The latest bit of non-news burning up the blogosphere – author Anne Rice declared on her Facebook page that she has “quit Christianity in the name of Christ.” Here’s an interesting piece on the Politics Daily website about it.
I have to confess a little disappointment over her leaving. I really enjoyed her spiritual memoir Called Out of Darkness in which she cogently explained why she – a political liberal — returned to the Catholic Church she was raised in. With all the corruption and idiocy that’s been spilling out of the Vatican lately, the Catholic Church needs its conscientious liberals to balance a lurching ship. It needs people like Rice to explain why you can be Catholic and pro-gay rights, pro-birth control, and pro-ordination of women to the priesthood – and why it is practically a Catholic duty to be harshly skeptical of the Vatican. The Gospel of Stephen (Colbert) affirms that.
Such beliefs may be scandalous to right-wing activist bishops in the U.S., but they’re hardly rare – according to a variety of polls, including last year’s Gallup survey, American Catholics as a whole lean left on many of the hot-button social issues of the day. So Anne, you were hardly alone in being a Cat’lic leftie. I understand your frustration, and I respect your decision, but we could use you. Just stay away from Scientology, fer Christ’s sake – I know you have Tom Cruise’s phone number.
The entire problem with the Catholic Church is that it was never a Christian organization in the first place. Read a good novel called On This Rock by Dave Leonard, yes I know novels are fiction but it uses a lot of historical facts to drive home where the Church really got its start. If you just think about the RCC and where it places its priorities, power, wealth and corruption. Doesn’t sound like anything I thing Christ would care about.
Mark, you read a book, no a “novel” and now you understand being Catholic? Christ designated St. Peter as the rock upon which He would build His church. That is all we need to know. We are not blind as Catholics to the faults of our religion, but just as we do not turn our backs on our families who often stumble, we do not turn our backs on our Church. Power , wealth and corruption? I think you might be talking about Washington DC-still an American?
By ditching the Church, she has ditched God. Luke 10:16, Matt 16:19.
I pray for her soul. How sad.
Her return to the Church must not have been profoundly deep, if in fact she retained pro-choice, pro-women “priests”, and pro-gay beliefs. So it’s not surprisingly that she would leave (again), regardless of the problems the Church is facing with wayward priests (emphasis on the “wayward”) and failure of some bishops to effectively deal with it.
…and sadly Mr. Fowler’s take on the matter is similarly vapid. It is utterly devoid of even an atomic particle’s worth of Catholic teaching.
Liberals can only look to what “the crowd wants” (as long as “the crowd” reflects their perspective) as the criterion of Truth. When “the crowd” stands agains liberal views, well, we all know who they are….fascists!
I quit associating the church with God and Christianity with Christ ages ago.
Jeebus. Get a clue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/11/sell-the-vatican-save-the_n_316559.html
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Any organization designed and run by man will have flaws. We all need to be open to improvement and changes but at the same time I’m going to use the brain that God gave me and chose who I listen to. I would never go to Larry Flynn or Heffner for advice on running a Church. Anne Rice may be a better writter but she was just as far down in the mud as they are. (The Beauty Seriers not originally published under her name) Maybe she is the one that didn’t change when she rejoined the Church.
Mark, let us not judge…I know where you are getting your “facts” from and while the early history of the Church is not great, preachers today leave out the fact that many Christians died at the hands of the Romans and others for the grace of God. Catholics believe the same basic things that other Christians believe- that Jesus Christ came down to save us. I have heard many Southern Baptists preachers condemn Catholics and in my opinion, they are as guilty as the crimes they claim Catholics have committed.
I listened to Anne Rice tonight 8/11/10, on ABC news, and feel the same way. When you have gay children it is very difficult to listen to the hate from the Mormon and Catholic Churches towards the gay community.
I believe in Christ, but don’t believe in organized religion. To quote Anne Rice, “In Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay.
The Bible say that homosexuality is an abomination to God, thats about as anti-gay as you can get.
I believe that God created some of His children gay,
and there is no way they could be an Abomination
since God created them. We are all children of God.
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