Quitting Christianity "In the Name of Christ"

I was fascinated to learn via Facebook that Anne Rice, author of vampire novels turned devout Christian, has decided to call it quits with Christianity. She made the announcement on her Facebook page, and within hours, it was all over the blogs.

What Rice posted:
"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 outside. My conscience will allow nothing else..."

"... 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 Christian. Amen."

Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Methinks the author is a bit miffed and mystified.

Anne Rice grew up in the Roman Catholic Church, attended Catholic schools in New Orleans, left the RCs and called herself an atheist as she penned vampire stories, and then had a conversion experience that brought her back to the Roman Catholic Church in 1998. And that seems to be the problem. She came back to a Church that couldn't meet her where she was at. What I read in her statements is that she has confused "being a Christian" with "buying into the dogma" of the Roman Catholic Church. How else could she say, "In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity..." and maintain she is committed to Christ? Reminds me of the button slogan: "I have nothing against God; it's His Fan Club I can't stand!"
I have known others like Anne Rice. They get angry at Christ or at God or at Christianity when what is really ticking them off are the institutions that have been ham-fisted, double-speaking holier-than-thou troglodytes out to put God inside a box of their own making. The hurt and dismayed often say they are OK with Christ, but then launch into their complaints against institutions that fail to recognize that the current era bears similarities to First Century Palestine, but is NOT 100 CE and that we must respond in accordance to our own reality, not the one known by Jesus or the apostles. Been there, done that. I've learned from that mistake.

I suppose that with this media splash, Anne Rice has succeeded in getting her name out there again. Seems that she was more popular for the vampire books than the ones extolling the virtues of Christ. And maybe one day she'll try out a different pew and discover a community where she will feel more at home.