Anne Rice is famous for writing crazy books about vampires, living in a spooky house, and , strangely, being a big Christian. UPDATE: Anne Rice is no longer a Christian. Anne announced her religious renunciation on Facebook yesterday, because why not?
I don’t pretend to have anything resembling insight into the state and condition of Anne Rice’s spiritual journey, nor do I particularly care to. If she switches her allegiance to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster…well, more power to her. This is still (nominally, at least) a free country where freedom of religion is guaranteed only to Conservative White Christians a cherished right enshrined in our Constitution. What I do admire is her honesty in stating her reasons for no longer adhering to the “official” version of Christianity. Would that more of us could be so openly and publicly honest about what we see going on around us.
I’ve said many times that my problems with Christianity have nothing to do with the religion itself, which, in concept at least, is a great idea. Really, who could argue with the basic teachings of Jesus Christ? How could things like compassion, peace, love, and tolerance be interpreted as anything but good? No, my problem is much the same as Gandhi, who once famously said, “I’m not afraid of Christianity; it’s Christians I fear.” It sounds as if Rice has discovered the central truth about modern Christianity: it’s controlled by intolerant, inflexible zealots whose knowledge of the true meaning of the teachings of Jesus Christ wouldn’t fill a shot glass. Good and decent Christians, whom I have little doubt are numerous and perhaps even the majority, have been drowned out by those who use their faith as a club with which to bludgeon those they deem less worthy.
In this sense, modern Christianity is little different from radical Islam in its strident, inflexible nature and willingness to resort to violence to achieve the desired ends. Never mind that the religion that the zealots are trying to violently defend bears no recognizable relation to the teachings of Jesus Christ, just as radical Islam has little to do with the teachings of Mohammed. These days, it’s all about maintaining social control. Tolerance, charity, and compassion seem to be virtually absent from modern Christianity, which is really too bad, because I’ve been fortunate to know many Christians who display those qualities in abundance. Would that the zealots and the haters could step back and learn a thing or two from those folks.
Far too many “Christians” spend far too much time hating, especially when it comes to Islam. What they fail to recognize is that their hatred and intolerance earns them a well-deserved label as the “American Taliban”. It need not be this way, of course, but when intolerance, social control, and zealotry are substituted for tolerance, charity, and compassion…well, you get something that’s Christianity in name only.
I applaud Anne Rice for recognizing the truth and owning up to it in a very public manner…not that the haters and zealots will recognize the lessons inherent in Rice’s statements, of course. To those folks, Rice will be decried as a heretic who should be burned at the stake.
Somewhere warm and breezy, Jesus weeps into his Dos Equis….
