Anne Rice of sensual vampire fame has rejected Christianity. She is still committed to Christ but said she is fed up with his followers. Interesting concept. From USA Today:
Novelist Anne Rice says she’s quit being a Christian but she’s hanging on to Christ. She’s just fed up with his followers.
The author, whose vampire books (i.e. Interview with a Vampire) were huge sellers long before Twilight and whose return to her childhood Catholicism dominated her more recent works, posted a series of comments on Facebook (confirmed by her publisher as authentic, according to Associated Press).
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.
The mother of novelist Christopher Rice, who is gay, goes on to say:
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.
In a USA TODAY profile of Anne and Christopher, Rice talked about growing up Catholic, drifting away as a teen and marrying an atheist. After the death of a young daughter, she began writing her vampire books,
…about lost souls looking for answers, so in a sense I was always on this journey back. I do get people saying, “How can you be such a fool to believe in God?” I sense many are young Goth kids who feel abandoned. I just say, look, you’re looking for the same things that I was, transcendence and redemption. I found what my characters were looking for.
Even now, as she tosses off organized religion, Rice posts that she’s still
… an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God … Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become
.
Perhaps people who continually try to drag religion into public policy helped nudge Ann Rice to this position.
