“Today I Quit Being a Christian” – Conclusion

In Parts 1 and 2 of this post, I wrote that I felt aversion, empathy, shame, and frustration reading Anne Rice’s choice to “quit being a Christian.” As my heart pitched back and forth between these emotions, I came at last, thank God, to a feeling of hope.

In today’s world, the words “Christian” and “Christianity” may have negative connotations, deservedly or not. However, the Church at its core is not a set of rules, an ideology, or a political position. It is a bunch of sinners who are struggling toward their theosis, or complete communion with Jesus Christ in all that he is.

One of the beauties of the Church is that it has resisted pulling out any sacramental scissors to excise those portions of Scripture that might damage its “holy” reputation. Instead, the Church’s shortcomings are there for anyone to read. I can still find the passage where St. Paul instructs the believers,

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind…put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Therefore, putting away lying, let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and do not sin: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the devil.

Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:23-32)

That Paul needed to mention any of this to people he addressed as “saints and faithful in Christ Jesus” reveals the fact that the Church never stops requiring constant repentance and conversion to truly follow her Lord. It keeps me honest, if not humble, to choose to live in tension between these two realities.

In this world the Church will always contend with scandals, quarrels, skunks, and quacks. Furthermore, those of us who want to adhere to Christ are only in the process of becoming like him, and often we fall far short of his glory. No one is yet a Christian in the full meaning of the word.

Mercifully, Christ is devoted to purifying this ragtag group he audaciously insists on calling his Body and his Bride. Jesus’ all-consuming love for his Church gives me the hope that he will transform my life within the context of that messy yet glorious Body.

The final analysis of who is a genuine follower of Christ’s Way does not come from me, Anne Rice, the Conservative Christian Right, the Democratic Party, the Pope in Rome, or the Orthodox Patriarch of Constantinople. God has given ultimate judgment solely to the One who laid his life down for the sins of the whole world.

In the face of both the mercy and judgment of Christ, an ancient prayer said on bended knee is most appropriate:

“We believe that thou shall come to be our Judge; we therefore pray thee, help thy servants whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood. Make us to be numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting.” (from the Te Deum)

“Today I Quit Being a Christian" – Part 2

In Part 1 of this post, I wrote that I felt both aversion and empathy reading Anne Rice’s choice to “quit being a Christian.” My third reaction was shame that the word “Christian” has been so co-opted in our culture that its meaning is diluted, if not distorted.

Since this nation was founded, a vast number of people have labeled themselves Christians simply because they attended church or tried to be nice. Meanwhile, they may not be terribly concerned to know Jesus and his Way on a personal level. Many from other parts of the world regard anyone in the Western Hemisphere who is not a Jew or a Moslem to be a Christian. The moniker is a way to classify a religio-political group, not to identify people as Christ followers.

For others, such as Ms. Rice, “Christian” has come to mean a person loaded with self-righteous rhetoric stripped of tolerance. She is not the first, nor will she be the last to take that view. As a kid on the Navajo Reservation, I was ashamed to admit I was a Christian lest I be met with the sneer, “That’s white man’s religion.” Some people believe Christian missionaries worked hand in glove with the imperialist government to stamp out the core of Native American way of life. Regrettably, there is validity in these accusations. It is not hard to understand why one might want to distance herself from a word used in contradiction to Jesus’ original intention when he said, “By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

The word “love” brings me to my next reaction to Ms. Rice’s announcement. Frustration. Hers is one more example of how polarized we become when we ideologize our convictions. That is, we try “to make others comply with or yield to our set of beliefs (Webster).” In this country, we attempt to influence others toward our ideology either through politics or recruiting. Neither are wrong in themselves; we have the legal right to lobby for or promote what we hold dear. Some would say we even have the responsibility to do so.

What frustrates me is seeing how fundamentalism rears its ugly head in the process. Make no mistake, the monster leaps up from both conservative and liberal camps. It is the natural tendency of human beings to want to affiliate themselves. We like feeling right. It strengthens our sense of identity. The more shrill and extreme the rhetoric, the more we feel justifiably compelled to take a stand for the position closest to our own standards. All too soon, however, we become inflamed with anger and give into the temptation to slander, insult, ridicule, or denounce an opposing faction.

Jesus had no problem debating his opponents. He did not hesitate to call a spade a spade although it got him killed. What set him apart from most of us is that as they strung him up, he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

It is an easy, short slope to slide from conviction to hatred. But at the bottom is Gehenna and death.

It is an arduous, long path to climb from conviction to love. But at the summit is Golgotha and eternal life.

To be continued

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“Today I Quit Being a Christian” – Part 1

A few days ago, Anne Rice, erstwhile vampire novelist and a ‘reverted’ Roman Catholic from atheism, wrote on her Facebook page,

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…

…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.

As I read her announcement and various reactions to it, I found myself in a familiar, uncomfortable place—torn between sentiments. My knee-jerk reaction to the words of Ms. Rice was aversion to what seemed to be bitter, exaggerated accusations. As one who claims to be a Christian and who belongs to the Orthodox Church (second in the world only to the Roman Catholic Church in number of so-called members), I wanted to argue all the fine points of her statements. Surely there is a much more holistic way to understand Christianity than what people within its ranks seem to be against or how they may unbecomingly assert their ideologies.

My second reaction was empathetic grief for the spiritual, psychical, and even physical injury suffered at the hands of people who claim to be Christians. Like some who responded on Anne Rice’s Facebook page, I once wandered from group to group seeking to find a refuge where the community spoke the truth saturated in large doses of Jesus’ love. Even after I believed to have found this home within the Orthodox Church, as at other times, I encountered a crossroads of whether to associate with “organized religion” or not. The Introduction to my forthcoming book, Voyage, describes part of my struggle:

I had to face again the paradoxical fact that the Church is indeed God’s “holy people” in which the “Holy Spirit” dwells, but we are also fallen people—a mix of good and not so good. The Church is an extremely complicated organism. I know from personal experience that her constituents can perform astonishing acts of sacrificial love and grace and yet perpetrate ways to hurt, marginalize, or overpower members of her own body. It is a truism to say that the Church is not yet perfected, but I have taken a long time even to begin to tolerate this imperfection with more mercy than criticism. Thus, once more, as I had so many occasions in the past, I asked myself, “Do I belong here?”

I finally concluded that, yes, there is a place for me in the visible, “institutional” Church. (Perhaps I will write more on that sometime.) However, I am coming to accept that I will need to grapple regularly with my understanding of what we call “the Church” and where I belong in relationship to it and to Jesus, her “Head.” No matter what everybody else may be doing or saying about being a Christian, I am responsible to take stock of my own life.

To be continued