my soul. He is the lover of my life. He is my friend and my brother. He loves me unconditionally even with my faults. Together as I work to show him how much I love him back I do my best to obey his commands. He said, Love one another. It is by your love that they will know that you are my disciple. He said that He didn't come into the world to judge it but to save it. He then died in my place. Spread out His arms as if to embrace the whole world and I nailed him to a cross. He died in my place that I would have forgiveness for my sins. Then in victory when His task was complete He rose from the dead so I too might have new life. It is this Christ that I search for daily and desperately try to emmulate. I understand Anne and feel that I know her well. It appears that she has not given up on Christ. But she has drawn a line in the sand much like the day that Jesus wrote in the sand in front of the religious leaders as they prepared to stone the harlot. But Jesus did not judge her or condem her. He said, Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Kneeling he wrote in the sand as her accusers left one by one. And staightening up Jesu said where are they? Did no one condem you? No one Lord. Jesus came to offer grace which the woman needed dsparately. Jesus said to her, Neither do I condem you go your way and from now on sin no more. We see the consequences of judgement, condemnation and that is death. But when we draw a line in the sand and offer grace and forgiveness it brings hope and life.... I think Anne likes life.... real life in Christ Jesus.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your thoughtful remarks. I can relate with Anne because I too have become tired of a faith that is "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious anti-gay, anti-feminist anti-Democrat, anti-science" and anti a lot of other things. What she means by these things and what I mean would probably be different as it would be with most anyone else.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the growing solidarity around folks like her is reactionary and may be short lived. My sense is that there is a growing movement as I talk with young people who are tired of the old institutions and systems that have leadership that is narrow minded and exclusive.
The other problem is that many of these folks do not want to be aligned with any movment that behaves adversarily since this just doesn't seem Jesus like or helpful in any way.
As has already been said, there are many who would consider themselves Christian who would agree with Anne and perhaps she is still part of a local church or will return to one understanding that everyone needs a spiritual community for connection to God.