 |
|
|
|
|
July 30th, 2010
03:30 PM ET
Anne Rice leaves ChristianityLegendary author Anne Rice has announced that she’s quitting Christianity. The “Interview with a Vampire” author, who wrote a book about her spirituality titled "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" in 2008, said Wednesday that she refuses to be “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist," “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.” Rice wrote, “For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... 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.” |
  About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
|
|
|
Some of the posters, encouraged by CNN in its skewed headline and interesting censorship in its quote from Ms. Rice's original blog posting (they omitted the phrase "I remain comitted to Christ"), seem to have missed the point. Anne Rice still believes in God and as she says in her blog post "I remain committed to Christ, as always". Presumably, then, she also continues to draw strength and inspiration from the Bible. What she is "quitting" is the hate and contradiction manifest in some/many/most organized bodies purporting to represent organized Christianity. She loves Christ, but has fallen out of love with organized religion. Like Bono of U2 says, "God has a lot of strange children that I have a hard time getting along with" (or something to that effect). I think some posters think she is now an atheist or agnostic (not true), wihle some other posters think she has abandoned God and so has "failed" (also not true).
I certainly can sympathize, and to a greater or lesser degree agree with her. And I certainly respect her integrity.
@ Lovebuck – Well said! I rather live believing in Christ Jesus than to live and not believe in Him. I would be an eternity damnation for me to realize that there is a God when I die if I lived without believing in Him throughout my life time.
we should live our lives beliving there is a GOD,and die to find out there is no God, than to love our live as if there is no God, and die to find out there is one.
She failed because she was not baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit.
Did she say she was not Baptized?
Even if a person is Baptized they can fall from grace through sin.
Eric G., the Bible says that "a FOOL says in his heart 'there is no God' " And if you want proof that God exists, just look out your window because the Bible also says "does not nature ITSELF tell you that there is a God?"
The thing is, There are those who believe the Word of God and it is their "guide" for life; Then, there are those who do not believe in the Word of God (sadly) – so, how can there be all of this discussion without COMMON GROUND?
As "Catholic Joe" said in his earlier post "For those who have faith, no explanation is necessary. For those who don't, none will suffice."
Unless we all agree that the Bible IS the Word of God, all we are going to do is go around and around trying to out-smart each other and "impress" one another with our grasp of the English language but, what will it solve?
Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sins, I've accepted Him as my personal Savior and I'm happy to be here. Good Night, Brother and Sisters ~
Joseph, no matter if we were able to bring Christ to Eric and all these unbelievers, they still wouldn't believe. I pray for their salvation.
The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways." – Prov. 14:14.
"Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts." – Jer. 2:19.
Christians sin. Some of the saintliest of God's people have fallen into outrageous sin. And that has puzzled honest hearts and has been the sneer of the wicked down through the ages.
Infidels who hate the Bible have claimed that God's Book is immoral because it tells frankly of the frailties and sins of the saints of God. But really only God could write a book like that, honestly telling, without excuse, without glossing over, the constant downward tendency in the human race, revealed even in the saintliest characters.
Men who write books about their heroes make much of their good points, and gloss over or excuse their sins and failures. Men who write books about their enemies make much of their sins and failures, and gloss over their good qualities. But the Bible, written by an honest and holy God, simply tells the truth about mankind. We are a race of sinners, and the best men that ever lived still sinned.
The problem of sin is still present with Christians, as real as when they were unsaved. I find everywhere I go defeated Christians, sad Christians who fear that God has forsaken them or who doubt that they were ever saved. The problem of backsliding is ever with us. So I have prepared this Bible message to show what is a backslider, why people backslide, the sorrows and punishment of backsliding, to show that the true backslider is really saved, and to show how any Christian who has fallen into sin can get back into full fellowship with God and have the joy of his salvation restored.
HeIsGod,
You said……….. 'Christians are forgiven no matter how many times they sin',
How does that happen? Is it just because they say they are Christians that they are forgiven? Does this mean we can sin all we want if we are Christians but non-Christians cannot be forgiven no matter how many times they sin?
You said…… 'Yes, a true Christian who falls back into sin is still saved, but at the same time a person who lives a life controlled by sin is not truly a Christian'.
What are you saying here?......... If a Christian who falls back into sin is still saved but if their life is controlled by sin they are not Christian anymore?
So ‘a Christian can fall back into sin and still is saved………….are they saved because they are Christian? But if they are controlled by sin they are not a Christian anymore? Am I the only one who cannot understand these notions? Isn’t all sin controlling one’s life if you sin? If it didn’t control you, would you still do it? Or would you sin because you are Christian and are saved so you can sin all you want? See how these comments are not in the least understandable and not at all Christian.
You said…. 'You prepared this message to show how any Christian who has fallen into sin can get back into full fellowship with God and have the joy of his salvation restored'. Where is that message…….
None of what you wrote is coherent to me.
Still searching for life's answer ?? Figure it out already!!!..she should start enjoying her life not toil over these complex random beliefs!
Christians do sin (1 John 1:8), but the Christian life is not to be identified by a life of sin. Believers are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have the Holy Spirit in us producing good fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). A Christian life should be a changed life. Christians are forgiven no matter how many times they sin, but at the same time Christians should live a progressively more holy life as they grow closer to Christ. We should have serious doubts about a person who claims to be a believer yet lives a life that says otherwise. Yes, a true Christian who falls back into sin is still saved, but at the same time a person who lives a life controlled by sin is not truly a Christian.
What about a person who denies Christ? The Bible tells us that if a person denies Christ, he never truly knew Christ to begin with. 1 John 2:19 declares, “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” A person who rejects Christ and turns his back on faith is demonstrating that he never belonged to Christ. Those who belong to Christ remain with Christ. Those who renounce their faith never had it to begin with. 2 Timothy 2:11-13, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”
It's not about publicity. It's about friends of this world, about acceptance. Its take one to have a true relationship with Father, with Son, and with Holy Spirit to sustain this world. Have you not heard about the 4 different kinds of seeds that fell to the ground. Only one beared forth fruit. One other fel away due to pressures of this Life. Another fell away due to being shallow by forgetting the Word. Another fell away due to the cares of this Life, worries, persecutions. When we really come to seek the Christ, HIm only, Salvation, for no other reason than a relationship, we grow. When Jesus returns and in the New Jerusalem, we'll be praising the Father, Son, Holy Spirit all day long, Praise and Worship. For those that aren't truely His, that would be like Hell. It's a real, true, binding, covenant, relationship with something that one CHOOSES.
Many, as Jesus stated, won't. "Wide is the gate that leads to .... ," By Faith we Stand on the Rock.
The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) have brought much pain and suffering upon the people of Earth with their hatred and violence...subscribers to all three of these religions would do well to stop their hating and focus on making amends.
Rice wrote, “For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... 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.”
Name a group that isn't tainted with any of these terrible things. Atheists?? Muslims?? Who?? CNN forum posters??? Really, I would like to know.
Those actions are only "tainted" when done while hiding behind a god that someone cannot prove exists.
Well said! Her house was never built on the ROCK in the beginning. Satan had her in a shipwreck going back and forth with her faith and now, he has her just where he wants her. She never truly knew or understood Christ, much less had a relationship with Him!
I KNIEW IT!!! I was just thinking about her today, by chance, and her amazing reversion, because my mother read her Jesus books... And I was thinking, damn, it's such crap the way she talked about how she stopped being an atheist because of the historicity of Jesus, no rational person can make that argument, she walking on glass, then BOOM! Reality and natural science proves me right again!!!
So, because she went from being an Atheist to a Christian and now back to Atheists proves that you are right? Ha, ha, ha! Really, poor thing!
She's a flip-flopper – she was a Christian, she wasn't a Christian, she WAS a Christian (check out w w w.iamsecond.c o m) and now she isn't again. Make up your mind.
Just so you know, Anne – Jesus will not "Quit" you – he will be here when you change your mind again.....
Ooooh, OKAY, she was never a Christian to begin with! Nothing to worry about, thanks for the information!!
Just another backslider turning her back to Christ! She isn't turning her back a men, she forgets that it's all about Christ and not her, gay, or anything else. My prayers for her to wake up and return, she will burn in hell!
For the sake of your own soul, please, stop condemning people to hell.
maybe she'll leave writing next
Fantastic! She sure does have brains. Congratulations on getting out from under that heavy weight!
It's ironic. People always think that Christianity is about rules and works. It's about relationships! Your relationship with God and with other people. Jesus said to take his yoke because it is light, and I have personally found that his yoke is the lightest burden of them all! A heavy weight?? My heart breaks every time I hear someone say something like this.
You left christianity, good job, Rice. Now you just have to stop believing in gods.
Sounds to me like she needed some publicity. I do support her right to do whatever she wants even though if you read other articles you find out she says she is still "committed to Christ" so all you people who are proud of her need to do a little more research first lol
It is tragic that, Anne, after finding renewal in her faith has lost it again. I have enjoyed her creative expressions on Vampires and later on Christ but as always with Anne, it is all or nothing. I have a profound and deep faith in Jesus. It was gives me the strength to address and accept the foibles of other as well as my own. I am what my more conservative Catholics would call a "Cafeteria" Catholic. I pick and choose certain aspects of my Catholic faith. What is unshakeable is that God in his great wisdom has put us all here and I believe that as human beings our greatest achievement will be to truly love and respect one another regardless of race, gender, appearance, faith or lack of faith. I struggle with this every day.
So much for accurate reporting. CNN in their capsule literally skipped over a central part of Ms. Rice's announcement – the fact that she remains "committed to Christ". So what if she no longer calls herself Christian. She's still drinking the Kool-Aid. Or maybe it's blood. From 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
I returned to the Catholic Church after 20 years. Yes, I know what the OFFICIAL Church position on gays, women, etc. are, but I don't agree with them nor do I let these issues now prevent me from attending mass again, which I enjoy. It is a shame that Anne Rice is allowing the Church's political positions to prevent her from exercising her spirituality. I did that for 20 years, and it was a mistake. Plus, you can only reform from within.
The problem here is that you can't just pick and choose, cafeteria-style, with Catholicism. You either accept it, or you are in danger of being labeled a heretic and excommunicated. You are getting away with being a cafeteria Catholic by being quiet about what you choose to accept. But what is the point of staying with a religion when you can't in good conscience accept all of its tenets? I'm with Anne. Too much about Catholicism I could no longer tolerate–pedophile priests, and a refusal by the hierarchy to recognize women as anything but servants top my list. I left after my divorce and will never go back.
Nancy M,
What do you think a Priest is? Did you know he is a servant for us….our father who brings to us [the children of God] the Sacraments? [Personna Christi]. Do you not know that the Pope is a SERVANT of the servant?
Just what is it that you want?
Angela,
If you are able, watch Father Corapi on EWTN and get yourself back on the right path.
I find it odd that you would embrace a religion and then decide to pick and choose from its beliefs. But then again, what does it matter? Cheers!