July 31, 2010 | Celeb Watch

Rice rejects Christianity over homosexuality

Anne Rice is no longer a Christian.

The author who became popular for her vampire novels converted from atheism to Catholicism over a decade ago. However, she announced this week that she was quitting Christianity - yes, not just the Catholic part - because of the faith's "hostile" attitudes to gay rights, women and contraception.

She said that she would remain "committed to Christ," but not in the religious sense.

The final straw seems to have been a story she read about a US Republican-linked punk rock Christian ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, that claimed Muslim countries where gay people were executed were more "moral" than the US.

Rice said: "No wonder people despise us, Christians, and think we are an ignorant and violent lot. I don't blame them. This kind of thing makes me weep. Maybe commitment to Christ means not 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.

"I quit being a Christian. I'm out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

Anne's reaction must be a shock to the millions of progressive Christians who  support women's rights and gay marriage. Why doesn't she just seek them out rather than painting them all with such a broad stroke? These vampire novelists are such drama queens.

Anne Rice 'quits being a Christian' [The Guardian]