Anne Rice, the best-selling author and mother to gay mystery novelist Christopher Rice, is quitting Christianity, she announced on Facebook. But why?
Because after 10 years of trying, she can’t reconcile being a Christian and being anti-gay (and anti-a-lot-of-everything), which so often the faith calls for. You know, because she loves her son more than Jesus.
Rice famously swapped out vampire writing for stories about angels and god after becoming more invested in Christianity, saying, “The day to day differences in my life now that I am writing for the Lord are that I am consumed only with research and other fiction that will be of help to me with this vocation. I simply give no time to other themes. —- I consecrate each day to Christ, I try to remind myself to love each and every person I encounter, to hurt no one, to embrace all, and to use my imagination for novels which will reflect and even put forth my Christian principles and beliefs.”
No more of that.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Baxter
People who think that Christianity is one monolithic religion are really ignorant. Different sects believe different things and have different takes on homosexuality, women, etc. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has about as much in common with Southern Baptists or Eastern Orthodox Catholics or 7th Day Adventists as they do with Islam. It’s not a unified religion and it hasn’t been since the day Jesus died.
Jack
As did I.
I’ve been waiting to see others do this, so this is good news to my ears.
Her son, and her love for him is R-E-A-L. Her son is a real person,tangible and living; he’s not a fairytale, not a fable.
Throwing reality to the side in the name of ancient institutions
is insane; although I know many others will often try
implement this childish “god is love, god is outside the church”
perception.
Watching the Dr.Phil episode about Gay Marriage in 2009-not a single person in favor of gay marriage made a statement that didn’t involve religion/god. “I know god, and he’s love/ God made me this way/ christianity is about love,” etc.
This is pathetic. Why in the hell should their position, or the
direction of their life be dictated by the opposing side’s religious faith? One man opposing gay marriage said, “I don’t understand the law, but I’m an expert on theology”.
In other words, bullshit.
In other words, his credibility was the equivalent of a child knowing how tall the stalk that Jack crawled up was.
Religion is an absolution. There is no middle ground, no
happy medium, although many gays will take that route as it
can be very comforting. There is a difference between religion
and reality; fortunately as science and the relentless pursuit
for knowledge expands our understanding of everything from sexuality to the cosmos, the numbers of the religious are rapidly falling; the security blanket of “god” is being tossed in the garbage.
So now to buy some of Anne’s books.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Dare I say “amen” to Anne’s conversion back to sanity :-p
Republican
@Jack:
Doesn’t sound like she’s giving up what you call “the security blanket of ‘God'” to me.
She says that she is “committed to Christ as always.” I think she’s giving up her relationship with organized religion, but not her belief in God/Christ. Big difference.
DR
I have to co-sign Baxter’s comments. She chose to go go Catholic, and in the South, what did she expect? To lump all Christians into this single-minded way of life is fallacious and intellectually and spiritually dishonest. Maybe she should have gone with one of the mainline Protestant denominations, instead.
If Catholicism didn’t work for her, fine, but lumping all Christians together as “anti-gay, anti-Democrat, anti-birth control, anti-feminism, anti science” is simply and utterly ridiculous. She chose to attend one of the strictest denominations around, what did she expect from the Catholic Church, which is absolutely known for being anti all the stuff she listed?!?
CCCole
I agree with the other commenters. She could have done what countless other liberal, science believing, gay-loving, feminist Democratic Catholics have done: go Episcopalian. Or she could act like most American Catholics and not listen to the Pope. Apparently she is committed to literalism. How uncreative.
CCCole
I agree with the other commenters. She could have done what countless other liberal, science believing, gay-loving, feminist Democratic Catholics have done: go Episcopalian. Or she could act like most American Catholics and not listen to the Pope. Apparently she is committed to literalism.
ewe
good for her.
Kieran
There are probably over one billion Christians in the world—-individuals of all different types and persuasions—and Anne Rice is going to tar all of them with the same angry, intolerant brush? That doesn’t sound very “enlightened” to me. It sounds like maybe somebody who’s Christian novels didn’t sell as lucratively as she thought they would. Maybe Anne should now start her own church and call it Riceianity?
L.
Because when she *became* a Christian, her Church was pro-gay, pro-feminist, pro-birth control, and Democrat? And secular?!?
nikko
Yay! Good for her!
Woody
religion = mythology. Hundreds or thousands of years from now 100% of humanity will be studying all religion as we now study Greek, Roman, Celtic, Norse, and Druid mythology.
Jack
@Woody: They already do in some countries. Move to a country like Japan, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic and you’ll find yourself within a population whose non-religious numbers exceed 50%, sometimes nearing 90%.
Ironically, they often have the lowest crime rates, highest quality of living and gays are generally welcome.
As you can tell by some of the ‘apologetic’ like comments, some of us are still down on our knees, and doing something besides giving head.
KC
Long before her official conversion to Christianity, Anne Rice consistently employed religious and spiritual themes in her work. “The Vampire Chronicles”, for instance, is full to overflowing with them from the very outset, eventually finding their apotheosis in “Memnoch the Devil”. In fact, one might reasonably argue that her exploration of the origin and nature of good and evil, among other such topics, is the series’ primary focus, with vampires – yes, even her beloved Lestat – merely functioning as intermediaries.
I am certain that Ms. Rice must be aware of doctrinal variations among the several Christian denominations; also, that no individual adherent of Christianity takes quite the same approach to her or his faith as any other. There are, without question, a handful of relatively – that being the operative word – progressive factions among the ecumenical whole in the present day. However, in the almost 2,000 years since the death of Christ, the organized religion purporting itself to be based on his teachings has conclusively demonstrated over and over and over and over again that it inflicts far more harm than anything else (it is, of course, not the only religion, let alone human institution, guilty of doing so). I think this simple, undeniable fact may constitute the basis of her decision.
Baxter
@Jack: Back when I was a Christian, my church was very accepting of gays. In fact, one of our pastors was a lesbian. I left the church because I didn’t believe in God, not because of any intolerance.
And if you’re going to say that the least religious countries have the highest quality of life, you should probably also note that Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia were also very non-religious. There’s no causal relationship between religion (or the lack thereof) and quality of life; the only people who make such claims are religious fundamentalists and their fundamentalist atheist rivals.
David
The best thing I ever did with Christianity
was abandon it.
Ryanthehulk
I think we can all agree: awesome, supporting, loving mom, right?
PopSnap
Yay for Anne. Interview with the Vampire is an American classic, and Lestat is easily one of the best, deepest, entertaining, and memorable characters in modern (past 30 years) fiction.
Although I don’t care for some of her other stuff (Blood Canticle was painful), I honestly feel that she will be remembered as one of the better authors of our time.
Ogre Magi
I still blame that bitch for making vampires so fucking popular, when everybody knows ogres are the coolest monsters!
aalan brickman
You can be christian and supportive of gays….how stupid of her….I guess the christian books aren’t selling that well now….
CJ
Her most recent post:
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.
http://www.facebook.com/annericefanpage?v=wall
Faketroll
@Baxter: I have to disagree with the several Christian apologists on this page. While it is true many Christians are supportive of gays and human rights, Christianity itself is not, and that seems to be the problem that Anne has. What book do gay-friendly Christians still hold sacred? The bible. What book condemns homosexuality? The Bible. Why do the vast majority of Christianity’s real authentic spokespeople oppose gay rights? Because that’s what the religion itself says to do. It’s astonishing to see so many gay Christians that can’t realize they are part of something that says they’re immoral and living in sin for who they are. We need complete abandonment of Christianity, not the spread of a gentler version of it because you think “some of it isn’t right.” It’s all wrong.
geoff b
I love my refrigerator magnet that says “Don’t use Jesus Christ as an excuse to be a narrow minded bigoted asshole.” There are many Christians who actually live their faith and don’t judge or condemn others. Condemning a whole faith because some bigoted assholes choose to bastardize His word is wrong, just as it’s wrong to condemn all gays for the actions of a few is wrong.
geoff b
Sorry, run on sentence! It’s been a long time since high school English. 🙂
Ian Jay
Welcome to the logical side, Miss Rice.
Where humanity, respect and kindness does not mean you do them to be rewarded (which is essentially WHY 99.99999% of religious people are religious…something yet to be proven.)
Religion will be the force to divide then demise the human specie and it’s sad to see. Instead of living for the “next life”…live in the moment today. Be well, kind, happy…now.
Chris
Simple.
Religious people: prove religion exists. It’s crazy to me something that’s up there with fairytales is governing our way of life, considering, when you really think about it: it’s probably the most calculating thing invented by man for man.
M
religion has been responsible for inequality, injustice and unfairness for LGBT and so long as people believe that nonsense it will continue to be. Sad to think there are LGBT who have left their parents brain washing and caccoon and still believe in something so utterly false that is used as weapon to strip their own rights.
Zach
@geoff b:
“Condemning a whole faith because some bigoted assholes choose to bastardize His word is wrong, just as it’s wrong to condemn all gays for the actions of a few is wrong.”
It was never ‘some.’ The vast majority of Christians throughout history have been ‘bigoted assholes’ who interpreted their faith as entitlement to rape and pillage the rest of the world.
Not that ultimately matters, because even if it was a religion of puppy dogs and candy canes, it’s still a religion. Religions insist on doctrinal adherence at the expense of doubt and reason. However much they acknowledge the real world, ultimately they insist on beliefs over ideas, on truth over the search for it. We are surrounded by a world that should confirm that there are no sky wizards or Jewish zombies and there never were. At best, there were men and women looking to explain the universe in a way that was understandable. And there was the occasional man who would claim some supernatural abilities to win over adherents. And that’s all there ever was. And there are many lessons we can take from them, but they should be regarded as teachers, not deities to worship or books to unquestioningly live by.
Zach
@CJ:
She should start asking Christ what purpose the African eyeworm serves in the ever-loving and merciful God’s universe.
Ryan
Jack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o
adam
@Baxter: Uh, what? Nazi Germany’s gov’t might’ve been anti-religion (though they embraced it when convenient and formed what is referred to as a “political religion,” but Germany itself (the society) was far from it. Same applies to the Soviet Union, both had very, very high religiosity at those times. I also can’t even understand what “atheist fundamentalism” would be. What are the fundamentals? All it means to be an atheist is to acknowledge what you AREN’T.
Whoddafunk?
I really like that she’s her own thinker. Everyone on Earth is on their own spiritual path and she is pretty brave to make the statements that she is making considering how so many people today still try to defend the institution of Christianity despite the fact that it is directly responsible for countless wars, the raping and pillaging of peoples across the planet, etc.
How many church-funded soup kitchens does it take to make up for the countless innocent people tortured during the Inquisition in ways so barbaric most Christians don’t even bother to learn about? Another thing I don’t get is why so many people believe the church to be so ancient and unchanging when the reality is that it has constantly and unceasingly changed over time.
Now having said this, I’m not anti-Christian or anti-religion or anti-atheist or anything like that. I think everyone is on their own spiritual paths, and oftentimes that means not being spiritual (personally I think just because one doesn’t want to actively engage in spiritual seeking doesn’t mean one’s life lacks spirituality… we are all a part of the interwoven reality of coincidence and time and circumstance which, in my opinion are spiritually influenced, but not in a way that is fully understandable to us with our current technology, and may never be understandable to us in our current physiology…
But anyway that wasn’t my point. My point is that I think too many people defend the institution when the amount of horrors it has inflicted throughout it’s history unequivocally drown out the good. I think more Christians should become like Anne and become independent Christians, independent people with their own beliefs about the world and Christ. I’m not Christian, so I don’t understand her whole ‘pessimistic atheist in a world that doesn’t make sense vs God-believing, world embued with meaning’ dichotomy… personally I don’t think science and spirituality are mutually exclusive, so I tend to feel that Anne’s mind is a bit weak and closed when it comes spiritual matters but I do defend her right to be an independent Christian thinker without being molested by people who think she’s being a big ol’ meanie to those who still participate in the organized church… ugh that is so upsetting considering the bloody and violent history of the church.
Queer Supremacist
It’s about time she told the goyim to take a hike.
@Faketroll: You have hit the nail on the head. Christianity is more evil than any vampire Miss Rice could have come up with. And it spilled a hell of a lot more blood. Muslims and Jews got the Spanish Inquisition; it’s time to return the favor.
AnonymousCoward
I can’t believe Christianity has degenerated so much in the last 10 years that it’s now anti-gay, anti-feminist, and anti-science.
Next thing you know these yahoos are going to rewrite the Good Book to include their anti-gay, anti-feminist, and anti-science rhetoric just to push their agenda. It would deeply upset me to see content in the Old or New Testament that has anti-gay, anti-feminist, and anti-science language and agenda.
Kudos to you Anne!
MSZP
Just write another book as good as Interview With the Vampire, Anne. And stop with the publicity stunts.
Mike
Lame. “Hey, I have decided to stop believing in a cult to a fictional deity!”
Hur-fucking-rah.
TonyD
Go Anne! In the words of Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” While not all “Christians” are bad people, there is a history of using religion to scare populations of people into blindly following people/rules without judgment; in addition, religion has been used to wipe out entire populations or shame people for living. How can you be a full Christian without admitting and learning from the horrific mistakes of the past and present?
Cassandra
“in addition, religion has been used to wipe out entire populations or shame people for living.”
Religion has been used as an excuse to justify all kinds of things, but then, so has atheism, and science, and commerce, and politics. The truth is that most of the genocides in human history have been over resources – land, money, minerals and oil, food, and labor. The truth is that throughout history, oppressors have used whatever they could – religion, science, philosophy, atheism, to make their crimes seem respectable.
But that is not a reflection on religion, any more than someone’s use of a knife to kill means that knives are inherently evil. The premise people are arguing here – the religion is evil because it has been used to commit evil, is irrational. There is nothing on this planet, nothing in human culture, that someone, somewhere, has not used to harm others, and that includes atheism/unbelief and science. Yet you folk only apply your criticism to religion, because it is religion and religious people that you hate. You don’t really condemn the oppression and abuse of others, for you ignore the way everything that humans know or create has been used to harm and oppress.
It is a false standard, coming from false people whose ideology provides no ethical system, no moral system, nothing but the celebration of their ego above all else.
The fact is that Christianity has been the driving force behind humanity’s push to equality, while atheism only incites oppression. The U.S. Constitution reflects Christian ideas about human relationships and worth, it was Christians who ended slavery, and began the ongoing process of erasing racism and sexism. And the majority of all support for GLBTQ people has come from people of faith, in the U.S., that means mostly Christians.
I get it that atheists here are pissed because they and their prejudice have not accomplished much of any value, and tremendous harm in the USSR, China and East Germany, and are overwhelmed with jealousy to the point of incoherent rage because most of humanity finds great value, meaning and direction from something that atheists do not even experience or study honestly. However, the complete failure of atheism on every level does not create a case against religion.
If you want to see what life would be like in a world run by atheist goverment – look at East Germany between WWII and the fall of the Berlin Wall. An entire nation caught in systemic oppression of a nearly unparalleled scale.
So many of you here have become that which you pretend to rail against – bigots, slaves to hatred and malice. Scream and rant at me, insult and slander me, but the fact remains, you are doing exactly what every homophobe does. You are no better than any homophobe.
“My point is that I think too many people defend the institution when the amount of horrors it has inflicted throughout it’s history unequivocally drown out the good.”
Lying is not moral behavior, Whoddafunk?. There is a difference between the application of knowledge to cause destruction, and the distortion of knowledge to excuse destruction. Science has slaughtered its hordes as well – Nagasaki and Hiroshima, eugenics programs in the U.S. as well as Europe, to name only a few. Industry has bloody claws as well, like Bhopal and Minamata, the oppressive practices of the U.S. coal barons, and the atrocity that is the U.S. health care system.
And politics is the bloodiest of all, from Stalin and Mao’s purges, and the genocide inflicted on Native Americans, to many, many bloody and brutal wars over territory, resources and ego that have, at one time or another, stained every people’s history.
“there is a history of using religion to scare populations of people into blindly following people/rules without judgment;”
There is a history of using science in the same way, and politics, and philosophy. The irony is that atheists here are engaged in exactly the same thing – trying to scare populations of people into blindly following atheism toward a ‘world without religion’ as so many here dream of, though that dream requires oppressing most of humanity. Would be oppressors have used race, ethnicity, language, politics, and every other ideology known to man, to try to scare populations into obedience.
But of all the things that humans know, only religion contains within it an intrinsic rebuke of oppression. Atheism does not. Science does not.
The reality is that the very standard by which you and your peers here judge Christianity, comes from religion, particularly Christianity. Going on atheism alone, you cannot honestly criticize any action, for atheism provides no standard or right or wrong, no value to any life, just hatred and contempt for most of humanity, just lies and malice. Heck, atheism doesn’t even encourage honesty, it negates and invalidates trust, and dismisses as irrelevant the foundation of human interaction.
The hate speech appearing on this thread about Christians and Christianity is just as foul as any anti-gay hate speech, and those who have engaged in it are the moral and ethical equivalent of any homophobe, from Fred Phelps to “porno” Pete to Jesse Helms. By letting their hate infect you and lead you to hate others, you lost to them.
Tallskin
@Cassandra
YAWN, and double yawn
shanelle
@Cassandra: Do you believe in the tooth fairy too?
Please answer in less that 5,000 words.
I ain ‘t got all day.
xo
Shanelle
words: Shanelle
music: Yo Yo Ma
catering: Goochi
Dawson
@Faketroll: You couldn’t be MORE wrong. You are blaming all the problems of Christianity on the book. The book that spends 3 chapters telling you about how God LOVES the WORLD, and how BELIEVING IN CHRIST gets you saved, and how JUDGE NOT LEST YOU BE JUDGED. It mentions homosexuality two times (one is directed at Jewish priests and has nothing to do with Christianity at all and the other is directed at churches that have turned their back to God). Don’t blame the book. Blame the people that interpret however they want to further their political agenda. I’m personally atheist, but only because I don’t believe in God, not because I believe that the Bible was written to destroy gay men and women.
Dawson
@adam: Actually, the German war effort and the Nazi movement was originally blessed by the Pope until they ran out of Homosexuals and Jews to slaughter and started looking at religious people in general.
Faketroll
@Dawson: Try a simple Google search on something like “Homosexuality in the bible.” It’s in the old and new testaments, and it’s more than twice. So I’m sorry to inform you that those who are “furthering their political agenda” (most aren’t) have complete biblical authority to do so. I blame the book and religion for the plainly ridiculous and openly hateful beliefs, and I blame the people for believing it. You aren’t helping anything by being an apologist.
David
Cassandra opined: “The premise people are arguing here – the religion is evil because it has been used to commit evil, is irrational. There is nothing on this planet, nothing in human culture, that someone, somewhere, has not used to harm others, and that includes atheism/unbelief and science. Yet you folk only apply your criticism to religion, because it is religion and religious people that you hate.”
Sure, people have whupped up on other people for other reasons. But Today, in This Thread, we can focus on Religion.
Not all Religion in general, although all religions have their flaws, but Christianity in general, and Organized Christian Fundamentalism in particular.
It’s not difficult to get along with fundamentalists. I’ve enjoyed working with lots of them. To make things work, ya gotta establish boundries and say, “No rants about Sodom & Gomorrah from you, and no jokes about snake-handling and tongues from me.”
It’s only when fundamentalists declare that their God told them to make gay’s lives miserable by molding secular law to match religious dogma that things get out of hand.
So Today, it’s Christian Fundamentalists who hate on gays. Another time, another place, we’ll rag on some other dirt-bag.
Anyway, I just wanted to add another post to mention Ms. Rice was on PBS radio today. She gave a great interview, said she wasn’t happy about the Catholic Church ragging on gays and other matters best left to secular authorities. And from what I can tell, she has another book cooking (I forget what it’s about) and part of it will include stuff that brought her to the point of leaving organized religion. Ya, she’s still a theist, and claims to have found the spiritual what-not that her vampire characters never found. But she has little good to say about the paid employees of Religion.
Should make a nice movie.