Anne Rice: ‘Today I Quit Being A Christian’

Posted by majestic on August 4, 2010

Anne Rice tells NPR why she has rejected organized religion:

On July 28, bestselling author Anne Rice officially left the Roman Catholic Church.

The writer has had a fairly tumultuous religious history. Although she was raised Catholic, Rice rejected the church for the first time when she was 18.

But in 1998, Rice — who’s famous mostly for writing steamy, gothic, decidedly un-Christian novels such as Interview with the Vampire — had a religious awakening. She converted to Catholicism and began to write exclusively Christian-themed novels, like Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt.

In July, Rice decided she had had enough. She announced her decision 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.”

But, the decision wasn’t an easy one.

“It was very painful,” Rice tells NPR’s Michele Norris. “But I’ve always been public about my beliefs, and I’ve always been public about wanting to make a difference.”…

[continues at NPR]