“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,” the author wrote Wednesday on her Facebook page. “In the name of … Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.”
Rice will not be taking up vampires again, but she said she is a big fan of the HBO series “True Blood,” enjoyed the first two “Twilight” movies (she has yet to read any of the Stephenie Meyer novels) and is interested in seeing her most famous character, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, return to the screen.
In spite of the above story’s emphasis on Rice’s non-return to vampire novels, Rice is, it seems, reverting to the back to the state of the undead. I have not read her novels, but apparently, her vampires are sometimes homosexual (Lestat de Lioncourt), they are feminist (The Queen of the Damned), and certainly they are wildly erotic. So when she says that she is leaving the Church because she refuses to stand against homosexuality, feminism and artificial birth control, she seems to be allaying herself once again with the world of vampirism. (Here is the Anchoress’ take on Rice’s muddling of what the Church stands for and against. The Church is not anti-anything. It certainly is not anti-gay persons or anti-woman or anti-sex.)
This is particularly significant for me as I research the topic of the occult and literature. The world of darkness is alive and well in the form of “new religious movements.” Many of them propose themselves to be compatible with Christianity. Rice goes on:
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.
This is the real peril of literary and theatrical occultism: the promotion of esoteric, occultist, non-conformist Christianity. And that, my friends is blasphemous, sacrilegious and diabolical. Satan is pedaling cheap peace, and when we accept it on his terms, he will cut our hearts out.
Mary Victrix 
It’s a rather awkward thing to say that one is committed to Christ but not to being a Christian. Using an analogy, I guess one COULD be committed to America without being an American. And, one COULD be an American without being committed to America. It’s more of a ‘membership’ versus an allegiance. However, if you claim to be committed to America then you will try to do things that don’t harm America, undermine America, or disrespect America … you will be committed to the Constitution on which America was established. Ditto for one who claims to be committed to Christ.
I can respect her statement: “It’s simply impossible for me to “belong” to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group.” At times, I have felt the same way. At times, I have also felt that way about paying taxes to an American government who spends it on abortion, artificial contraception, anti-family activities, as well as p’ing it away in hundreds of other wasteful and foolish projects. Yet, where else shall I go? Is there a PERFECT Country out there? If so, I’d like to know. So it is with the Catholic Church. After moaning and groaning about our sorry state of affairs and feeling hopeless, I find myself repeating St. Peter’s famous words: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
I am saddened but not surprised to hear of Ms. Rice’s obduracy. The souls she will once again infect with sin cannot be lightly written off (“Oh, it’s just art.”). Our Lord’s parable of the Sower and the Seeds (Mk 4) comes to mind; rocky, thorny soil of one’s heart keeps the Seed of the Word from taking root. Alas for her and her readers.
I honestly fail to see what the fuss is all about. Apparently her ‘Conversion’ wasn’t much of anything to begin with, so her reversion is practically like admitting she was never ‘Christian’ to begin with. Good, one less hypocritical Catholic to worry about. (Still are plenty more out there.)
I find it quite annoying how Catholics enjoy blowing the trumpet of so called ‘conversions.’ They were cheering when Nicole Kidman had her umpteenth marriage ‘blessed’ in a Catholic Church, and they were doing the same for ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair and his supposed conversion; after which, he had the nerve to say the Pope was wrong on the Church’s position in regards to homosexuality.
We should be looking for the fruits of conversion, not simply conversion by ‘name.’
Anne Rice needs our prayers. I read the first few pages of her fictional biography of our Lord and came to the conclusion that she would do a lot less damage to the faith if she went back to writing about vampires. She has also written several porn novels under other pen names, one of which was made into a movie. Still our Lord is hanging onto her and in the end, I don’t think he’ll let her perish.
In terms of Rice’s conversion and her recidivism, I believe the phenomenon observed is very telling. Here we have an occult pornographer “reverting” to Catholicism and then writing a questionable life of Christ only to realize that she cannot denounce sins against chastity and nature, so she must then denounce Christianity itself.
Some of her novels are soft-porn and while she says she never presents evil as good, she has glamorized the occult, all the while connecting that glamour to an immoral eroticism she does not denounce, but encourages.
It is paganized, occult “Christianity,” and it is becoming more and more popular.
I agree Father. Having brushed the occult in college, I wouldn’t let my children touch Harry Potter or Twilight with a 10 foot pole. I have been genuinely shocked that some at the friary think it is no big deal, or that the Twilight characters are somehow good?…. Everyone that I know who was touched by the occult in youth, actively steers clear of it. I know that many are naive and innocent and successfully managed to keep their minds, and souls free from that type of occult pollution. Great. You are lucky. But don’t belittle the power of the imagery presented in some of these books-Rice, Pottery, or Twilight. The seductive power of the occult is beyond the imagination of some very good Catholics that I have met. It takes so little to hook an image into the mind of a child.
They will get enough of it anyway, just by seeing bits of the movies on the TV screens of Walmart, why anyone would intentionally have their kids read the stuff is beyond me.
Master Paul has a point. Converts (of which I am one) should be required to keep our mouths shut for at least one calendar year after conversion. Some of us are really attracted to the rush and attention of conversion. Add to that some form of celebrity and we really can go off the rails. Ms. Rice should have had a sponsor and a priest guiding her all the way through conversion and long after. Did she even know what church she was joining?!