Author Anne Rice has decided to walk away from organized religion. Apparently she was born Catholic, became an atheist, then returned to Catholicism 12yrs ago. She recently used her face book page to announce she could no longer accept many of the church's views and policies. According to her "the last straw" was the bishop of Phoenix "publicly condemning a nun named Sister Margaret McBride for authorizing a life-saving abortion for a dying mother in a Phoenix hospital." In this
article she lays out a lot of the what and why. I like her response to this part of the Q&A-
Quote:
Q) You were raised Catholic, became an atheist, then returned to Catholicism in 1998. Why are you quitting now? It's not as if the church has suddenly changed.
A) Well, I've been living with this now for 12 years, and I've come to the conclusion from my experience with organized religion that I have to leave, that I have to, in the name of Christ, step away from this. It's a matter of rejecting what I've discovered about the persecution of gays, the persecution and oppression of women and the actions of the churches on many different levels. I've also found that I can't find a basis in Scripture for a lot of the positions that churches and denominations take today, and I can't find any basis at all for an anointed, hierarchical priesthood. So all of this finally created a pressure in me, a kind of confusion, a toxic anger at times, and I felt I had to step aside. And that's what I've done.
|
If you take the name of Christ out and put in any number of other deities and that pretty much sums up feelings on organized religion.
Obviously since that's my opinion I do not attend regular services, though I have joined friends when asked. I respect others right to believe whatever they wish. But I also reserve the right to think it's bat shit crazy to use religion to kill, judge and/or hate others.
So do you attend services?
If so how often?
Any of your religions policies or views you disagree with?