Anne Rice’s recent announcement that she was “quitting Christianity” is yet another voice being added to the chorus of modern Christians who claim to have forsaken Christianity. Although there was nothing particularly novel or unique about Rice’s statement, hers has received an inordinate amount of press attention. Apparently now that every drop of crude has been wrung out of the Gulf oil spill, the American media is returning to its former fascinations and obsessions—and denigrating the church and Christianity is one of its perennial favorites. If you doubt this, I can assure you that I am speaking from personal experience. One of my weekday morning rituals is to locate positive and encouraging articles about Christianity and the church on the internet. It’s nearly as challenging as hunting for elk in Florida—maybe even more so.
One recent article—by William Lobdell in the Los Angeles Times—made the case that Anne Rice’s exodus is only the “tip of the iceberg.” Lobdell writes: “Rice is merely one of millions of Americans who have opted out of organized religion in recent years, making the unaffiliated category of faith the fastest-growing ‘religion’ in America, according to a 2008 study by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.” Of course, Lobdell isn’t reporting anything new either. George Barna has been warning of this trend for more than ten years. In fact, just before his death earlier this year, Michael Spencer (aka The Internet Monk) completed a book entitled Mere Churchianity in which he made this observation:
What evangelicals in North America call Christianity is, ironically, largely disconnected from Jesus as he appears in the four Gospels. I have argued for the past decade that American Christianity has evolved into a movement that Jesus would not recognize if he were to show up next Sunday. And it’s not just the rituals and assumptions and values that are off-base. The spirituality itself that comes out of contemporary Christianity is largely unrelated to Jesus. You don’t have to believe me; all you need do is look at the statistics on who attends church, who used to attend, and who swears they will never attend again. Thousands, and possibly millions, of people are walking away from any association with the religion known as traditional Christianity.[1]
In other words, what is true of “organized religion” in general—Anne Rice was a Catholic—is also true of evangelicalism in particular. Spencer limits his focus to evangelicals, but Lobdell insists that this trend can be seen throughout all of Christendom. Apparently Christians of every stripe are becoming disillusioned with the model they have been given. But does this really mean that the model itself is deficient? Is Christianity as we have come to understand it, really a deviation from the biblical definition, such that Jesus Himself would fail to recognize it? Could it be that we have set our expectations too high? In truth, I believe the answer is much simpler and has more to do with who we are and what we believe as Americans, than it does with any perceived deficiency in the church or with organized Christianity.
In his book, The Prayer of the Lord, R.C. Sproul relates the following story:
When my friend John Guest, who was a noted evangelist in England, first came to the United States in the late 1960s, his first exposure to American culture was in the city of Philadelphia. During his first couple of days there, his hosts escorted him around the city to attractions such as Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, and they told him stories of the American Revolution to introduce him to the history of this new world he was embracing as his home. John was enjoying all of this until they went to Germantown, just outside Philadelphia, and visited an antiques store that specialized in Americana. Among the items in this shop were placards and signs that displayed some of the battle cries and slogans of the Revolutionary era, such as, “No Taxation without Representation” and “Don’t Tread on Me.” But the placard that drew his keenest attention was one that announced with bold letters, “We Serve No Sovereign Here.” John told me later: “That sign stopped me in my tracks. I had left my native land and come across the Atlantic Ocean in response to a call, a vocation to be a minister of the gospel, to proclaim the kingdom of God. But on seeing this sign, I was filled with fear and consternation. I thought, ‘How can I possibly preach the kingdom of God to people who have a profound aversion to sovereignty?’”[2]
John Guest’s question is no less important today than it was 40 years ago. In a dramatic twist of irony, the modern Christian accepts the sovereignty of the state without question, all the while being skeptical and critical of any sort of authority claimed by the church. While the majority of early American colonists sought a limited government that was accountable both to God and men, most modern Americans seek a government that can grant their every wish and a God who is limited and accountable only to them. Note the following reasons why Anne Rice decided to quit Christianity: “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.” Each one of these “reasons” is not only a hot-button political topic, but a convenient straw man that she can set up to make it look like she has actually thought through what she is refusing. The fact of the matter is that she realized that she could only serve one sovereign. It’s sad that she has chosen a liberal political agenda over the Bride of Christ, but to her credit, at least she made her choice. Too many other Americans are naively trying to swim the channel between the two.
This is certainly not to say that conservative politics and Christianity go hand-in-hand though. It’s also not to say that everyone that has made the decision to quit Christianity has done so for political reasons. The fact of the matter is that people leave for all sorts of reasons. There are even some—like the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22)—who go away grieving because they are unwilling to forsake all for Christ. But one thing is certain; those who are forsaking being Christians or being members of Christ’s Church are doing so because they believe that something else holds greater authority. And without fail, that “something else” is where that individual’s true religious convictions reside.
Notice how many “I”s are included in Anne Rice’s resignation notice. In essence, she is claiming that her personal creed is superior (and more “Christlike”) to the creed of organized Christianity. And in this belief she is far from being alone (just read the comments that follow her announcement). One of the most crippling heresies among modern Christians is that Christianity is a “personal” faith. Now, there is a sense where this is true, but it has been so inflated by evangelistic programs and techniques, that it has become the driving force of modern religion. Nearly every religious bestseller in the last twenty years has been written with the individual in mind. For every book that can be purchased at any popular Christian bookstore chain that discusses how the Gospel of Christ can transform a community, I can show you 50 that discuss how the Gospel of Christ can transform you: transform your marriage, transform your finances, transform your Bible study, even how to transform your sex life. Ever since Norman Vincent Peale, mainstream Christianity has been repackaging the same message and Christians have been buying into it. The message is that Christianity is primarily a private faith, a secret belief that has nearly limitless power to prepare you for any personal circumstance that life throws your way, yet one that is nearly powerless to change your neighborhood, community, town, or city. You see, the powers that be have informed us—and modern Christianity has conceded—that Jesus can only transform individuals; it takes a civil government to make any lasting societal change.
This change in sovereignty—replacing the True Sovereign with the state—has had drastic effects on how people view the church. Rather than viewing the state in light of the church, we have learned to view the church in light of the state. No longer do we question governmental policies based on what the Bible teaches, instead, like Anne Rice, we have learned to question the church’s policies in light of what the state teaches. We have taken Jesus’ statement to Pilate in John 19:11 and turned it upside down. Rather than Pilate being granted his power from above, we now believe that the state rules over the church. In reality, both church and state get their power from above; there would be no power anywhere on earth, if it wasn’t given from above.
This is what makes statements like Anne Rice’s so seditious. We have become comfortable enough with separating Jesus from His Church to the extent that we can no longer recognize that His Kingdom is over all. We are more than happy to have the nice loving Jesus, the one that meets all of our expectations of social equality, yet we get a bit squeamish over the commanding and law-abiding Jesus, the one who demands that if we love Him we will keep His commandments (John 14:15). This is where the reality of John Guest’s question about proclaiming a Sovereign to a people who “serve no sovereign” resides. It has become vogue once again to wave signs and banners like those found in the Germantown antiques store. But have we learned the lesson? What are we really proclaiming when we raise our “Don’t Tread on Me” flags at the local TEA party rally? We must remember always that we DO serve a Sovereign here, and His name is Christ, and He is the King of kings.
Endnotes:
Eric earned his Bachelor's Degree in Communications from Penn State University and served in the US Navy as an Aviation Electronics Technician. A Northerner by birth, Eric has finally come to terms with the virtues of sweet tea, yet still laments the tragic lack of understanding of what real pretzels are outside of central Pennsylvania. 
New era, new people. Us, young people have to keep researching and listen to a bunch of opinions before we can choose a point of view, our own belief.
As we have lives, some of us cannot be just thinking about faith, God, the church… "I just have thoughts about the job that allows me to feed my family", "My son is gay and I love him", things like that… And the church must be modified to please everyone, to reach them wothout being hostile. (If they want followers).
I agree with Anne Rice – todays Christian religions are more about greed than they are about Christs teachings.
As christianity deminishes, so does our society. Christianity has been declining since the sixties.. That has been evident in the U. S. for years. As our values, honesty, integerity, morals, respect for parents, Law and Order, and others has diminished, permissive tolorate attitudes are on the rise. Our entire government, Republicans and Democrats have ruined the Consitution and Bill of Rights. There is no longer "Rule by the Majority and Protect the Minority". Judges are making up laws as they go and not enforcing the laws on the books. The way Obama and his administration have preformed we are headed to anarchy, instead of Democarcy, which may be by design from the Obama administration to destroy America's infrastructure and promote the Muslim philosophy, socialism, & progressive communism.
I find the modern church of today to be worldly. These larger evangelical churches are pretty much clones of each other. The music all sounds the same (the modern contemporary-style) and they pretty much all preach the same thing. They tend to put God in a box, they preach only a small part of God's word instead of preaching the WHOLE counsel of God as the scriptures command, thereby reducing the Lord to a puny, ineffective God. Many of these places have bookstores and coffee shops, which makes me wonder, what is this, a church or a business? I like to call it Jesus Incorporated. It is only because of the more in-depth knowledge I have acquired by reading the works of people like Gary DeMar, David Barton, and D. James Kennedy that I am still a believer. The modern church is pathetic, no wonder so many people turn their backs on it! I feel bad for Ann Rice, I believe she left the faith because no one in the church taught her a more thorough understanding of God's word. The only way you can properly understand Christianity is if you are equipped with a complete Biblical worldview.
I just think that it is ironic that the picture behind this slogan is a serpent rising up ready to strike when the serpent in Genesis is the one who decieved those of God's image. The serpent was the image of the deciever, and after the image of God was cast out God proclaims that the serpent would bruise the womans heel and she his head. Now if the man is symbolic of Christ and the woman symbolic of the Church (His Bride), then it would seem to me that this american symbol makes sense in our present day. Where we as the church are being decieved by the serpent (Americanism) and if this is true then I have hope that one day the CHURCH will bruise his head. In light of this revelation (that I am just now, at the moment of typing this, graciously recieving) we can clearly see the war between chuch and state going all the way back to Genesis. Lord you are truly AMAZING!
Why don't you post the newest ones first?
when my marriage fell apart, who turned their collective backs on me? My Church.
When I told the pastor that my husband was addicted to porno on line.
Next – he was in the programs being put on in fron of the congregation.
Did anyone from MY CHURCH call me to see how I was? NO.
Hipocrites.
I am not angry, just tired of the way the churches today, make people feel, who need their help.
If you appear to be perfect, you are good with them…..otherwise…..get away from us.
One woman in a group that I was part of during this time, told me that she and her husband could not have anything to do with me any more………
I know that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. I know that he came to earth as a man, died on the cross and rose again. He lives today and my Redeemer.
I do not like organized religion; I do not like most Christians, because alot of them think that they are above everyone else.
I do not have to attend a church to be a follwer of Christ. I don't go to church.
My relationship with Jesus is totally personal. As Billy Graham has always said "Just as I am" – that is how Jesus accepts me.
Please, do not deny Jesus, that will get you darkness in the end.
Your quote, " Ican show you 50 that discuss how the Gospel of Christ can transform you: transform your marriage, transform your finances, transform your Bible study, even how to transform your sex life," is indicative of the root problem within the portion of the body of Christ here in America. It's what I refer to as the "I, Me, Mine," disease. It's not until we, as Christians return to the basic form, function and practice of New Testament life, that we will see the Gospel of Jesus Christ have a universal appeal with signs, power and wonders following.
Recommended reading; E.H. BROADBENT'S THE PILGRIM CHURCH. THE PATTERN, BY COL. DOUGLAS F. CARTY, can be downloaded free from the website .www.douglasfcarty.com.
I quit Christianity ( after 28 years) after a friend told me about " way to zion " web page. I found actual TRUTH in the HEBREW BIBLE. Who knows YAHWEH and YESHUA better than the HEBREWS? I bought the COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE (expounded in english) and it is like drinking from a fire hose. WE are all loved by GOD, it is the BEHAVIOR HE dislikes. Now if you don't like what I am saying "take it up with GOD", it is how HE feels about…abortion,same sex marriage,homosexuality,etc Read your bible, it is even in YOUR bible. There is some truths in kjb,niv, etc. But if you want to know the TRUTH, GET YOURSELF a COMPLETE JEWISH BIBLE start reading and be informed about what it is to read TRUTH.
1 John 2:18-19, "Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time. They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us."
2 Peter 2:18-21, "For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them."
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I agree with some of what Eric wrote. I think is Bible professing Christian's would pick up their Bible's and read and head what God's word says and being a Christain there would be a drastic change in the direction of peoples lives and the direction the country is going. What we see today is not Biblical Christianity. Paul was a great example and taught about unity, One God, One Lord, One faith and one church. Christ is head and corner stone of the Church. People don't want to know the truth, they don't know what truth is (God's truth). They don't want to be accountable or responsible for their actions. If Christ came for the church to day, he would not be very happy it would be a reproach to him. The divisions and hyprocrosy are unexcuseable. Look at how the church started out in the Book of Acts. The Disciples walked and witness Jesus's ministry, death, burial and resurrection. They wrote what the spirit directed them to write. No rocket sicience. Take it by faith and what it says. We cant go wrong.
Roman Catholicism is the "One True Church" that Jesus brought into existance, DavidR. I usually don't say something like this as not to offend anyone, but why should I worry about that when it is the truth? I'm not saying that only Catholics are Christians; what I'm saying is that you can only find the fullness of the faith in the Catholic Church. But why listen to me, DavidR has all the answers!
Given that everything she has written professionally under her various pen names, has included pornography dressed up as erotica, necrophilia, homosexuality (Tale of the Body Thief), pedophilia, incest, vampirism, and I'm not ever sure how to categorize her 'Jesus' novels, all flies in the face of the faulty religion she is leaving behind. Roman Catholicism might just be better off without Ann Rice's voice added to the din.
Opinion: What organized Churches have become is a fortress of Left Wing propaganda. They don't preach for Christ's sake, they preach for there own sake. They look forward to one large church rather than local churches reaching out to save those in their community for Christ. Almost all large denonminations are members of the National Council of Churches of Christ which is a member of the World Council of Churches which historically have been a front for communist activity. No wonder eveybody has left the churches! Who needs a large world church? The social gospel and collective salvation is from Lucifer the fallen angel. Seek Christ! He will answer your prayers.
A one world church is a fulfillmentg of Prophecy it will preach the god of unity through diversity, and leave the Jesus of the Bible out. Paul told Timothy in the last days people would turn to fables over the truth, and don't we see it happening today? Jesus spoke more about hades, hell, & punnishment then about the Kingdom fo heaven so he thought it important to confront the hipocracy of the day , we must do the same Anne Rice sadly doesn't understand the real living Jesus Christ and thus has mixed up her own revolusion of Doctrine with the hipocracy of ignorance of what Jesus ac tually taught during the three an d one half years that changed the world. No other spiritual leader did more in that time allotment remembr 20 yrs for Muhamad, 40 some years for Buddha, and two thousand years for the Unpanashad of Hinduism. this tells me more than all the excuses. Christ is the way the Truth andd the Life all others may play with the truth around the edges but Christ Is Truth.
" The social gospel and collective salvation is from Lucifer the fallen angel." Could you explain that a little bit please. I have heard that kind of comment before and I am not sure I understand. Are we not our brother's keeper? Should we love our neighbor has we love ourselves?
I understand that we cannot save everyone and I think that collective salvation does sound like world wide mind control and not what Our Lord had in mind. But isn't helping and and loving our brothers and sisters a social Gospel? That is where I get stuck. ( Social ) what do people mean by social? Thank you!
As a Christian I revel in the knowledge of salvation that only Christ brings. As a pastor, I try hard to encourage a closer relationship with Christ. Jesus tells Peter, "Feed my sheep!" He doesn't say "judge my sheep". That is reserved for one only. It's so easy to criticize the church. After all, it is filled with wounded sinners who are looking for healing and salvation. Paul labels himself as the chief-of-sinners. Where would our world be without the Christian church working, sacrificing, and teaching? We would be doomed. So, all you 'judges' out there who are withholding your gifts are to be pitied, not praised.
Believing in a sovereign God makes life so much more enjoyable and optimistic.
how so themeister
don't know why you didn't put this up before .all i asked jerry was how so .he made a statement & i asked why he felt the way he did. is that against some sort of rule here? i am not an atheist by the way. but his statement says nothing about why he feels the way he does .does he mean that when good fortune smiles on him he attributes it to the lord ? the post being 7 hrs old the subj is pro bably dead. but i thought i'd take a shot & ask. why wasn't the comment put up. its innocuous enough
Why do people assume that it is only when good fortune smiles that one praises the God? This is the point of appreciating God's sovereignty. I believe it was Job who said "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him." It is during those low moments–those moments of tragedy and heart break that God's sovereignty stand out. We are not merely victims of fickle fate or chance, but in the hands of a Sovereign God–an all-knowing, loving Sovereign God. This is one of the clearest and all-encompassing teachings of Scriptures. Hence Jerry can say what he said.
“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." So in the name of Christ she is turning her back on people (the Church/church) who she believes do not correctly understand Him? Another addition to the list of disreputable deeds done in the name of Christ.
And for the record: I am glad Anne did not stay in our church, although, I would rather she repent and come back. But as long as she feels the way she feels she should stay out. Her refusal to submit really means she has excommunicated herself.
I think Eric hit the nail squarely on the head. Catholics and other Christians believe that submission to the Church is submission to Christ. We just have different ideas of what the Church is.
I knew that Anne Rice had a conversion (or re-version) experience after a brush with death in 1998 but I've noticed that sometimes it seems people have a problem "going all the way." Instead of trusting the Church in everything they reserve a few things to themselves; they make the decision that they know better. I see some converts who will say things like, "I don't believe all that stuff (the Church teaches) about Mary." Now, I'm writing this as a Catholic convert but I'm sure other churches have the same problems. Your church will have teachings against things like artificial birth control, homosexuality, abortion, supporting pro-abortion candidates and still some people will not listen; they remain in the church yet their hearts are in the world.