On March 21, 2008, Anne Rice wrote an article, “My Trust in My Lord,” in The Washington Post. Here she describes her conversion experience:
This was not a joyful moment for me. It wasn’t an easy moment. It was an admission that I loved and believed in God, and that my old atheism was a façade. I knew it was going to be difficult to return to the Maker, to give over my life to Him, and become a member of a huge quarreling religion that had broken into many denominations and factions and cults worldwide. But I knew that the Lord was going to help me with this return to Him. I trusted that He would help me. And that trust is what under girds my faith to this day.
Within days of my return to Christ, I also became aware of something very important: that the first temptation we face as returning Christians is to criticize another Christian and his or her way of approaching Jesus Christ. I perceived that I had to resist that temptation, that I had to seek in my faith and in my love for God a complete certainty that He knew all about these factions and disputes, and that He knew who was right or who was wrong, and He would handle how and when He approached every single soul.
On July 28, 2010, Anne Rice announced that she is abandoning Christianity on her Facebook page:
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.
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.
The next she wrote:
My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn’t understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.
On August 2nd, Anne Rice was interviewed about her decision to abandon Christianity on NPR’s All Things Considered.
First Things bloggers Joe Carter, David P. Goldman, Elizabeth Scalia, and Joseph Bottum have already written on this story, and I do not have anything else to add except to ask this question: Where is the Anne Rice of March 21, 2008? Put differently, how can Anne Rice remain committed to Christ while rejecting his Bride and Body – the Church? Let us pray that Anne Rice recovers the better angels of her nature.
August 3rd, 2010 | 12:33 am | #1
[...] Christopher Benson) ← Another Complementarian Caricature — Denny [...]
August 3rd, 2010 | 8:44 am | #2
Despair. Frustration. Anger at seeing things that feel wrong and are confusing. Haven’t we all felt it at some time or another?
Complaining about someone’s loss of faith makes it sound like it is easy to keep it!
August 3rd, 2010 | 10:21 am | #3
“Following Christ does not mean following his followers.”
Yes, but it also does not mean abandoning them, either. One of the greatest things about sticking it out with the church is the sudden, overwhelming thought that you are as lousy a Christian as everyone else. After that, we can get on with loving one another as we do ourselves.
August 4th, 2010 | 2:00 am | #4
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Indeed, that seems to be the nub of the issue. In the initial thrall of conversion, the highest ideals are received into one’s spirit, and joyfully so. And then the realities of day-to-day life inside that which you have committed to take hold. I’m surprised that no one has made the obvious parallel to marriage. You think you’ll never get a divorce–this is forever!!–and then you start to really get to know the person with all his or her flaws and faults. Trouble!
It’s way too easy to make the cause of any split the responsibility of someone or something else beside oneself. I have found without exception the truth that the truth that sets me free is always the truth about me, not the other person (or in this case, the Church herself).
Anne Rice seems to be being ruled by her passionate nature, which has its place, surely, but it’s not the wisdom of the spirit. I wonder if in her deep distress about the Church, she brought herself to ask Jesus directly what He thought about her desire to quit. We can never know, but I sure hope she will if she has not. I think the answer would surprise her.
Whenever one leaves a commitment in the manner she has–with a lot of charge around it– it usually means that there are wounds in the spirit that have not be admitted or addressed. Regardless of the “rightness” or “wrongness” of her thinking, it seems to me that she’s got some inner work to do to come to a place of true resolution and clarity about all of this. From my perspective, I see no peace in her spirit; you can sense that, can’t you? Definitiveness and determination do not equal true spiritual peace. But she has shown a certain kind of courage, I’ll say that for her, and Jesus can use that to her advantage, merciful Son of God that He is!
So we probably would do best to do exactly what a number of folks have suggested: to pray for her–and to thank our Lord for the opportunity to look at our own stuff in this process.
Blessings to all, in His Holy Name.
August 4th, 2010 | 2:57 pm | #5
Sounds like the real issue is ideological. Anne wants the love of Jesus, but she doesn’t want his teachings that contradict the things she prefers to believe in and live by.
August 5th, 2010 | 1:02 pm | #6
[...] the name of Christ has reopened old wounds and caused me a great deal of sadness and pain. Besides, many others have already written about her announcement. Yet still, I find myself fearfully joining the [...]
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