Anne Rice posted this now-notorious comment on her Facebook page Wednesday:
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.
According to what we’ve heard, Rice’s post was heavily edited by her public relations team. The original reportedly went like this:
I quit being a Christian. I’m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-vampire. I refuse to be anti-werewolf. I refuse to be anti-zombie. I refuse to be anti-ghoul. I refuse to be anti-porphyria. I refuse to belong to a religion whose cruciform symbol is used to terrorize creatures of the night. I refuse to belong to a religion that drives stakes through the hearts of beings with whom I consanguinate. I refuse to be anti-undead. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.
July 30th, 2010 | 1:11 pm
Most of those are extremely misguided, but “In the name of Christ….I refuse to be anti-secular humanism” is just incoherent blather. “In the name of Christ, I refuse to be against the spirit of antichrist? In the name of Christ, I refuse to be against that which is dedicated to opposing His glory?” Huh?
July 30th, 2010 | 1:37 pm
“So we finish the eighteenth and he’s gonna stiff me. And I say, “Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know.” And he says, “Oh, uh, there won’t be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness.” So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.”
Caddyshack – 1980
July 30th, 2010 | 1:48 pm
Zombie-ist!
July 30th, 2010 | 1:57 pm
Any Christian who believes in the literal resurrection cannot be anti-undead.
Unless she means the sexy sparkly kind of undead, in which case she’s in good company with all the Twilight-Christians out there.
July 30th, 2010 | 9:48 pm
A lot of us gave Ms. Rice the benefit of the doubt — a bit of good faith if you will. And that, I believe, included the late Fr. Neuhaus. I know her son Christopher is gay and that the party line is that the Church is homophobic. I may have mentioned this before, but I was confirmed at one of the most orthodox — and vibrant — parishes in the midwest. The National Shrine of the Little Flower. Last March, the pastor, Monsignor Easton, hosted a meeting with the Catholic parents of gay adult children. “No politics,” he said, but a reaching out, pastoral care at its best with simple listening. I really really wish the world of writers and editors and publishers — where I worked for eight years — showed at least a perfunctory curiousity about the Church. They don’t and Ms. Rice’s statement confirms that. And I wish I was surprised. I wonder about her motives. There is a lot of fear — a lot of fear — in the media where people are frantically anxious not to appear “homophobic” if not antisemitic or anti-Catholic or anti-male. Just as unfortunate is the subculture within the Church which is just as eager to condemn “bigotry” while romanticizing a civil rights group that close up looks like anything but. You can’t “dialogue” when they won’t stop shouting you down… Many in the Church want us to listen and talk but they’re not the ones being verbally abused at the slightest provocation. Back in the 1970s I was nearly kicked and scratched during one such conversation. Ms. Rice is certainly unwilling to acknowledge the consequences of radical secular humanism and feminism for example. A soaring STD epidemic among the young and, of course, thousands of abortions every day. I keep thinking of what the late Prof. McInerny wrote in his memoir — it all comes down to Humanae Vitae. It reminds of the t-shirt I saw on a little boy at the laundromat just this evening: “You’re not the boss of me.” There is something essentially childish about the left — like the Episcopal House of Bishops member (who supported making Eugene Robinson Bishop of New Hampshire) with his gray ponytail and, you can’t make this up, love beads around his neck in the 21st century. I have only been a Catholic since Easter 2009 and I can only tell Ms. Rice that every day it is one of the hardest things I do or have ever done.
July 31st, 2010 | 11:21 am
It seems that Ms. Rice loved her liberalism more than she loved Christ and his Church.
July 31st, 2010 | 11:49 am
What she really renounced were her last shreds of credibility
July 31st, 2010 | 1:55 pm
Graham, I appreciate your long and thoughtful comments, and others I have read on blogs here at First Things. Let me say this as gently as I can: It is possible for a well informed, well educated and well intentioned Catholic, after considerable reflection. to walk away from the church. It does happen. — I feel that I have always acknowledged the consequence of secular humanism and feminism and that they have been largely good in this country and in other countries in the West. I deplore abortion but it is scarcely the only consequence. —– Yes, you are certainly right that Fr. Neuhaus was kind to me, and I will always appreciate his kindness.
Whatever my faults, and I have countless faults, I am committed to Christ and I do have good intentions. I have endeavored to be honest with myself and others about my lifelong spiritual quest. Thank you again for your thoughtful comments.
July 31st, 2010 | 3:31 pm
I pray for the souls of Richard Wendorff and Naoma Queen.
July 31st, 2010 | 8:29 pm
Ms. Rice,
I am glad you have commented here, but permit me a question:
How is it possible to remain committed to Christ while rejecting His Bride, His Body?
July 31st, 2010 | 8:51 pm
I pray that you will see the errors of your ways. I used to be Wiccan, for 14 years. I joined the Catholic church last year, and it has been the most liberating thing I have done, following the teachings of Christ and the Catholic church.
Only by submitting and following the will of God will we be free of the demons that haunt us. Anne, let go of your past, and the pain.
July 31st, 2010 | 8:58 pm
Anne,
Just rest in Him. He does the accomplishing.
July 31st, 2010 | 11:08 pm
“It is possible for a well informed, well educated and well intentioned Catholic, after considerable reflection. to walk away from the church.”
Mrs. Rice -
If by this you mean that it is possible for “a well informed, well educated and well intentioned Catholic” to quit being Catholic, then you’re speaking nonsense. If you were any of those three things, much less all three, you could never give up your Catholicism, instead, you’d give up anything that was honestly in conflict with the authentic teaching of the Church, and you’d reconcile the rest until you had a coherent whole.
But if your statement means that it is possible to remain Catholic without the Church, then not only is your statement nonsense, it is heresy; it is in itself the first proof of its own falsity.
You are leaving the Church because it is not what you demand of it. That is, you do not regard Church teaching as true. But if the Church does not, in your view, teach the truth, then what could possibly be the basis of your claim to ever having been Catholic?
All that said, I would like to thank you for your public admission, denied by so many liberals, that one cannot, in fact, embrace radical feminism, homosexual conduct, and the party that is the champion of abortion throughout the world, and still be a faithful Catholic. Some of us have been trying to make exactly that point for many years.
July 31st, 2010 | 11:21 pm
[...] page, and you can read her remarks there. Earlier today, she commented on one of the blogs at the First Things site. She [...]
August 1st, 2010 | 1:18 am
My goodness. . . First Things posts a comment that begins with the words: “According to what we’ve heard” — ??. . .Frankly, I’m appalled that you would publish such an inflammatory statement as “fact” without providing any attribution or corroboration that Ms. Rice wrote it.
Frankly — I don’t believe it.
No one who could write the books, CALLED OUT OF DARKNESS or OUT OF EGYPT or THE ROAD TO CANA could possibly have written such a statement as the one FIRST THINGS attributes to Anne Rice.
Additionally, reading the comments of these last few days, largely leaves me breathless with sorrow at the harsh, judgmental and caustic remarks directed at Anne Rice.
I do not agree with Anne Rice’s reasoning or her decision. But I do understand the profound grief that could can drive a person’s heart away from the Church.
If we as the Church cannot show compassion, if anonymous posters feel comfortable being the Pharisees of the modern age, if we forget that we are all Prodigal children of the Lord at least once in our lives — we are nothing at all.
The Lord is kind and merciful.
He calls us to be the same — regardless of any circumstance.
It is my every prayer that we become true reflections of Jesus — so that struggling members of the Church find Jesus in us, and not pitiful expressions of what we think Christianity should be.
As GK Chesterton so aptly wrote: “It’s not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting; it’s been found difficult and never tried.”
Or, as Jesus said: “Let the one among you who is without sin, cast the first stone.”
Amen.
August 1st, 2010 | 2:14 am
The statement you say was Rice’s original is so over the top, I’m a bit surprised that you aren’t standing by it with named sources.
“According to what we’ve heard, (from what source?) Rice’s post was heavily edited by her public relations team. (did you run this by Rice or speak directly to a person who saw and edited Rice’s original copy?) The original reportedly went like this: (“Like?” Does this mean this is a paraphrase, not the exact wording?)
Please do clarify with named sources and exact wording.
August 1st, 2010 | 2:19 am
I immediately think of many of the greatest saints who loved Christ, loved the Church, but did not love some of the things members of the church did. People like St. Francis of Assisi, St. Catherine of Sienna, or St. Teresa of Avila.
Rather than walking away from the church, they reformed it.
If members of the church are not living what the church actually teaches according to scripture and Sacred Tradition, then by all means seek reform! Not abandonment.
August 1st, 2010 | 4:13 am
Dear Anne Rice,
If you are following this comment thread, here’s another thoughtful post for you to read about your decision: Weekend Extra: Our enemies can be reconciled.
August 1st, 2010 | 9:13 am
As a Jew, I recuse myself from the discussion about Ms. Rice’s relationship to Christianity. I offered the lampoon of her Facebook post because it begged for lampoon. I live in this culture, though, and I have a bone to pick with Ms. Rice.
Anne Rice is a talented writer (unlike, say, Dan Brown); she knows how to construct a plot and write dialogue. On balance she has used her skills to make the world a worse rather than a better place. Sexualizing horror is something that Ms. Rice has done more effectively than most other writers in the genre. This corrodes the soul. She prepared the way for the proliferation of vampire “love” stories that now seem to dominate adolescent fiction.
In cultural, as opposed to confessional terms, to declare one’s self a Christian means to oppose the culture of death in all of its manifestations: sexual degradation, random cruelty, and so forth. Declared Christians are the natural allies of observant Jews against these evils.
The point of my lampoon is that if Anne Rice now declares herself NOT to be a Christian, does she return to the culture of death to which she contributed so much (and which in return made her rich and famous)?
August 1st, 2010 | 9:34 am
John Lennon’s return of his M.B.E. was reportedly in protest against British support of the US in Vietnam(!), Britain’s involvement in Biafra, and the poor chart performance of “Cold Turkey”. Many contend that the last bit was a joke. I’m not so sure.
August 1st, 2010 | 1:29 pm
I pray for the soul of Rod Ferrell.
August 1st, 2010 | 2:41 pm
We should pray for the Mrs. Ann Rice. I believe there is a major spiritual battle going on at this very moment.
Some Church teachings are not politically correct in today’s culture. Some in the Catholic Church today are very blunt and perhaps less charitable then they should be when explaining and defending these teachings. The cross of same sex attraction is heavy and we need to be sensitive to the pain and trials of those who bear it.
At the same time, there are some in the Church who have systematically obfuscated Church teaching, undermined legitimate Church authority and lead other to believe that the Catholic Church can change fundamental dogmas and still call itself the Catholic Church. Blunt statements about Church teaching are made in response to this second group.
Church leaders only attempt to safeguard the teachings of Christ and do it in as charitable a manner they are able. The historical fact is, the homosexual life style, artificial birth control and abortion were against the moral culture and foundational teachings of 1st century Judaism. Christ did not abolish that culture but fulfilled it.
August 1st, 2010 | 2:50 pm
Dear Mr. Goldman,
I am not Christian — I am agnostic. I too “oppose the culture of death in all of its manifestations: sexual degradation, random cruelty, and so forth.”
By your own words, you are not Christian — you are Jewish and you “oppose the culture of death in all of its manifestations: sexual degradation, random cruelty, and so forth.”
Are you saying that Ms. Rice’s repudiation* of Christianity (and not Christ) means that she now is in favor of “the culture of death in all of its manifestations: sexual degradation, random cruelty, and so forth.”? If so, I’m confused by your logic and lampoon. There are millions of people who are scrupulous, moral, benevolent and kind who are not Christians.
Please tell me what I’ve missed.
*so wanted to use Ms. Palin’s word, ‘refudiate’. :)
August 2nd, 2010 | 12:20 pm
Ms. Hawk, my last post was a question, not a statement. Anne Rice contributed to the culture of death in the past. Her confession of Christianity seemed a repudiation of that. In repudiating Christianity, does she now repudiate her repudiation? I am less interested in where she stands with respect to artificial contraception than where she stands with respect to vampires, werewolves and zombies.
August 2nd, 2010 | 12:46 pm
Ms. Rice could get everything she wants in Christianity by becoming an Episcopalian.
August 2nd, 2010 | 3:30 pm
“Ms. Rice could get everything she wants in Christianity by becoming an Episcopalian.”
Let’s not confuse liberal Episcopalian practice and profession with Christianity.
(But that was a funny comment!)
August 2nd, 2010 | 6:17 pm
Ms. Rice, other readers,
Thank you for your comments and I will pray for you for the things you struggle with Christianity.
I echo Graham’s statement concerning the difficulty of being Catholic. All those damn other people ;)
What you’ve described sounds like it can be summed up by the question, “Why doesn’t God just burn up the chaff _now_??” But then there is Matthew 13:24 and there’s Jesus saying, “Move along, keep walking after me, I WILL take care of it…for now, let it go – there’s still also *wheat* growing there…”
Closing thoughts:
Unfortunately, when you leave one group, you just find yourself in another. No-one truly is impartially on the outside looking in.
The idea of a visible, organized expression of his teachings and practices – his saving ministry, making present and offering here on Earth what is true in Heaven – was Jesus’s idea.
May God richly bless you.
August 3rd, 2010 | 12:29 am
[...] Things bloggers Joe Carter, David P. Goldman, Elizabeth Scalia, and Joseph Bottum have already written on this story, and I do not have much [...]
August 3rd, 2010 | 6:21 am
I so well remember stopping by one of Anne Rice’s Manhattan book signings for “Christ the Lord” when the book first came out, in the wake of Rice’s public return to the faith. I remember a certain warm sense of real fellowship, which was in no small way by the really good list of Christian scholars consulted in the book’s back pages- a community of friends with a common cause. I remember how serene and whole and firmly resolved Rice seemed, how secure. I’d asked her to inscribe my book for a certain priest, and she held that book for an extra second, repeating the priest’s name almost tenderly. If that little sliver of time represents a small part of the graces at work in her return to the faith, she will be back. The chilly tone of her recent renunciations lacks the compelling tenor of real love and conviction altogether.
August 13th, 2010 | 10:57 am
I was greatly blessed by Anne’s book, Out of Egypt, and the notes in the back describing her walk back to Christ. I stumbled across this blog and felt saddened after reading all the entries.
It seems that confusion arises when we equate a relationship with Christ as equal to participation in a particular church.
I was born and raised Roman Catholic and greatly appreciate those roots of faith. However, I met Christ later in my 20′s after a sojourn in the wilderness.
Though I know the Roman Catholic faith teaches otherwise, the body of Christ is composed of all those who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:16, 1 John 4:15, Acts 16:30,31) and received His atonement for their sins. The orthodox creeds are wonderful condensed expressions of the true believer.
We are all in different places in our journey of faith and must give grace as we watch each other walk on those different paths.
There is so much to be learned of submission to God’s word, of believing in the absolute truth of God’s perfect goodness, holiness, justice, mercy, love.
It seems until we can lay aside our own desires, our own conception of what is good, right, just, we flail about in confusion.
God has made it clear that man was made in His image and thus human life is precious; that He created us male and female; that He is light and in Him there is no darkness; and though we can’t fully explain or comprehend much of the sin that abounds around us; we can trust that He is able and we need to trust His judgment calls.
And finally, love one another through all of the journey, give grace to one another, for the one who says he abides in Christ ought to walk in the same manner as He walked.
August 17th, 2010 | 12:09 pm
Anne Rice returns to the sepulchre of her mind
http://conversationwithcrombette.blogspot.com/2010/08/anne-rice-returns-to-seplechure-of-her.html
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