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Novelist Anne Rice 'quits Christianity' |
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By Colleen Carroll Campbell
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Thursday, 12 August 2010 |
 The following was first published in the Aug. 5 edition of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. It is reprinted here with permission.
Novelist Anne Rice made waves last week when she publicly “quit Christianity” via Facebook. An on-again, off-again Catholic who made her fortune writing erotic fiction about vampires and never much cared for her church’s moral teachings, Rice said she remains “committed to Christ” but no longer able to abide the “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group” known as his followers.
The medium for Rice’s declaration is new, but her message is not. It is
as old as Christianity itself — as old, indeed, as organized religion.
And anyone who has ever shared a pew and a profession of faith with
people who drive him crazy can understand the impulse behind it.
Going it alone
Apostasy gets a bad rap in church circles, but it would not be such a
perennial temptation if it were not so beguiling. There is something
simple and satisfying about the prospect of ditching a flawed faith
community and going it alone in the spiritual life.
A freelance spirituality seems to offer all the perks of intimacy with
God without the hassles — the confining moral rules, the snooze-fest
sermons, the power struggles over everything from doctrine and liturgy
to the planning of the church picnic. Surely it would be easier to be a
saint if you did not have to spend your time squabbling with sinners.
The same goes for other forms of community — neighborhoods, marriages,
families, charities, even political parties. To join a community of
human beings is to court disillusionment, to risk seeing your dreams of
perfect people and perfect peace shattered by the reality that Rice
described: people who are “quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and
deservedly infamous.” She directed that rebuke at Christians, but it
could double as a description of the entire human race.
In her rebirth as a spiritual freelancer, Rice has plenty of company.
Americans who identified themselves as “none” on the 2008 American
Religious Identification Survey now constitute the nation’s fastest
growing religious group, accounting for 15 percent of Americans in 2008,
up from 8 percent in 1990. The growth in their ranks stems from the
same radical individualism that sociologist Robert Bellah highlighted in
his 1985 bestseller, “Habits of the Heart,” and political scientist
Robert Putnam chronicled with concern in his 2000 study, “Bowling
Alone.”
What do you think?
Is there danger in “going it alone” spiritually? How has being a member of a church community enriched your spirituality?
There are two ways to send us your responses for possible publication in print and online:
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» By postal mail to Editor, The Catholic Spirit, 244 Dayton Ave., St. Paul, MN 55102.
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False community
That Rice used the Internet to sever her religious ties highlights
another twist in our changing cultural landscape: the role that
technology plays in exacerbating our tendency to sequester ourselves
from people whose differing views irritate or challenge us.
The Internet allows like-minded believers from around the world to find
each other, but it also tempts them to substitute virtual community for
the real thing. Much-touted online opportunities for “virtual
confession” and “virtual communion” do not resemble the real thing any
more than an online romance resembles a real marriage. But such gimmicks
allow believers to connect intermittently and on their own terms, with a
quick exit always just a click away.
Real community is trickier. You cannot present only the side of yourself
that you want others to see. You cannot log off as soon as your online
chat partner begins to irritate you. You are stuck there — in your pew,
your neighborhood, your family or your marriage — and forced to work
through your difficulties. You are forced to grow, to persevere past
your grudges and to recognize that the very faults and ill motives you
resent in others often lurk hidden in your own heart, too.
For people knit together in a community of faith, Rice’s unflattering
description of her fellow believers rings true. But so does the biblical
proverb that rugged individualists like Rice often forget: “As iron
sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.”
In faith, as in the rest of life, some of the hardest lessons and
greatest rewards come from struggling alongside other broken human
beings, whose rough edges help you recognize and soften your own.
Colleen Carroll Campbell is a St. Louis-based author, former
presidential speechwriter and television and radio host of “Faith &
Culture” on EWTN. Her website is www.colleen-campbell.com.
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