Anne Rice

This summer I shared Anne Rice’s story of coming to Christianity with my daughter’s high school Sunday school class. We were discussing the Beatitudes and I was specifically discussing, “Blessed are the meek…” I pulled up the website for I am Second, a Christian movement to put Christ first in your life, and showed the students Mrs. Rice’s video.

 Yesterday I discovered, however, that she posted the following comments on FaceBook:

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.

Wednesday at 12:36pm

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 a Christian. Amen.

Wednesday at 12:41pm

My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me. But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become.

Thursday at 4:06pm

I was immediately angry—not to mention defensive. Over the last couple of day, I’ve considered her comments and my reaction. Now, I have my own comments.

Being a Christian doesn’t mean that you belong to a special club. It has nothing to do with membership. Being a Christian means you have a specific set of core beliefs that include:

• The virgin, Mary, gave birth to Jesus Christ.
• Jesus is God’s son.
• Jesus performed miracles while on this earth.
• He suffered and died in atonement for the sins of man.
• He rose from the dead after 3 days.
• He’s coming back one day but in the meantime God has sent the Holy Spirit to live within those of us who have accepted these truths.
• Through the Holy Spirit we are given the power, desire, and strength to change our lives to live more like Christ.
• The Bible was written by man but inspired by God.
• As sinners, we are not worthy of eternal life. However, through belief in Jesus, we are given this gift through God’s grace.

But this isn’t it. Christ also affirmed the truth of the Old Testament—not only through his teaching but also through his fulfillment of prophesy.

However, as we read the Bible we find that simply believing is not enough. “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.” (James 2:26) A Christian accepts Jesus into her life, realizes that she has sinned, tries hard to make changes and stop sinning, grows in her faith through continued reading of the Bible and prayer with help from the Holy Spirit that now lives within her, and strives to live her life more like Christ. We can’t earn our way into heaven, but someone who is truly a Christian will perform Christian “works” because they are compelled to make a difference.

Does calling yourself a Christian make you a Christian? Does being baptized make you a Christian? Does going to church every Sunday make you a Christian? I firmly believe that they do not. Only God knows our hearts and knows whether we are truly “Christians”—truly believers of the deity and followers of the teaching of Christ.

I will agree that things have been done in the name of Christianity that had nothing to do with the will of God or His Son. But these things were done by man (and I mean women/men here) who are sinful creatures in a fallen world. For some reason, these people decided to sit in judgment of others when, according to God, they had no right to do so. Anne Rice has no right to do so.

In fact, some of the things Mrs. Rice seems to rally against in her comments are not things that Christians have invented, they are mandates and injunctions that were set by God. Some of those things are not politically correct (or socially appealing) in today’s culture. Who cares? But other things that she rallies against are misconceptions of those who have not prayerfully studied the Bible but pulled specific things out of context to support their erroneous conclusions.

If a person is truly a Christian, does this mean he’s perfect? No way. He will still make mistakes. He will still sin. He will still struggle daily to understand scripture. Christian’s are not perfect. Anne Rice is not perfect.

Nor does she profess to be. She is struggling to understand her faith, just as many of us are. I pray that she is led by the Holy Spirit to continue to grow in her faith and understanding of Christianity. I also pray that her harsh words for Christians and Christianity will not pull even one soul away from the grace of God.

Will she ever feel “accepted”? Honestly I doubt it. Jesus makes it clear that living our faith has been, and always will be, counter-cultural. I think we should be more concerned when we are accepted. I never want to “belong” to this world.

I am a blond, please don’t judge me because of the things other blonds have done. I am a Kansan, please don’t judge me based on things other Kansan’s have done (for goodness sake, the Phelps family lives here). I am an American. Heck, I’m a die-hard fan of 80’s hair band music.

I do not profess to know all the answers. As a life-long learner of God’s Word, I am amazed with the discoveries that delight me every time I read it.

I am a Christian.

The Tattoo

I’m a people-watcher.

It has always been interesting to me to note how people choose to look and behave in public. Oh, don’t get me wrong…it isn’t because I think I always look presentable or behave accordingly. Ha! Rather, I find it interesting to ponder the events that led up the specific moment in time that they happen to cross my line of sight.

And what better place is there to people-watch than the water park?

Actually, I don’t even realize that I’m taking in the details of other people until something grabs my attention. The tattoo did.

He was fairly young…well, younger than me anyway, with a slender build and short hair. He happened to be right in front of me playing with his children and I noticed that he had many tattoos. Tattoos, in themselves, often draw my eye. It always intrigues me to note what types of things people choose to permanently display on their bodies. A couple of words just jumped out at me. Did that say something about “save me?” Huh? So I watched until I could see the whole phrase.

Written across his upper chest right below his collar bone in upper-case old-English text was printed: SAVE ME FROM MYSELF.

It stayed with me the rest of the evening…and the next day…until this morning when I finally decided to put down my thoughts.

Throughout my life, I’ve made choices that have created my path in the world. No, things didn’t just happen to me. Life isn’t about luck or misfortune. Don’t get me wrong, I realize that we all enter the world with immediate advantages and disadvantages, but we all are also given the free-will to respond to these circumstances and the ability to make the decisions that dictate the course of our lives. We all have burdens that we bear—even those who keep them well-hidden. It’s not WHAT we bear, but HOW we bear it that really defines us.

The fact of the matter is…we are all sinners. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a hypocrite is a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings. Think about it. By definition, if you are a Christian you are a hypocrite. I am a hypocrite. I love God. God hates sin. I know it is wrong to sin. I speak out against sin. And yet, I sin. I am a hypocrite. I don’t want to be. I try not to be. But I am.

It cracks me up that we put so much stock into the “scientific discoveries” of man. How many of these are later proven wrong, even laughable, by future generations? Yes, we have developed some pretty cool technology—but could we develop a self-sustaining eco-system? What about a human eye? Hmmm…not even just one strand of brilliant DNA? Ha! And yet sometimes I choose to ignore God because I think I have it all figured out.

There are times I pray for comfort when I’m mourning loss, healing when I’m sick, help for others when I see them hurting, and of course thanks for my blessings. But most of my prayers can be summed up in the words of a young father’s tattoo:

Lord God, save me from myself.