Anne Rice was raised a Catholic and left the religion to do her own thing for many years. Much to the delight of Christians who like to name drop (and especially those who hate vampires), she reverted to Catholicism in 1998, dedicating her writing and life to Jesus.
“I Quit”
But twelve years later, the tide has turned once again. Rice recently spread this news via her facebook page:
Today I quit being a Christian. I’m out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being “Christian” or to being part of Christianity. 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.
As I said below, 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 Rice, author 2010
You can imagine all the atheists eating this for lunch, can’t you? Can’t you smell the delight over someone famous leaving Christianity? Everyone likes having a public figure on their team. Free endorsements!
However…
Not Good Enough
Good for Rice that she finally recognized the mess of this religion. I understand not wanting to identify with much of Christianity—especially the fundamentalist branches that make a business out of being anti-everyone–but that’s not good enough!
Rice is clearly not abandoning her mythology and superstitious delusions. She’s leaving conservative, fundamentalist Christianity behind and making a political stand out of it. But what about liberal Christianity that is still based on the same myths, but is dressed up in hipster clothing and a laissez faire attitude? When Rice realizes the whole shit n’ caboodle is based on a false premise, then perhaps she might leave for good. Perhaps.
What do you think?
(hat tip goodreasonnews)
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Such a great clip. Freedom of religion is for everyone, not just Christians. You’d think this would be a “Duh!” statement, but alas…
Count on the best satirical source for news, The Onion, to hit on the truth behind our culture more than any of the “serious” news organizations. Case-in-point: Nation’s Experts Give Up, an amusing lament by scientists and experts on how Americans have ignored their advice for years. They give up!
“Since you don’t seem to care about things you don’t understand, screw you. We quit” [said Dr. Simon Peavy, vice-president of the National Association of Experts].
“My final piece of expert advice,” Peavy added, “is that all of you people should just go fuck yourselves.”
According to Peavy, despite the vast amounts of scientifically proven and historically sound advice provided by the nation’s experts, the National Association of Experts could cite no instances of advice being followed in the manner they had intended.
According to FDA spokesperson Jonathan Landau, the exiting advisors will be missed, but the nation must move forward. “We, of course, are deeply saddened to lose America’s most knowledgeable individuals in every field,” Landau said. “But at the same time, it’s important to recognize that their advice, however well-informed or well-intentioned, was almost always impractical.”
Landau said he plans to fill his own vacant advisory positions with “positive-minded, people-friendly sexperts, advice columnists and astrologers” as soon as funding can be arranged.
I spotted an exchange about this article on facebook:
Can you get any better than that fabulous Colbert quote immediately followed by a stellar example of Christian willful ignorance? Lisa admits that she’ll sit at the bottom of the intellectual heap and ignore anyone smarter than her so long as it fits what she thinks about her imaginary skygod friend, the “Man at the Top”. Being proud of ignoring wisdom, learning, science, and intelligence is ridiculous and yet oh-so-common within Fundamentalist circles.
Why is woo dangerous? I could pontificate for pages, but instead let’s look at a more-than-worthy example of some serious woo woo that is putting a child’s life on the line:
… A 14 year old girl, Tamar, was recently diagnosed with liver cancer which required immediate and aggressive chemotherapy. But her parents have shunned conventional treatment in favour of “mud” therapy. A team of oncologists at Princes Margaret Childrens’ Hospital advised that a seven week course of chemotherapy would give Tamar a 50-60% chance of survival. Despite the treating hospital pleading with the parents to consent to chemotherapy, eventually seeking the involvement of the WA legal system, the parents fled Australia to El Salvador.
Their preferred treatment is tea made from herbs, and red clay gathered from around the hills near their house in El Salvador. Tamar’s mother says that “Clay is basically the right medicine for any kind of illness, (it can cure) anything”. She went on to say, “..it dries up anything that is causing the illness in your system”.
(source)