Posted on 08/17/2010 2:20:02 PM PDT by SnakeDoctor
Anne Rice is in a season that many, if not all, Christians experience: the great joy of coming to personally embrace the love, forgiveness, and new life that Jesus offers is then followed by the troubles and trials of learning the teachings of the Bible and living with fellow Christians. Truthfully, both are difficult.
Every Christian struggles, to varying degrees, with different parts of the Bible because they call us to repent of beliefs we formerly held and ways in which we formerly behaved. Anne Rice struggles with the Bible's opposition to homosexuality and its teachings on gender roles. She also struggles with the teachings of the Catholic Church on birth control and politics, and many Protestants would likely agree with her in principle.
Additionally, every Christian has seasons in which he or she struggles to lovingly live in community with fellow Christians as the church. This is because some Christians are so self-righteous, mean spirited, and just plain annoying that even their pastors are occasionally tempted to preach in one of those "Jesus, Please Save Me from Your Followers" T-shirts.
The problem for Anne Rice is that, unlike other Christians who get to work out their faith struggles in private, she is a public figure who decided to write, "In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian" on her Facebook page, which only invites the kind of vicious online responses that pushed her to make the statement in the first place. To her credit, though, she was clear that she still loves Jesus Christ as her God and wants an ongoing relationship with him.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.washingtonpost.com ...
SnakeDoc
Aw shucks! She’s just trying to get out in front of all the “True Blood” fans.
She’s protecting her brand, doncha’ know. Now that everybody and their uncle is churning out vampire chic she has to stay in the headlines.
I wonder about the wisdom of even responding to these people. It only encourages them; i.e. “I don’t care what you say about me only that you are saying something.”-Hollywood Folk Saying
A good pastor, especially considering where his church is, but, oddly, a bit naive.
Sorry she couldn’t cut the mustard on the self-control thing. More prayer might have helped. I know, the Devil’s been chasin’ me for years.
Well Anne, good luck...
Driscol is “the cussing Pastor”, correct?
Formerly. Pretty sure he backed off of that stuff. I didn’t run across him until after that.
SnakeDoc
Humility seems rare gift among we Christians. Fewer and fewer have the ability to be both right, and tolerable. When right becomes self-righteous, we’re probably doing more harm than good.
SnakeDoc
I'm not because I didn't invent the term, and I don't expect to know whether I really was one until I meet the Leader of the group some day and He tells me if I was one or not.
We all fall into that trap. Particularly those of us on FR, where we’ve become accustomed to being right, and that is usually all that matters. So, Christians go from religion thread to religion thread beating up on each other over minor irrelevant doctrinal disagreements.
I wish my initial reaction to Rice had been as reasoned as Driscoll’s.
SnakeDoc
Bingo. I freely admit to being cynical. I agree that this overwrought, public stunt is a cry of “Look at me! Look at me! Write about ME! I need the press!”
I am not sure why Driscoll tries to pin her problem on other Christians who are, “vicious, cruel, mean, unloving, and difficult to others”. Sounds to me like she doesn’t have the humility to deal with ideas outside of her leftist political agenda. If she doesn’t agree with Roman Catholic or conservative protestant teaching there are plenty of other churches that will not only accommodate, but celebrate her views.
When are humans not the problem? That Pastor needed a little counseling.
“vicious, cruel, mean, unloving, and difficult to others”. She probable really means “Conservative”.
He pins her problem on both her inability to conform to doctrines relating to homosexuality, and to her inability to get along with other Christians.
As for the critique of Christians, it seems to me that he is taking this opportunity to teach Christians, as the opportunity to teach Anne Rice is likely lost for the moment.
SnakeDoc
The sin no more part is the hardest part.
Actually the “vicious, cruel, mean, unloving, and difficult to others” was a Stuart Driscoll quote. Her complaint seem to be mainly that some Christians opposed sin and took the Bible seriously.
Thanx Doc I needed that.
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