This week, we’re privileged to have Anne Rice come on, interviewed by Mike Morrell. Rice is one of the most read authors in modern history … her books have sold over 130 million copies. She is best known for the gothic genre, but in recent years, after coming out publicly as a person of faith, has begun a series chronicling the life of Jesus. Recently, Anne made waves by posting an update on Facebook to announce that she was no longer going to be part of organized Christianity … ‘in the name of Christ.’
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.
(via Anne’s Facebook Page, July 28)
It was surprising to hear that she tries to read every comment on her page! The above post alone has over 1500 comments and she posts several times a day. It certainly is an important hub online where people are hashing out what it means to be a follower of Jesus when there’s so much within Christianity to be embarrassed about. This is a great conversation … enjoy.
Recent volumes from Anne Rice:
Preorder: Of Love and Evil (Songs of the Seraphim)
Angel Time
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
And thanks to Mike Morrell for doing the interview. Normally we bestow the title ‘friend of the podcast’ for contributing an interview. It’s a little more relational than ‘correspondent.’ But I think it’s getting more serious with Mike. We might be getting close to ‘boyfriend of the podcast’ status. Here’s another great interview Mike did with Kevin Prosch.
In the intro, Ryan Parker joins me to talk about what’s going on over at PopTheology.com, and he has a sweet offer for you. The 25th person to DM PopTheology on Twitter with their mailing address gets a free copy of AD: New Orleans After the Deluge. Ryan promises not to send you junk mail and will not keep the addresses.
Saving a Genre
Ryan’s review of the Christian film, To Save a Life, from New Song Community Church in Oceanside, CA
Being (Really) Human
Pop Theology contributor Richard Lindsay’s review of the BBC America series Being Human
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