About a year ago, I wrote a hopeful post touching on the reversion of well-known author Anne Rice. This week, I read an article from the LA Times about her defection from the Church based on her Facebook announcement that she’d “quit being a Christian.”
The news seemed anticlimactic after my October 2009 post, in which I rejoiced over Rice’s claims that she’d been on a long and winding search for God that had ended with her embracing the Christian faith of her roots, and that she planned to dedicate all future works to her “Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
So is Rice just fickle, or should we Christians be concerned?
It’s always disconcerting to see a brother or sister fall away from the faith. Those of us who have tasted the goodness of the faith life hurt when our siblings in Christ become disillusioned. We can, and should, recognize that oftentimes there are valid reasons this happens, and that it can serve as a call to us to work even harder to form our heart to Christ’s.
The aforementioned article was written by William Lobdell, a former Times staff writer who himself is a defector of the faith. So do consider that the story was approached through the lens of one who already feels disillusioned. Even so, he did bring up some important points.
In the article, Lobdell cites evidence that more and more American Christians are failing to live out the faith they profess. He says that though
Rice herself points to the hypocrisy she witnessed as the main reason for her departure, and Lobdell ends the article saying we’re seeing only the beginning of the exodus.
Leaving it at that would be enough to make any Christian lose heart, but from all that I’ve experienced in my own long journey as a Christian, I believe there’s more here than what Lobdell can see.
Trying to explain the downhill slide, Lobdell says it could be that many people who call themselves Christian don’t really believe, deep down, in the tenets of their faith, causing their actions to reveal their true beliefs.
I would respond in this way: we are in the world, and as long as this is so, our Christian lives will be — in fact are set up to be — an uphill battle. We are not yet in our homeland, and as such, we are going to fail, daily. And it’s not necessarily because we don’t believe, deep down, in the tenets of our faith, as Lobdell says, but more likely that the world in which we live is in such contrast to those tenets that living them out takes a nearly insurmountable amount of courage, conviction and formation. It is becoming harder to live the Christian life, in part because the world is more and more at odds with what we believe, and oftentimes the subtle ways this permeates our lives makes the journey quite murky. We require keen senses to traverse the bog in order to come out the other side shining.
Only the saints who were able to take vows of poverty and completely transform themselves to Christ were able to live this out successfully. The rest of us, including parents with children who have to be more fully engaged with this world, are undoubtedly going to have a tougher time of it. We are going to struggle. Living out the faith is a daily dying to self and resisting this world. We may be successful in one hour, and unsuccessful in the next.
And a word of warning: those of us who take notes on the apparent disconnect of belief and action of fellow Christians and base our view of the faith on that alone will be sorely disappointed. We will, like Rice, eventually walk away. It is only when we can fix our gaze on Christ and what He is calling us specifically to do that we’ll find what we need to stay the course.
We should not, cannot, give up, despite everything in our world that lures us away from His face, including the imperfections of our siblings.
Q4U: What sorts of things do you do to intentionally set yourself apart from this world in order to live more fully in Christ?
Greetings – I have been reading but due to my crazy life, I have not been commenting. This blog is just such a pleasure to be a part of.
Oh Anne Rice… *deep sigh* Pardon my cynicism, forgive me my words, but I think that so much of what is doing/has done is either narcissism or a marketing ploy.
In reflecting on the Q4U that you leave us with, I have a few thoughts to share.
One is that I do not think that it is possible to follow Christ without being Christian. Professing Christ and rejecting Christianity (how curious that Rice blasted the hypocrisy of the Church, but never said Catholic…) is contradictory.
If I might, I do not think it is possible to be Christian without being community… Especially as Roman Catholics, we do not *go to* Church, but we *are* church.
As a result, it is not possible for me to fix my gaze only upon Christ, it is imperative for me to have Christ be the holy lens through which I ultimately see my brothers and sisters with more compassion and love. (Reference today’s Gospel. Love God, love one another.
Now clearly I struggle with this – as does anyone else! Reference my disdain about Anne Rice for a starting point!
My final thought is that, with all due respect, I am not sure that we are called to be set apart from this world, but rather to be more fully in it, in Christ. God did not call us to the heavens for transformation, God sent Jesus Christ to be fully human (and fully divine) here in this world.
For me, that means being fully planted in all that is in this world – something that I find easy to say and hard to do – and to be planted as a reflection of our collective faith and community, which is of course Jesus Christ.
So yes- while our world lures us, Rice included, I feel called to embrace her through my gritted teeth and clenched fists and it is only with my focus on Christ and community that I can even consider doing so.
This is our daily Via Dolorosa and our daily joy as well.
Listen to me ramble on so and at this hour no less.
I best go get ready for work. I hope that I have not sounded as pedantic as I think I might have…
Peace to you and thanks for what you have created here! It is part of that community which feeds and nourishes, lifts and upholds, challenges and loves. I thank you and I thank God for this!
I think many people are hurt by the humans who run the churches, in all religions. This can be the cause of their defection and frustration. I believe Anne Rice is turning inward to discover her own relationship with God, apart from the church.
Fran, I can’t find anything in your comment with which to disagree. Even the part about being more fully in the world, in Christ. I have written about this in other posts, how necessary it is for us to be in the world. That’s why we’re here, after all, to be here, live through this life, and draw closer to God through it. So I’m with you. My question about setting oneself apart was phrased wrongly, perhaps. What I had meant to convey is that, in order to make it through, we need to find quiet space away from the buzz of the world in order to hear God speaking clearly. Perhaps I should have phrased it that way instead. 🙂
Mary, yep. Humans are hurt within the church, out of the church, everywhere, because we live in a fallen world, and the people in the church are no less immune to the forces that draw us out of Christ than others. Some do better than others, though, of keeping focused on Christ. I just think that human beings are in general fragile creatures and quite prone to imperfection. But I do see that sometimes it is imperative for people of God who have been hurt by someone within the church to cocoon away from the community. But as Fran said, eventually, we need our community of Christ siblings. There are many ways to find that. Church is one of them.
Also, I really believe Anne is still on a journey, still seeking God, and if she should find it within her to come back to the Church at some point in time, I hope to be one who will welcome her back with open arms, just as I was welcomed back after times of uncertainty.
I watch my association. Associating with people of faith strenghtens yours, as the proverb says, like iron sharpening iron. Faith is something you have to build on sure foundation of knowledge and not credulity.
Christ tells us to take in knowledge (John 17:3) about God and his son. Why? The more we know about what God has done, how he nurtured his people, forgave their many transgressions, how he made the ultimate sacrifice of giving his son as a savior, the more we appreciate him. We look at his generosity in creation. Look at the variety of our world. Created to satisfy the senses of humankind. The wonder of the stars, the power in our sun, the boundaries of the sea, a working watersycle, ever renewing itself, ditto with oxygen. It tells us something about God.
You can’t create what you don’t know or have as a quality, his love is everywhere, love between mother and child, the tenderness between a mother cat with it’s kittens. The beauty of a sunset or sunrise, the softness of a gentle breeze, the song of the rain.
Think about it. He didn’t HAVE to create all the varieties of foods or all the colors in our world. He could have given us some tastless nutrient to take in daily, but he didn’t. Instead he gave us rich colors, taste, aromas, and textures. That’s generosity and love for his creation.
Learning about WHO God is helps us to have appreciation and faith. We have to see him as the real person that he is. He was willing to send his only begotten son–we all know how it feels to love our child–to a world where majority didn’t care and that son explained his father, and by example showed us his father’s qualities. Isn’t that marvelous? Don’t these things make you appreciate our heavenly father even more?
Faith has to be built on the right foundation to stay strong. Jesus gave an illustration about that in his ministry about the man who built his foundation of faith on sand and the one who built on rock with fire resistant materials. Meaning no matter what storms of tribulation come, the foundation stands–unless yours is on sand.
Perhaps Anne Rice didn’t build on the right foundation or didn’t check her foundation regularly. Who knows?
All we can do is look to our own foundation. So long as we have an appreciation, love, and respect for God and his son and maintain that, we can walk our faith without hypocrisy.
Nicely said, Sia. Thanks for your lovely contribution, and especially for bringing us back to the gifts that God has given us through nature, through the tender love seen within relationships, the lengths at which He’s willing to go to reach us and draw us toward Him. He gives this freely and we are free to choose.
I think you’re right about the foundation. It has to be firm, and have depth. I feel grateful that my foundation draws upon many different areas. Not just my church parish, but other faith friends in the different places I find them. They are all part of this larger community of Christ lovers and seekers.
A Facebook friend shared this, and gave me permission to share it here to include it in the blog discussion:
“Well written article.
I read one of the articles regarding her de-conversion, it did claim that she still held onto her personal beliefs, just so she wouldn’t have to deal with the hypocricy in organized religions. I went through a dark time such as this as well. I felt at that time that there were only two sure ways to reach God and be reached, those being the Word and prayer. What I failed to realize, is that Christ is the groom of the church, and that He doesn’t discard us because we’re imperfect, crass, mean-spirited and full of hypocricy. Rather he came BECAUSE we’re imperfect, crass… you get the picture. It is so easy to judge another’s walk because it doesn’t match your own, especially when it comes to matters that seem black and white to you. It is also harder for us to accept God’s will when it is an issue that may offend someone we love (abortion, homosexuality, gluttony to name a few).
My prayer for Mrs. Rice, is that she seek God as she says she will, and that she seek humility of spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God. I think that then she may see that her measurement of other Christians is no less a judgment than those she sees other Christians tag onto others.
I have really loved her writings in the past….”
I view statements from people leaving the faith and remaining outside the faith because of “all the hypocrisy” with a wry humor.
Even a cursory glance at the Bible should tell us the church is full of all kinds of behavior, admirable and otherwise. Further, all believers are in a process called sanctification — which means none of us have arrived yet at the perfect application of love and grace.
Jesus said it best, “I send you out as sheep among wolves.” And he talked about letting the tares grow up with wheat, to be sorted at the final harvest.
What’s interesting to me is that we often feel alarmed about this. Sometimes, people use it as a reason for rejecting a life of faith. But we shouldn’t. After all, we were warned.
Thought-provoking post.
I think sometimes it’s necessary to seek out the Christians who encourage you if you want to keep your focus in the right place.
That may or may not involve seeking a new ‘church’ (meaning body of believers), depending on how toxic one’s current church is and whether one can make a difference there. But we can’t live without the discipline that community life asks of us by simply going off to relate to God in solitude alone. There is no greater challenge than our fellow human beings, and God asked us to live in peace with them for a reason. It’s part of our sanctification.
I’m going with the parenthetical answer: we are a bunch of hypocrites. It seems a little shocking and ridiculous at the first admission, but it’s nigh unto impossible to believe in the the concept of original sin and a fallen world without running into the idea that *gasp* “I MIGHT BE A HYPOCRITE!” Of course I’m a hypocrite. We may believe and confess X, but actually do -X from time to time, and it goes hand-in-hand with our fallen nature. It’s certainly not a justification for sinning all the more, but rather an indication of just how weak and helpless the old creature is. Unfortunately, I think many people tend to try and apply an ideal to the Church that they aren’t capable of living up to themselves. They seem to forget that the Church is constituted entirely of sinners. It’s like going to the hospital and being surprised that there are sick people all over the place.
Cassandra, I agree, it is curious that we should be alarmed by this.
And Rosslyn, yes, absolutely! Difficult at times, but necessary, that community of ours. Same as our families on certain days, extended and otherwise, right?
And Travis, very aptly put. I love the ending analogy, comparing the hypocrites in church to sick people in a hospital. Exactly! That is a frustrating element of being a Christian; seeing how frequently others think that because we are Christian we somehow believe we are better than others. We don’t. We simply recognize how weak we are, and how in need of our Creator’s strength. So, leaving because our brothers and sisters don’t live up to expectations could well mean the expectations were far too high to begin with. I come back to, again, that we must concern ourselves with ourselves, and not worry so much about how Mr. and Mrs. Pew Sitter are living their lives. It would be great to be surrounded by perfect saints, but…aint gonna happen in this lifetime, on this planet. Like you, I don’t think that gives us an excuse to sin but just a recognition of our place and imperfections.
“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.” – G.K. Chesterton
You make a good point about worrying about what our neighbors do rather than concentrating on Christ, what he has done, and what he continues to do.
Another thing that concerns me, and it’s something that Lobdell touches upon and something that I got an inkling of from Rice is the concept of “buffet Christianity”. People pick and choose the doctrines, dogmas, and general teachings that they will adhere to; but abhor that which runs contrary to their own inklings of right and wrong. I’ve known a number of Catholics (and a lot more Lutherans) who are as willing to discard essential church doctrines (Real Presence) like a worn-out pair of socks. Anne Rice stated that she was against the Church’s “anti feminist, anti-abortion, anti-gay” stances. She is essentially not only judging the stances of fellow Christians, but she is applying her own law to the Law (if that makes any sense). It’s an unfortunate example of the modern and postmodern view of Christianity: the believer stands above the word of God and the Bride of Christ. Consequently, the “real Christianity” is the Christianity that bounces around the individual’s head. If you disagree with something, you discard it without further thought because it disgusts you. It becomes a religion in which the individual trumps all others. It’s the religious equivalent to doing exercises that make one neither sweaty nor sore. Sure, you can go to the gym and feel all happy that you “worked out”, but for the gym fees and time wasted, you aren’t in one bit better shape than you were before you went in.
“Ye shall be as gods, knowing good from evil.”
Travis, another helpful analogy, the gym visual. I will never again have the same experience at the Y. You’ve inspired me to a more vigorous workout!
You are also right about the cafeteria Christian (buffet is probably even closer). It is very difficult to accept all of the tenets of one’s faith. But it is also very freeing, as I’ve found. I’ll try another analogy that feels quite real to me at present: that of the rebellious teenager. The parent more often than not is a tad bit wiser than the child, is there to love and guide the child into adulthood, even though that might sometimes mean imparting some hard-to-stomach truths. The thing is, these truths are rooted in love, but the child is too young, too slight in vision, to see this. So he or she responds with a temper tantrum. Admittedly, I also have a stubborn streak. Unless I understand the rules and why they are there, it is difficult for me to follow them with diligence. So coming more fully into my faith required study, prayer, and looking into those tenets with as much humility as I could muster. There was a wrestling that took place during this time, but eventually, the light bulbs started going off. Once I was able to grasp where the Church is coming from, the Natural Law on which it was, through God’s great wisdom, based, everything began to connect. Once I broke through to the reasons behind the rules, it was much easier to come out of my own little tantrum and accept the gift of faith, even though there are times that I, in my fallen nature, continue to resist it from time to time. Whenever I feel myself resisting, I go back to the Catechism, or some other writing of a Church Father, or to the Bible itself. It is like being fed the food I need to continue onward. I get this, too, through fellow Christians who are in a similar place as I on the journey, or better yet, ahead of me (through my Spiritual Director, for example). Authority, and relenting to it, is very difficult in our culture. Rebellion began in the garden and continues to this day. And while that might be natural for us as teenagers, at some point, if we are to grow into the people God wants us to be, we will acquiesce to His wisdom, not merely our own. Of course, as we live in the world and are formed by it, this can be most challenging, but through God, all things are possible.
I’m in North Carolina right now. Thanks for stopping by the Moonboat!
The parent/child example is usually pretty apt. Kids tend to see the things that they aren’t supposed to do, even though there may be relatively few of them. Parents tend to see all of the things the kids are free to do with no problem whatsoever.
The effects of culture on individual believers is another huge matter. The world is full of “isms”, and they wind up being placed on the same level as essentials of the Christian faith. Of course, culture and the Church have generally been at odds to varying degrees for the past 2,000 years. I can’t think of anything that has been quite as nefarious as modern and postmodern thought, though. Modernism said “out with the old, in with the new”. Postmodernism says “out with that new, in with MY new”. In either case, both are completely at odds with essential Christian concepts such as universal truth and a universal Church.
All very interesting – article and comments.
I don’t believe there is one Catholic out there that hasn’t struggled with one or more tenets of our faith. Yes, I have on occasion gone to the Catechism, the Bible, the Church Fathers…but ultimately, I wonder if Anne Rice asked the Lord Himself what He thinks about the doctrines with which she disagreed.
The beauty of Catholicism is that we don’t blindly follow a set a rules, we live in relationship with a father who sets loving rules for us to follow to be joyful and content. When we disagree with a doctrine, we CAN ask why….how…what for…and the Lord always answers. Sometimes we don’t want to hear His answer, but it eventually makes sense and as you said Roxane, the lightbulbs start going off. When we go to the Lord with humility and an honest desire to find truth – the Lord speaks directly and intimately with us. THAT is amazing!