Sad tidings

[firefolk]

So, I guess Anne Rice has bounced back out of the Church again. I dunno, maybe this shouldn't surprise us. I was thrilled when I had heard she'd re-converted a few years ago--you can see her yearning back towards her faith all through her later vampire books--but somehow, the idea of writing novels in the first person with Jesus Himself as your protagonist. . . Eesh. How could you not lose yourself a little, if not in hubris then in despair? Thinking that you could actually wrap your mind around His and encompass it? Either He would shrink to meaninglessness or you would begin to perceive yourself as infinite. Either way, it comes to the same end. I dunno. I just heard about this. I'm actually a little depressed about it. Poor woman. God save her. And all of us. I suppose it's done a fair bit of damage. Nidhogg the dragon constantly chewing at the roots of the World Tree. Bleah. Maybe she'll pull a Poe and bounce back in at the very end. (Hey, I like that phrase--"pull a Poe." I think I'm going to start working that into conversations with strangers.)

[max]

The statement I heard from Rice seemed awfully diffuse, even incoherent. I don't think she was able to decide whether she wanted to reject (1) specific church doctrines, (2) the church, (3) Christianity, or (4) Christ. She clearly is conflicted and seemed to remedy her confusion by washing her hands of the whole affair.

In my humble opinion, living within a tradition of faith (or any other tradition) cannot be an uncritical, disengaged process. On the one hand, that means that we cannot automatically disqualify others from membership or consideration for failure to embrace each doctrinal aspect of the tradition. On the other hand, we are not licensed to remove *ourselves* from membership on that basis, either. Living within a tradition entails a continuous dialog between the authority from the past and present experience and reflection---a dialog that must be carried out with good will and a desire to deepen our faith and understanding.

What Anne Rice seems to reject or at least not understand is that, when experience and reflection lead us into conflict with the tradition, we are *obligated* to remain as a voice within the dialog. The tradition that nurtured us deserves better than to be wholly rejected and excoriated because some aspect of it offends our reflection upon our experience.

It seems to me that we have a duty to be good citizens to our faith, much the same way we have a duty to be good citizens to our nation. Leaving the country because we disagree with some policy or another would hardly be an act of good citizenship.