Anne Rice Quits Christianity, Says Followers Not True to Christ.
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.”
All I can say is, Man, have I ever thought that myself!!!!!!!






August 2nd, 2010 at 10:18 am
Very interesting. I just finished reading Called Out of Darkness and I have to admit that as I was reading it, the question of how long it would take for her to get frustrated with religion getting in the way of her relationship with God did come to me a few times. I wonder if the process might not have taken a bit longer to happen if it hadn’t been Catholicism that she stepped back into but rather into something that is a little less segregating and more accepting. I like the way she spoke so passionately about her relationship with God and I believe that she has a good relationship with Him, I just kept feeling like there were some contradictions with that and what her religion was telling her. My favorite statement here is “following Christ does not mean following His followers”.
August 2nd, 2010 at 2:40 pm
AMEN. Me too. Now if the religious who walk amongst me would just leave me alone lol…
August 3rd, 2010 at 2:22 am
Or, the Catholicism may have actually protected her from the even greater insanity that is Evangelicalism… (You only trade the calm restrictive legalism on the one side for the wildly moralizing craziness of the other.)
She wrote this in reaction to a major leader endorsing a band who wants to see gay and lesbian people executed. Actually pretty mild compared to what goes on every day — and has somehow stayed off her radar…
It’s just so good to see an author of her caliber finally start to very publicly take on the insanity that has so dominated the entirety of Christendom. One of her speaking with this sort of surgical intensity means more then a thousand of the rest of us.
August 4th, 2010 at 6:18 pm
“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Gandhi
August 5th, 2010 at 1:22 am
Hi Kathy,
So painfully true…
Cal