Anne Rice is leaving Christianity

I don't think she's an attention whore. If she lived by getting people's attention that would be one thing, but she's an accomplished author. She may be trying to sway public opinion though.
 
Letter to Anne: One question....WWJD?
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Well, he was never a Christian, for starters...and his "judgement" on peoples' follies was for the most part, gentle.

He looked beyond their failings, and instead focussed on their potential.
 
Q,

I agree that the historical Jesus was quite different than how he is portrayed in Bible, and that it is these changes that were made to his story that are the main causes of these difficulties.
 
Nick the Pilot said:
Q,

I agree that the historical Jesus was quite different than how he is portrayed in Bible, and that it is these changes that were made to his story that are the main causes of these difficulties.
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But I take my view of Jesus directly from the Bible...

So I can't agree with your assessment. Interpretations of the Bible get our panties in a wad...
 
Catholics tend to think that they are the only Christians. What she meant was not that she's leaving Christianity, but leaving the Catholic Church. The number of people I have met who have harangued me at length about the evils of Christianity, when what they were talking about was in fact the Catholic Church they had been brought up in! I've never been able to make them understand they can still be a Christian and not a Catholic.

Reminds me of a quote I once heard about a place where even the atheists were Catholic - it was a Catholic God they did not believe in!

(PS - I've got nothing against Catholics in general BTW!)
 
Cliff,

Unfortunately, the negativitiy works both ways -- I know a Born-again Christian who refuses to admit that Catholics are Christians. Hopefully, we can all learn a little more tolerance for each other.
 
Q,

You said,

"But I take my view of Jesus directly from the Bible..."

--> I don't. I guess we just have to agree to disagree on this one.
 
NiceCupofTea,

You said, [Religion is] "...supposed to be a love relationship with God..."

--> There are people who disagree with such an idea. I disagree with such an idea. The first step in any religious discussion between you and I would have to start from the point of view that some people (including myself) see religion as being something other than a love relationship with God. Once you and I fully appreciated each other's greatly differing ideas on this topic, we would then be able to discuss religion further.
 
Nick the Pilot said:
NiceCupofTea,

You said, [Religion is] "...supposed to be a love relationship with God..."

--> There are people who disagree with such an idea. I disagree with such an idea. The first step in any religious discussion between you and I would have to start from the point of view that some people (including myself) see religion as being something other than a love relationship with God. Once you and I fully appreciated each other's greatly differing ideas on this topic, we would then be able to discuss religion further.
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NiceCupOfTea said:
religion pretty much does stink, but Christianity is not supposed to be a religion as such, its supposed to be a love relationship with God, most people dont get that.

religion is a curse IMO.
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I was talking about Christianity being a love relationship with the Lord not religion in general.
 
Nick the Pilot said:
Q,

You said,

"But I take my view of Jesus directly from the Bible..."

--> I don't. I guess we just have to agree to disagree on this one.
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Perhaps we are closer than you might think. We agree on what we think Jesus really is like, we just came to that conclusion by different means...;)
 
Virtual Cliff said:
Catholics tend to think that they are the only Christians. What she meant was not that she's leaving Christianity, but leaving the Catholic Church. The number of people I have met who have harangued me at length about the evils of Christianity, when what they were talking about was in fact the Catholic Church they had been brought up in! I've never been able to make them understand they can still be a Christian and not a Catholic.
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I partially agree with you, but I can understand why Catholic Christians would think of the word Catholic as the meaning of Christian. 'Catholic' really does better describe what Jesus followers are. It is natural to think of 'Catholic' or 'Universal' as a better name than just 'Christian' for followers of Jesus. I am sure that it would be confusing for a person that grew up Catholic to just start calling themselves Christian when Catholic is more to the point. When the Reformers broke away from their church leaders and stopped being called 'Catholic', it was a difficult transition and a desperate last resort. Part of their reason for the break may have been that they felt the church was no longer Catholic, but they did not deny that name at all. They were just called Protestors, which actually is an acknowledgment of the name while rejecting certain practices. (Anglicans have always considered themselves Catholics.) The loss of the name was a loss indeed which I am guessing probably should have been kept and maybe should be restored. The Church's counter-reformation is also called the Catholic Revival and was considered an ecumenical movement. From ancient history notice that though the Eastern Orthodox split long ago from the Roman Catholic, they still chose to retain the name Catholic. Its because that is what Christians were supposed to be and was not just a name. Some reform groups also have tried to recapture the same meaning in their new names, such as the Universal Universalists.
 
Dream said:
(Anglicans have always considered themselves Catholics.)
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Yes everyone subscribes to the ideal of a Catholic Church. It's even in the Apostle's Creed. They just don't do it in practice. I just get the feeling that Catholics think they are the only REAL Christians, and the rest of us are just pretending, or simply don't count.
Dream said:
Some reform groups also have tried to recapture the same meaning in their new names, such as the Universal Universalists.
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Are you referring to the Universal Unitarians? They don't believe in the Trinity, but I suppose they could still call themselves Christians. How broad is a broad Church? How catholic is Catholic?
 
Wil,

Even a butterfly is a manifestation of God on earth, but I think the status of Jesus and the status of a butterfly is a lot different. The question, what exact status does Jesus have, and that is where people begin to disagree.
 
Dream, you said,

"When the Reformers broke away from their church leaders and stopped being called 'Catholic', it was a difficult transition and a desperate last resort."

--> When they start burning you at the stake, it becomes an easy choice! Some time ago there was a thread on this forum on how Catholics would invade people's homes, seize "illegal" versions of the Bibe, and burn at the stake some to the people who had "instigated" the printing of these "illegal" Bibles.
 
Nick the Pilot said:
When they start burning you at the stake, it becomes an easy choice! Some time ago there was a thread on this forum on how Catholics would invade people's homes, seize "illegal" versions of the Bibe, and burn at the stake some to the people who had "instigated" the printing of these "illegal" Bibles.
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Hello again, Nick!

Thank you for pointing this out. I had made the assumption that people were generally aware of the infighting and government problems, which is a bad assumption given my own experience. Despite a twelve year education, partially correct information was fed to me like bread from childhood. I was told stories about protestants who had been martyred in the great cause against the church, about suppression of Bibles and whatever would make me proud of my heritage. All of the Protestants were brave, educated, graceful exemptions from the barbaric church and also natives of colonies and darkest Africa. I was not told everything, or really anything; and I was not that interested. Only in later years in books and in chat forums have I discovered my curiosity.

Truth be told, many of the great reformers were no less violent towards people like you and me. You and I might have had our testicles ripped off by red hot irons by authorities under Calvin or Luther, for not accepting their way or the highway. This was a time when the antichrist ran rampant and all men, not just katholiks bowed their heads to the antichrist. Figuratively speaking, there were few that kept both their christianity and their balls, but that was a previous generation. That generation is gone. Today is another day.
 
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