
Anne Rice is one of the most popular authors of our time, having sold almost 100 million copies of her books. I knew nothing about her and have never read any of her books. That is, until last week when she “quit” being a Christian via a Facebook message. Isn’t there a better way to quit on God’s people than through social media? But, I guess that’s the way we do things these days. I can’t wait to dump someone via changing my Facebook relationship status and no longer having them included as “in a relationship” with me so the next time they log in they will know that they have been dumped! I wonder if God had to log in to see that His people had been dumped or if He already knew?
Anyways, Anne quitting Christianity has caused a huge wave of reactions from both Christians and non-Christians. Pretty much everyone and their mother has blogged or written about it this past week. I have nothing else to talk about today, so how about I talk about Anne too? Here we go!
Her first post is below.
“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.”
A bit later she made a followup post.
“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”
What I find original about this is, Anne “quit” on Christ’s followers in “the name of Christ.” That sounds pretty funny to me and I don’t really know how that works, but whatever.
What I don’t find original about this is, the jumping on the bandwagon of over-dramatizing the hypocrisy of Christianity.
I hear it or see it everyday. Someone complaining about Christians being hypocrites because of X, Y, or Z, while being a hypocrite themselves in doing so.
I’d also like to find out where Anne was told that being a Christian meant being anti everything she listed above, because no where in the Bible does it say any of that. In the name of Christ you should refuse to be anti a lot of the things she listed, and as a Christian myself, I am with her and the Bible on that.
What it comes down to is this. I think every Christian has wanted to give up on the church, aka the body of Christ, at one time or another. I have plenty of times, and probably more times than you can count! But if you give up on the body, you give up on the person as well.
Guess what? When you marry a woman, you get her crazy mother too. When you get a dog, you get the shit it leaves in your yard as well. Having a daughter, gives you lots of gray hair way too early in life. Eating Taco Bell, gives you diarrhea. Becoming a Christian, gets you millions of other imperfect Christians (just like yourself) standing under Christ as your new family. Like anything, it’s a two for one deal.
Being a follower of Christ means, being part His body. Being part of His body means living, loving, learning, following, and doing His Word as He designed you to do side by side and hand in hand with his fellow followers.
End rant.