Ann Rice cannot leave Christianity

Ann Rice is famous for her vampire series of books, her bi-sexual erotica, and her very public conversion to Catholicism ten years ago. Her announcement this week that she is quitting Christianity is, of course, just as public. She said:

"Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out," she wrote. "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 10 years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.... 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."

Rice wrote that she cannot get behind a religion that is “anti-gay”. The culture of our times, here in the last days before the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, is such that man’s personal choices and ideas always trump God’s. His standards for morality and purity are that His men and women refrain from sexual indulgence until marriage, that they stay married, that they remain faithful until they die. This notion is mocked and scorned today. The literati firmly claim that it is hopelessly outdated. Even Federal Judge Walker said that the notion of opposite-sex genders as the only qualifiers for marriage is an “artifact from a past time” when he overturned the California constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman.

Equally, the notion that God renders consequences on those who choose to set aside His standards is anathema to today’s culture. No one wants to be held accountable and no one wants to think that anything they do has any consequences whatsoever. Ann Rice’s renunciation of the religion, the bible, yet claims of remaining faithful to Jesus are just another example of the tendency for fallen humans to pick and choose ideals with which they can remain fleshly and indulge in their favorite pastimes.

It is particularly poignant that she states that she remains "committed" to Christ but quits adhering to His standards, and in His name, no less. One cannot remain committed to someone or something after you selectively decline so many precepts the entirety looks like a foundation-less house. It is not possible to remain "committed to Christ" and repudiate His Word and His standards for purity, marriage, life, and culture. It is simply not possible.

Further, her statement reveals just how little she understood genuine conversion. Upon renunciation of your sins, seeking forgiveness of Jesus for them, and last, submitting to His will for your life, The Holy Spirit then enters and seals you. Thinking that even for a minute that man can tell the Spirit to come or go is ridiculous. Thinking for even a minute that man has the power to break a seal that God Himself set is even more ridiculous. And Jesus promised that the gates of Hades will not prevail against His church. Ann Rice never was a Christian. You can't leave something you never went to. And sadly, Ann Rice believes she is a friend of God, has the power to break His seal, and can select at will the precepts to which she will adhere. This attitude is prevalent today, held not just by author Rice, but many, even most, Christians and non-believers.

Of course there is no such thing as an ex-Christian. But it speaks to how far we have fallen and how blinded we have become to even say such a thing with a straight face. The only thing left in Ann Rice's spiritual landscape is the name of her Savior; the very God who hung on the cross so that she would be allowed to claim Him as savior- or reject Him. Unfortunately, Rice, and all of who believes as she does, will discover the devastating choice she made when Judgment Day rolls around. She can refuse to be anti-gay, anti birth control, anti-feminist all she wants. And she, and all who refuse the Way of Jesus will hear this: "Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’

Christian, if you have the Spirit in you, your walk should be closer each today to Him. If you wonder whether you are saved (or are considering "leaving Christianity"), then pray, pray hard and do a heart-check. Appeal to Him to forgive your sins and then repent, which means turn away from temptations and lifestyles that draw you back into lawlessness. It's now, or then. And for eternity's sake, turn from lawlessness NOW.

Comments

  1. You do not think one can truly renounce Christ? It just seems like people do that all the time now days.

    Hope you are doing well. Have been away from blogging for a while...but I am back. Madder than ever...lol.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Tammy,

    Nice to see you again!

    I believe the bible is pretty clear that if someone goes away from Christ they never were a believer to begin with...for the reasons stated in the essay. Especially because of the seal of His Holy Spirit He gives us as a guarantee of our inheritance. Man can do nothing to break His seal, nor set aside His guarantees.

    I look at the proportions of numbers of saved versus unsaved in all the verses and parables: it is always "many-few", "narrow-straight" Noah's 8 vs. world, Lot's 4 vs. world, BookS opened and Book opened. MANY MANY who say they are Christ's...aren't. Not as many will go in the rapture as people think. Enough to make a noticeable difference but not so many that the world is veritably emptied. :(

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elizabeth - you didn't read it correctly. She says she didn't leave Christ - she left the prejudice practices of men today who believe they can restrict and twist Christ's beliefs to disallow the inclusion of gays and women, etc. Christianity has had a female pope and numerous female bishops and high spiratural advisors - I don't think God doesn't want women involved in high places with the church - that is just a misconception of some narrow minded men.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Of course I read it correctly. She said she refuses to believe that being gay isn't OK, and that feminism is legitimate etc. You cannot believe what you want that is not in the bible and still say you follow Christ. Christ preached that homosexuality is a sin and that women have a place in the family. If Rice rejects those, she rejects Christ. If you reject Christ, you are not a Christian.

    If you believe that "twisting Christs words" and "Disallowing homosexuals and feminists in" then you are not reading the bible correctly. First in the sense that Jesus came to save the world, and He came because He loves the world, and that means everybody, gays and feminists included. He is the most inclusive He can be. Secondly, because the bible is clear on its stance of moral precepts. If you do not like those moral precepts, that's your choice. But that means you reject Him also and He will continue to honor your choice of rejection throughout eternity.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment