The big news in Christian popular culture today is that Anne Rice, the bestselling vampire author who announced her conversion to Christianity a couple years back, has unconverted.
The 68-year-old author wrote Wednesday on her Facebook page that she refuses to be “anti-gay … anti-feminist,” and “anti-artificial birth control.”
She adds that “In the name of … Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”
There was a surge of debate about this on a Christian SF/Fantasy e-mail discussion list I subscribe to. Part of the scuttlebutt (who knows how reliable?) was that she had a bad business experience with a Christian company that planned to film her novels about Christ, and that that may have contributed to her disenchantment. If that’s the case, it wouldn’t be the first time. The history of celebrity converts in my lifetime hasn’t been a happy one. And it’s not just a matter of the celebrities’ immaturity. Christian enterprises are rather notorious for their shoddy business practices and promise-breaking. Sad but true.
But if the Facebook posting really reveals her heart, it would seem she simply found the gate too narrow and the way too straight. She appears to be one of those many who want a Jesus who’ll accommodate their preferences. Being in the church involves a certain amount of doctrinal teaching and accountability, which they find offensive and intrusive.
I think of the rich young ruler from Luke 18—“When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.”
Discipleship has a cost. The cares of the world often choke out the seed that has been sown.
Let’s pray for Anne Rice.
(Photo credit: Getty Images)
I don’t know. Maybe she’s just publicly overreacting to bad circumstances and people. It makes me sad, but if the Lord has claimed her, he will not let her go, and she’ll remember him after a while.
I don’t think there’s a way around our script that changes “The 68” into bible reference links. Sorry.
Yeah, I noticed that. Odd.
She’s reacting to the “Religious Right.” I think her comments need to be read in that context.
Notice what she didn’t do. She could have easily found a church that was pro-gay, pro-feminist, and pro-artificial contraception. That would have been the easy course. She could have rested quietly, sure that her preferred version of Christianity is real and that her previous church was wrong about what God really wanted.
Instead, she chose to do the intellectually honest thing with her crisis of faith. It looks like she’s trying to resolve a contradiction between doctrine and her own heart, and I’m pretty sure God will provide her the grace to do so.
I think Ori has the right of it. I often reflect on the story of Doubting Thomas, and how he was given a chance to see and explore in the fullest terms. It always seemed to me that, at the last, God would extend that to all of us — that we would not be cast into fire without first being given the grace that Thomas was given.
It may be better to believe, having not seen. Yet I have faith in a God that can love Thomas, and is willing to satisfy him rather than let him die.
Let us pray that she repents of her turning her back on her baptism. Though it may be written that it is impossible to turn back again (Hebrews)
Ori, I certainly hope you and Grim are right; my daughter and many of her friends are among those who have stated that they are either overtly opposed to Christianity or inclined to feel that way. I’ve had a number of conversations with my daughter on the differences between Christ, the ecclesia, the institutional churches and their failures to follow Christ (confessed and otherwise), and the failures of individual Christians to behave as they profess to believe; so far, at least, my daughter has managed to hang on to some level of faith in at least the concept of Christ. And I pray. A lot. For all those whose faith has been shaken, for whatever reasons. My faith journey has not been as easy one, and there are many times when only clinging to Christ and ignoring His churches have kept me from turning away. Churches I can and have left; Christ, I cling to, always, God willing.
Carmen, I was an Atheist when I met my wife, until God rubbed my nose in my human limitations. I’m sure God will do as much for other people, there’s nothing special about me.
You don’t believe Hell, is that right, Ori?
Phil, that’s almost right. The Jewish belief is that there is a permanent hell, but that you have to work really really hard to get there.
How hard does an adult have to work to get his/her parents to disown them permanently? God loves us more than our parents do.
I only read a news brief on this but it definitely implied that she has not quit Christ but Christianity which I took to mean church institutions and the like.