Count Chocula kicks some serious ass, sirThe headlines are breathlessly precious and full of portent: Anne Rice has left Christianity:
Legendary author Anne Rice has announced that she’s quitting Christianity.
The “Interview with a Vampire” author, who wrote a book about her spirituality titled "Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession" in 2008, said Wednesday that she refuses to be “anti-gay,” “anti-feminist," “anti-science” and “anti-Democrat.”
Rice wrote, “For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... 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.”
Rice then added another post explaining her decision on Thursday:
“My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me," Rice wrote. "But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”
Marketing ploy or the sad realization of a person that God has thwarted their ambitions? Well, God and I have always gotten along swell. I think she's doing a great job.
There's a little bait and switch here, however. She's turning her back on the faith but she still puts Jesus up on a pedestal. That's bad news for her legion of vampire fans (Count Chocula is the only vampire that ever made sense to me). Did it occur to her that there could be a Christian faith without Jesus? Or that there could be a Jesus and no Christianity but a sort of "feel-good" religion that eschewed war? Not the Quakers. No, that would make too much sense for someone who is against violence to simply become a Quaker. They don't sell too many books, I guess.
If the marketing people tell her she should hook up with Scientology or the Wiccans, let's hope this all gets sorted out before the paperback edition comes out.
What if Jesus was a vampire? One who liked to wear ascots and drive a Jaguar?
Yeah.
Got you there.
Peace out, homeys.