Anne Rice Quits Christianity - "Maybe Commitment to Christ Means not Being a Christian"

She is probably better off on her own. I know many who have chosen that path recently for many different reasons.

It is odd because the word does become the thing it names. It may actually be time for a new word to be used.

Possibly so. I know of some very good, thoughtful Christians who I think Anne would love to talk to and be counted amongst. Others are like Westboro Baptist Church.

Her view is typical of the modern Christian. The belief that Christianity is only to be respected if preaches what you already believe. Christianity never has never was about personal politics. The purpose of Christianity is so each individual can unveil God, find him, and be one with him. One cannot do this if he or she does not reject sin or the material world. Of course Rice has never been interested in this and thus she never was a Christian.

Saying someone was never a Christian is claiming to know their heart and your god's opinion on the subject better than they do. Hubris, in short.

Everyone goes through stages in their life. Who is to say she made the wrong decision? I think she made the right decision for her, at this point in her life. I can see where she is coming from.

If I were still a Christian, I know I'd be torn very deeply about what its public face has become versus what I understood the faith to be.

I stumbled across this post and after reading the comments and so forth, I decided to make a comment. This, of course, is just my thoughts. I have studied religion for about 29 years now, read the King James Bible from cover to cover, three and a half times and discovered... there are so many paths to God. As for the path of Christianity, well... I find it distastefull, controling and very judgemental, of and towards, people and their lives. Church is mainly for fellowship and if all you receive within any church is gossip, ridilcule, judgement and control... then it is best for you and your relationship with God, to leave that church. I have found the most spiritual communication with God in the forest, which is Deities creation. The church or a church.... is man's creation. Trinity College opened my eyes to many things and one of them was that many were there for their "new" career choice to make a living. It really had nothing to do with spiritual knowledge. It was all about knowledge to become the best minister you could be, to obtain the biggest number of memberships in your church and the fullest offering basket you could obtain. Hmmm, 10% of your total wages? I would rather give my 10% to a hungry familly than to pay the utilities of a man made church. Blessings to all of you. Thank you for this post. It is very well written.

Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this. It's quite the admission on her part, and the personal nature of faith is one that doesn't get a lot of air sometimes.

Jesus Christ did not come to 'found a church'. He came to define, by example, how human beings are to relate to each other and to God. If you look carefully at the Gospels, Jesus only left us a few instructions, mostly relating to how to follow His example, and to show, by our lives, that He walked among us and continues to do so. Obviously if you are not a Christian, that's complete hogwash to you, but I am not interested in arguing about the non-existence of Christ because I have made my mind up on that score. I can empathize with Anne Rice's disenfranchisement from the church, because I myself experience it. I wish her the best and hope she is able to continue to follow Christ outside the confines of the church, if her commitment to Christ is still as genuine as she says. Everything we know as 'church' today, outside of the elements of baptism and the Lord's supper where not, in fact instituted by Jesus Himself, but by His followers. It's important to remember, or perhaps become aware for the first time, that whatever sins have been committed thoughout the centuries by the institutional Church, they are not sanctioned by Jesus Himself. The church is made up of flawed human individuals, and so it can only be a flawed, human organization. The fact that we fail to live up to Christ's standards does not diminish Him or His truth. Jesus did not come to call us to membership in an institutional organization, but rather to a personal relationship with Himself. Each believer has to walk his or her own path to faith. But for every person who has been turned off by church or who derides it as nonsense, millions more have found comfort. We can only live OUR lives as we see fit, not the lives of other people. Jesus does not hate anyone . . .he hates some of what we DO. The behaviors he hates are those which are ultimately not in our best interest, even if we fail to see it.

For those people out there, and I'm sure there are some, that will ring in to mock the belief in Christ as expressed here, I'd just like to remind them that commitment to atheism is its own cult, and engenders slavish devotion just as much as some accuse Christianity of doing. Chew that over.

I'm neither Christian nor atheist, but I appreciate your comments.

Thanks for reading and responding, Brenda. I read all of Anne Rice's books and enjoyed them, even though I knew Ms. Rice and I had vastly different attitudes toward God at the time. It so happens that Anne Rice and I share a birthday, so I'm always interested in what she's up to. Then 10 years ago she announced her conversion and started writing Christian books. So I was a little surprised at this latest announcement. Trust Annie to make as big a splash as possible! I haven't read her Facebook statement but if she in fact still believes in Jesus but just doesn't want to attend 'church' anymore, it's kind of a tempest in a teapot. In a few months' time as the holidays approach, will we read that Anne Rice misses church and wants back in? Who knows? I'm not sure whether she really achieves anything by this announcement except self-promotion and confusing both camps of her fans: those who loved the vampire stuff and those who embraced her after she started writing religious fiction. Everybody's confused. But I guess Anne's gotta do it her way. I would have my religious crisis a bit more privately, but that's me. Anyway, thanks for reading.

I never really saw a point to religion but to each his own.