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Anne Rice renounces Christianity on Facebook
By Ray RahmanJuly 29th, 2010, 1:45 pmComments (21)
Anne Rice, queen of the '90s vampire craze, announced on Facebook that she's quitting Christianity. Rice, the author of books featuring things like an adult woman trapped in the body of a five-year-old vampire girl who kills people for fun, used the social networking platform to express her qualms with the religion thusly:
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.
That snippet was from her first relatively lengthy (I had to click "See More") post to her Facebook fan page yesterday. But like any writer, she had more to say, so she followed that up with:
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.
This caught people's attention for a few reasons. For one, Rice made headlines in 2004 when a near-death experience prompted her to become a devout Roman Catholic, one that would "only write for the Lord." So that's something. There's also the fact that the bestselling author, who presumably has access to countless media outlets, chose to make her announcement via Facebook — her 2004 announcement was in a Newsweek article. Thirdly, my personal eyebrows were raised because I simply forgot that people listed things other than "yogurt" or "Betsey Johnson" on the religious views section of their Facebook pages.
Commentarium (21 Comments)
Betsey Johnson is certainly my religious pick.
This makes me so happy. Has anyone read her Sleeping Beauty Trilogy?? I knew this Christianity kick was going to be short lived.
She's kinda coming off as someone who'll do anything for some media attention.
I'm also really confused about how the Roman Catholic Church is "anti-life." That's kind of the opposite of one of its defining principles.... And calling Catholicism anti-science is basically poorly researched bandwagoning since Catholics believe in evolution. Sure, we imprisoned Galileo, but you could say the U.S. is pro-slavery by that logic.
Err...I thought being a follower of Christ means you are a Christian? Not necessarily associating with wackjobs? As in you can call yourself Christian while denouncing what other people who identify as Christian are doing. For someone who ostensibly has a command of language, she sure seems befuddled by the word "Christian."
Love the can of Tab. The diet soft drink consumed by Beelzebub himself!
Anne Rice??? Is she still around?
the terms 'christianity' and 'christian' are so loaded down with baggage. I think it's very understandable how some christians try to jettison all the crap that is associated with 'christianity' in the popular media. I don't think this makes her a wackjob. I think it's very easy conceptually to identify with 'following christ' while rejecting what 'christianity' and many 'christians' espouse and advocate.
Can you still buy Tab?
Interesting. I like her reasons very much. What's interesting to me is the depth of her explorations into Christianity and Catholicism through the vampire Lestat, who even got into fundamental Christianity. It was only a matter of time before she declared herself independent of the Catholic Church in particular for its rules and rites, and "Christianity" as it is often defined by what the 70s called "Born Again" Christianity--fundamental Christianity. If she starts her own church, I may consider exploring it... :)
Interesting. I like her reasons very much. What's interesting to me is the depth of her explorations into Christianity and Catholicism through the vampire Lestat, who even got into fundamental Christianity. It was only a matter of time before she declared herself independent of the Catholic Church in particular for its rules and rites, and "Christianity" as it is often defined by what the 70s called "Born Again" Christianity--fundamental Christianity. If she starts her own church, I may consider exploring it... :)
I can't tell if you're joking. I've never read any of her books, so I can't comment on that, but judging on her facebook updates, which I have to imagine would be a more accurate view of her own opinions and beliefs than a character in her novel, she has done a particularly poor job of deeply exploring Catholicism. There are many reasons to leave the Catholic Church, and she doesn't mention the biggest one--Catholicism's (and even the pope's) complicity with the pedophilia scandal. Catholics everywhere lost faith over that. Only someone who has done a particularly poor job of researching the Church would say it is anti-science, anti-life or anti-Democrat. Catholics acknowledge evolution and the scientific method, believe life is sacred and are more likely to be Democrats than Republicans. The Church condemns homosexuality (I am Catholic, but I don't) but accepts homosexuals just as it accepts all sinners, albeit with significantly more stigma. The Church can be a boy's club, but there are many ways in which women can participate. In fact, women tend to be more active than men as laymen. JP2 and Vatican II made artificial birth control a much more minor sin. And I don't think you can blame a religion for not being a fan of the first half of secular humanism. If Ann Rice starts a new religion, it will replace Scientology on the top of my Most Ridiculous, Least Meaningful Religions list.
Well, I am just going off of the above quote (which doesn't mention Catholicism). On the other hand, the church is culpable in propagating the pedophilia crisis, but many people very much enjoy the rich tradition, the liturgy, etc of Catholicism- these things are absent in the fundamentalist, 'born again' flavor of Christianity... re: anti-birth control, relegating it's use to a 'minor sin' is great, however many are extremely frustrated in the antagonism of many charities/NGOs in advocating birth control as part of a program to improve quality of life, women's rights, economies, etc in developing countries- arguably this has a much greater significance than whether or not Catholics think the use of bc is a minor or major sin imo.
Anne Rice is the J.K. Rowling of the 90s.
she has to put an end to this "twilight" rubbish.
I was wondering how she was going to rectify her love of gay loving with Catholicism.
She is following the example of a much better author, Tolstoy, who once wrote that the 'Christian' church is one of the least Christ-like institutions possible. Good for her.
MissHayden, I read all of her Sleeping Beauty books and still love them! woman can't be christian with that shit up her sleeve!
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If I could meet her in person, I would
love to say "Thank you Anne Rice –
for so very articulately stating what
I have felt in my heart for years" !!!!
One's 'Faith-in-Christ’ should IN NO WAY
be tied into the man-controlled 'Religion'
that so many refer to as "Christianity"
(especially that apostate, psuedo-religious
political-movement called 'evangelicalism')
It took me forever to realize that my
relationship with God (as established
through Christ Jesus, God The Son) was
IN NO WAY dependent on the apostate
psuedo-religious movement sweeping
America in the name of the "church".
If Christ were walking the earth today,
a lot of these same "religious" types
would be the first to demand that He
be 'crucified' -- and based merely on
who He chose as FRIENDS (women,
gays, foreigners, immigrants, the poor,
the rejected, the downtrodden, the rich,
men, old, young, happy, sad, and so on).
The "evangelicals" (not to be mistaken
for TRUE FOLLOWERS of Christ) and
other "church" types have essentially
hijacked the Christian 'Faith' in order to
turn it into a mammon-worshipping,
power-mongering, "Religion" of hate.
These people are more akin to a system of
ANTI-CHRIST (i.e. “against”-Christ) than
to anything tied into WHO CHRIST IS.
Their evil has reached such profound levels
that even people who know and love Christ
are turned off from them and their words
(again proving these “church” types are
really nothing more than anti-Christ,
self-righteous Pharisees and are not
even remotely related to Jesus Christ).
Never again will I waste my time stepping
into the psuedo-religious social-club that
is known as "church" or associate myself
with the political-clique that is known as
'christianity' -- because FROM NOW ON
-- I realize that I do NOT "need" either
in order to have a relationship with MY
LORD JESUS CHRIST (in fact, those
two entities were actually 'interfering'
with my relationship with God)
THROUGH CHRIST -- GOD HAS OPENLY
EXPRESSED HIS LOVE TO 'EVERYONE'
(no matter if rich, poor, gay, straight, male,
female, sickly, healthy and so on) -- AND
CHRIST (not the so-called"church") IS
'THE DOOR' and 'THE WAY' TO GOD!!
ALL ARE WELCOME TO APPROACH AND
TO ENTER THROUGH 'THE DOOR' TO GOD!!
NO ONE IS REJECTED BY JESUS CHRIST !!!
JESUS LOVED AND LOVES EVERYONE !!!
LET’S ALL TRY TO REMEMBER
THE BIBLE VERSE OF ‘JOHN 3:17’:
“For God did NOT send His Son
into the world – to condemn
the world, BUT that the world,
THROUGH HIM, might be SAVED !!!!”
JESUS CHIST – and *not* the institution known
as “the church” or the religion called “christianity”
--- IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE!!!
LIKE MANY OTHER PEOPLE – I AM DONE
WITH THE CHURCH & WITH CHRISTIANITY
-- AND FROM HERE ON OUT – MY FOCUS IS
ON (AND FAITH IN GOD RELIES IN) JESUS
CHRIST AND JESUS CHRIST ALONE !!!
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Worship me instead. It's warmer, and I promise you an unlimited supply of Tab.
Now you say something