over the past week or so i've read a couple of the open letters written by various bloggers and magazine contributors in response to anne rice's statement about leaving the church. i also listened to the interview with anne rice on npr. while i agree with most of what the writers of these open letters are saying, i haven't yet read anyone addressing the fact that rice was a part of the catholicism, rather than protestantism.
now i'm not saying that either one is superior, but i have learned that a lot of catholic leaders and believers view the catholic church as the one true church. there are a lot of protestants that think vice versa, while those outside of the church tend to lump both protestant and catholic churches together as merely varying denominations despite some of the serious differences between the two. i am wondering if anne rice has experienced much of the church outside of catholicism? from what i can tell, the open letters that i have read have all been written by people who are part of protestant churches. so the experiences that the protestant writers are getting from their church communities may be different from those of anne rice's. not to say that believers of both catholic and protestant churches aren't experiencing similar if not the same frustrations with their churches. it's just a shame that rice has sworn off church when she may not have much experience outside of the catholic church. i feel that as a "follower of Christ" (which she still claims to be) it is almost irresponsible of rice to make such a blanket statement about christians and church when she has had somewhat of a one-track faith.
i am also wary of anyone making broad, judgemental statements about christians as a whole. yes, we are one body of Christ, and that's how God intends it. but not every christian is exactly the same as those whom rice or anyone else have experienced. we are all messy, because we are all human. yet to write us off as a whole, would be to say that you are a better "follower" than a whole lot of people around the world.
i know that this whole situation is a lot more complicated than i am even writing about here, but i just wanted to jot a few thoughts down. maybe i'll get into more detail about the differences between the "organized" church and the "spiritual" church later (if there really is an overarching biblical difference). for now, please don't write everyone in the church off just because anne rice did. she isn't the spokesperson for the entirety of christendom.
here are some of the open letters i've read, and the short npr interview with rice:
http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/22453-an-open-letter-to-anne-rice
http://stuffchristianslike.net/2010/08/3448
http://www.justinmcroberts.com/blog/2010/07/open-letter-to-anne-rice/
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyid=128930526
This is pretty interesting! I have struggled with people who step away from the church in search to find this divine revelation of how a church or church community should see or act. Since leaving PA, I have bounced around from one church to another, seeking to find one that I agree with completely, only be be humbled by God and reminded that as long as we humans run the church, we will never be perfect. But we are called together to be one church one body, in which we act as appendages to make the whole body function. Honestly, you may dislike things about your church but you do have freedom to seek the Lord in other ways of worship, which is one of the few things I like about how divided Christianity is today. It is hard enough sometimes to be a Christian in this world, why add complication to it by separating yourself from your brothers and sisters who want you to grow closer to Him?
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