And Now for My Opinion on Anne Rice's Decision to Quit Being a Christian

It's a media sensation – best-selling author Anne Rice announced via Facebook that she has quit being a Christian. On July 28^th she posted: 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. 


And five minutes later added: As I said below, 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.

Her fans went wild and so did the rest of the media. As a writer myself my first reaction is “Wow! What great publicity! Why didn't I think of that?” Except if I had nobody would care. I'm not Anne Rice. I don't have 92,000 fans on Facebook.

I cyber-”met” Ms. Rice last winter on one of the Catholic Discussion forums on Amazon.com. At first I was skeptical that the person posting as Anne Rice was in fact Anne Rice but it turned out she actually was Anne Rice. We had several interesting exchanges which took me by surprise because I had been unaware of her re-conversion to Catholicism some years earlier. I had read some of her early work. I loved Cry to Heaven and The Feast of All Saints. I read a few of her vampire and witch books but I'm not really a vampire/witch kind of person so, while I found them enjoyable, I never felt motivated to read beyond the first couple in each series. I read the first few chapters of one of her erotica books but it was just page after page after page of sadism, physical and sexual degradation of women, misogyny, and incessant b/d, s/m stuff – which is fine if you like b/d, s/m, I guess, but I don't.

Consequently I was pleasantly surprised to read what Ms. Rice had to say on Amazon. In fact the first post of hers I read stated in part: The Catholic Church is for me the oldest, longest continuous tradition from the time of Christ, claiming the Apostolic Succession for its anointed priests and bishops. --- It's very badly run. Yet it continues. I believe Hillaire Belloq said in its defense that any other institution this badly run would have been destroyed a long time ago, so it must be divinely inspired. Many of us who are Catholics have no illusions about the sins and failings of the hierachy including various popes through the ages. We are in the Church for "the man at the top" who is Jesus Christ, and we privilege the continuity of Catholic doctrine, theology, and values.  I absolutely agreed with her and began paying attention to her posts. She spoke often about her love of the sacraments, the rituals, the traditions and the communion of saints all of which I strongly related to.

At the same time she became involved in a couple of discussions about the pedophilia scandal within the Church. Like most of us Catholics she was outraged by it and she engaged in long dialogues with people – some of whom agreed with her, others who criticized her for finding fault with the Pope. Since I happened to agree with her position I was glad she stuck to her points and continued to voice her outrage. It was my outrage too. She proved to have a much greater capacity to argue with people who were never going to change their minds than I did but I applauded her fortitude.

Later I discovered her Facebook page, joined it, and participated in a few more discussions but far less seriously than I had on Amazon. The people on Facebook were there because they were Anne Rice fans and while there certainly were those who took her to task when they disagreed with her, most of them were just there out of their adoration of their favorite author. If Ms. Rice said she supported fire plugs being allowed to hold public office office some of them would agree with her and tell her how clever she was to have thought of that. I don't begrudge her that --- that's what fans are for --- but it doesn't make for much of a discussion.

Over the months she began posting more and more links to stories about the sex scandals within the Church. Every link prompted a hundred or more responses. She posted some links about the utterly despicable, unconscionable Westboro Baptist Church, an organization so steeped in hatred and blasphemy it is proof of God's goodness that they haven't been blasted off the face of the earth. On and on it went scouring the news for more proof that the Catholic Church in particular and Christianity in general were just awful.

Of course there were no articles to be posted about the thousands and thousands of Christians who do wonderful, loving, caring things every hour of every day all over the world. There were no articles about homeless shelters, AIDs hospices, soup kitchens, food pantries, and the teams of Christians/Catholics going to Haiti or New Orleans or southeast Asia to build houses and take food and to treat the sick and the dying. In all the condemnation of Catholicism's “horrible” past there was no mention of the founding of hospitals and universities and missions. Of the clergy who gave their lives in defense of social justice, who went to prison protesting wars, of the nuns and priests in third world countries who died rather than betray the political fugitives they were protecting. No mention of the great thinkers, writers, artists, musicians, and, yes, scientists (how can anyone not love Brother Guy Consolmagno?). That's the stuff the secular media has no use for.

So Ms. Rice finally decided to make the two statements --- and many since then --- mentioned above. Now, let me say, I completely support her right to follow her conscience. There's no argument there. What I am disappointed in is this statement of hers: It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group (i.e. Christians). While I don't disagree that there are a good many so-called Christians who fit that description, they are far, far, far outnumbered by those who don't. In fact, if you want to see a quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious group go to her Facebook page and read the comments of the people who are telling her how proud they are of her for quitting being a Christian --- hatred for Christians, and especially Catholics, hasn't changed much in 2000 years. There are a number of these people who seem eager for a fun-filled afternoon at the Colosseum feeding them to hungry lions!

I wish Ms. Rice well. She seems like a nice person and she certainly is devoted to her fans. Myself, I will continue to treasure the beautiful parts of Catholicism which I've always loved, most especially the sacraments, the art, and the rituals that contribute to a sublime and intensely personal experience of Divine communion. I, too, wish the Church would change its attitude toward some of the things “of this world” --- their position on gays, women in the Church, birth control, etc. I've never found it difficult to separate the follies of man from my experience of God. And I believe in the goodness of the millions of Christians/Catholics who take care of one another in the most selfless of ways without media coverage or Facebook fans but purely out of their devotion to a belief in something greater than themselves.

Thanks for reading.

Footnote: My review of Anne Rice's book Angel Time was recently published on CatholicFiction.net.