For those who care, and I understand if you don't..

Anne Rice recently announced she is leaving Christianity. This was the announcement she made on her Facebook page dated 7/28/2010:

"For those who care, and I understand if you don't: 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."

Only a few minutes later, Ms. Rice elaborated,

"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."

After her initial announcement, the internet went crazy with responses in the form of articles and blog posts. One of my writer friends, Karen Darlington Aldridge, shared Lori Stanley Roeleveld's blog, "Today I Quite Being A Christian", which addressed the subject.

When I shared the post on my Facebook wall, it sparked a very lengthy discussion which continued into the next evening.

Well, this NPR interview with Anne Rice gives us a much better understanding of what is really going on here; this, and visiting her Facebook page.

As a Disciple of Christ, I am not ashamed of being a Christian. Many who profess Christianity tarnish and pervert The Church and many within the Body of Christ tend to not want to associate themselves with a 'label'. The devil will use many schemes and deceptions to fool us into thinking we should draw away from The Church. I was headed there at one time. But Jesus drew me back in with His Word, revealing the attempts to divide the Body of Christ...

The Apostle Paul wrote this explanation concerning the Body of Christ:

1 Corinthians 12:12-27
"The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. 13For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

14Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. 15If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 17If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" 22On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. 27Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it."

Sure, it breaks my heart what crimes are committed in Jesus' name, but that does not have anything to do with the Body of Christ or The Church as a whole. If we took our eyes off of man and kept our eyes and hearts focused on Jesus, we would come to understand this truth. The Body of Christ is not meant to be broken apart.

"Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf." - 1 Peter 4:16