From the Associated Press, "Novelist Anne Rice says she's leaving Christianity
Photo credit: In this April 25, 2006 file photo, writer Anne Rice arrives to the opening night of the new Broadway musical "Lestat," in New York. (AP Photo/Dima Gavrysh, file) (Dima Gavrysh - AP)
By HILLEL ITALIE
The Associated Press
Thursday, July 29, 2010
NEW YORK -- Anne Rice has had a religious conversion: She's no longer a Christian.
"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," the author wrote Wednesday on her Facebook page. "In the name of ... Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."
Rice, 68, is best known for "Interview With a Vampire" and other gothic novels. Raised as a Catholic, she had rejected the church early in her life but renewed her faith in recent years and in 2008 released the memoir "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession."
In a telephone interview Thursday, Rice said she had been having doubts for the past two to three years. She was troubled by the child abuse scandals in the church, and the church's defensive reaction, and by the ex-communication of Sister Margaret McBride, a nun and hospital administrator who had approved an abortion for a woman whose life was in danger.
"I believed for a long time that the differences, the quarrels among Christians didn't matter a lot for the individual, that you live your life and stay out of it. But then I began to realize that it wasn't an easy thing to do," said Rice, speaking from her home near Palm Springs, Calif. "I came to the conclusion that if I didn't make this declaration, I was going to lose my mind."
Rice said she is a Democrat who supports the health care legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama and believes gay marriage inevitably will be permitted throughout the country. Although no longer part of any denomination, she remains a believer and continues to read theology and post Biblical passages on her Facebook page. She has no immediate plans to write about her leaving the church and will continue with her metaphysical fiction series, "Songs of the Seraphim."
Rice will not be taking up vampires again, but she said she is a big fan of the HBO series "True Blood," enjoyed the first two "Twilight" movies (she has yet to read any of the Stephenie Meyer novels) and is interested in seeing her most famous character, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, return to the screen.
"We're in talks about it," she said. "But then we've always been in talks about it. Hope springs eternal in California.""
All that to say, friends, I'm not afraid of hearing this kind of "testimony." There are people who join and people who abandon the faith.
Look, people get it right, and people get it wrong. And maybe Anne Rice is wrong, certainly if she is giving up faith in Jesus, as our Saviour. But she has a right to her opinions, doesn't she? It's just not enough for me to abandon the faith that she is abandoning, since what is true is based on the Bible and what God has said.
And whether Madonna or Barack Obama or Anne Rice or Anne Coulter or Jerry Rice, or anyone says that it's true or says it's not true, honestly, that doesn't make it true or false.
1 comment:
I always find it difficult when people reject Jesus because of what some church leaders do. I am thankful that Jesus said to follow him and not church leaders. At their best church leaders can help you at their worst they can only do what you let them do. I will not let anyone whoever they are take away my experience of knowing Jesus. Nor will I try to mix my thoughts with those expressed in the writings of the followers of Jesus. The question is will I remain faithful. Look at poor Job even his wife wouldn't give him the space to work through his spiritual problems but in the end he said that he knows that his redeemer lives.
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