Novelist Anne Rice, famous for her darkly seductive works such as Interview with the Vampire and The Witching Hour, announced this week via her Facebook page that she has decided to "quit" Christianity because of how the religion is increasingly being used to push anti-gay, anti-feminist and anti-science views.
Her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has confirmed that this posting and subsequent comments were indeed written by Rice and not an impostor.
Novelist Rejects Christianity, Remains "Committed to Christ"
On Wednesday, Rice wrote the following on 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 years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."
She followed this with:
"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."
Explaining herself further, Rice's latest offering on her Facebook page emphasizes that her faith remains as strong as ever, but that it is the affiliation with some of the religion's followers that has prompted her to redefine herself:
"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."
What Led to Rice's Rejection of Christianity?
As an excellent piece in the Huffington Post reinforces, it seems to be the religious right's increasing use of a very narrow version of Christianity as a political clobbering tool that has caused Rice to break from her affiliations with Christianity and Catholicism:
Earlier this week on her public Facebook page, Rice had expressed her horror and revulsion at two different news stories that shared similar themes.
The first was the co-opting of the "Christian" imprimatur by the GOP-linked "Christian punk rock" band You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, supported by Michelle Bachman, who believe that gays should be executed, and who deride America for not being "moral enough" to make homosexuality a capital crime like it is in Iran. The second story was an exposé of a seven-year old boy who had been indoctrinated into Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, whose sole great commission is virulent hatred.
The author's relationship with her faith hasn't been a straightforward one. Raised as a Catholic, she rejected religion early on and became a committed atheist. In 1998, however, Rice returned to her beliefs. Her journey back to her faith was detailed in her 2008 memoir Called out of Darkness. After reaffirming her belief in God, Rice took the decision in 2002 to publicly dedicate her writing to Christ, saying that she would now only "write for the Lord". This was also marked by a turn away from writing her supernatural novels, whereby she chose to instead write about the life of Jesus and other similar subjects. Her return to Catholicism, which alienated some of her fans, came with a few caveats though, one of which was that she would continue to support gay rights.
Of course, support for lesbian and gay people has an added dimension for Rice. Her son Christopher Rice, also an author of significant talent and success, is openly gay and is himself a gay rights advocate.
Anne Rice: A Voice for the Disenfranchised Believer?
It is undeniable that, while Anne Rice's prominence in the literary field has perhaps wained of late, she remains a landmark author whose works have literally inspired generations of readers.
While Rice's latest comments will be perceived by some as offensive to her Christian-identifying followers and a capitulation to her former fans, there is an argument to be made that Rice is in fact emblematic of many persons of faith who feel disenfranchised as their moderate voices are drowned out by the religious right's crusade to impose its views on wider society. They also feel a sense of frustration, and rightly so, when all who identify as Christian get tarred with the same brush as those on the fringe who shout the loudest and most vociferously.
Rice's statements also innately serve to demonstrate to the wider public that the talking heads and ranting politicians seen so often in the media who claim to speak on behalf of "the Christian perspective" are certainly not speaking for everyone when they blanket condemn everything from prophylactics to the theory of evolution. In what is often called the culture war between progressive attitudes and religious views, it is the norm for both sides to accept that you can not, for example, be truly supportive of gay rights and also follow God.
Obviously, LGBT Christians know this to be untrue, but Rice's rejection of this narrow view compels that we also guard against falling into the easy trap of believing that religion and religious people are all of them the enemy of progressive causes like feminism and gay rights, when clearly we can see that this is demonstrably false.
And so, rather than an outright rejecting of Christianity, it can be argued that Anne Rice has attempted to take back the absolute core of her spiritual beliefs, that being compassion, love and understanding and a personal relationship with the Divine, from the grabbing hands of those who continue to use religion as a weapon to deny others their rights and dignity. In that, Rice has given a voice to other like-minded believers who are tired of having their faith hijacked to support personal and political agendas. –Care2
Her publisher, Alfred A. Knopf, has confirmed that this posting and subsequent comments were indeed written by Rice and not an impostor.
Novelist Rejects Christianity, Remains "Committed to Christ"
On Wednesday, Rice wrote the following on 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 years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else."
She followed this with:
"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."
Explaining herself further, Rice's latest offering on her Facebook page emphasizes that her faith remains as strong as ever, but that it is the affiliation with some of the religion's followers that has prompted her to redefine herself:
"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."
What Led to Rice's Rejection of Christianity?
As an excellent piece in the Huffington Post reinforces, it seems to be the religious right's increasing use of a very narrow version of Christianity as a political clobbering tool that has caused Rice to break from her affiliations with Christianity and Catholicism:
Earlier this week on her public Facebook page, Rice had expressed her horror and revulsion at two different news stories that shared similar themes.
The first was the co-opting of the "Christian" imprimatur by the GOP-linked "Christian punk rock" band You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, supported by Michelle Bachman, who believe that gays should be executed, and who deride America for not being "moral enough" to make homosexuality a capital crime like it is in Iran. The second story was an exposé of a seven-year old boy who had been indoctrinated into Fred Phelps' Westboro Baptist Church, whose sole great commission is virulent hatred.
The author's relationship with her faith hasn't been a straightforward one. Raised as a Catholic, she rejected religion early on and became a committed atheist. In 1998, however, Rice returned to her beliefs. Her journey back to her faith was detailed in her 2008 memoir Called out of Darkness. After reaffirming her belief in God, Rice took the decision in 2002 to publicly dedicate her writing to Christ, saying that she would now only "write for the Lord". This was also marked by a turn away from writing her supernatural novels, whereby she chose to instead write about the life of Jesus and other similar subjects. Her return to Catholicism, which alienated some of her fans, came with a few caveats though, one of which was that she would continue to support gay rights.
Of course, support for lesbian and gay people has an added dimension for Rice. Her son Christopher Rice, also an author of significant talent and success, is openly gay and is himself a gay rights advocate.
Anne Rice: A Voice for the Disenfranchised Believer?
It is undeniable that, while Anne Rice's prominence in the literary field has perhaps wained of late, she remains a landmark author whose works have literally inspired generations of readers.
While Rice's latest comments will be perceived by some as offensive to her Christian-identifying followers and a capitulation to her former fans, there is an argument to be made that Rice is in fact emblematic of many persons of faith who feel disenfranchised as their moderate voices are drowned out by the religious right's crusade to impose its views on wider society. They also feel a sense of frustration, and rightly so, when all who identify as Christian get tarred with the same brush as those on the fringe who shout the loudest and most vociferously.
Rice's statements also innately serve to demonstrate to the wider public that the talking heads and ranting politicians seen so often in the media who claim to speak on behalf of "the Christian perspective" are certainly not speaking for everyone when they blanket condemn everything from prophylactics to the theory of evolution. In what is often called the culture war between progressive attitudes and religious views, it is the norm for both sides to accept that you can not, for example, be truly supportive of gay rights and also follow God.
Obviously, LGBT Christians know this to be untrue, but Rice's rejection of this narrow view compels that we also guard against falling into the easy trap of believing that religion and religious people are all of them the enemy of progressive causes like feminism and gay rights, when clearly we can see that this is demonstrably false.
And so, rather than an outright rejecting of Christianity, it can be argued that Anne Rice has attempted to take back the absolute core of her spiritual beliefs, that being compassion, love and understanding and a personal relationship with the Divine, from the grabbing hands of those who continue to use religion as a weapon to deny others their rights and dignity. In that, Rice has given a voice to other like-minded believers who are tired of having their faith hijacked to support personal and political agendas. –Care2
No comments:
Post a Comment