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THE QUESTION
Spiritual but not religious?
Author Anne Rice said last week that she was 'quitting Christianity:' The once-lapsed Catholic wrote that she was could no longer accept her religion's teachings on homosexuality, feminism, politics and birth control.
"In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian," Rice announced on her facebook page.
Can you leave religion and keep Christ? Can you be spiritual without being religious?
Posted by
Elizabeth Tenety on August 2, 2010 1:15 PM
FROM THE PANEL
A pastoral response to Ann Rice 'quitting' Christianity
Anne Rice is in a season that many, if not all, Christians experience: the great joy of coming to personally embrace the love, forgiveness, and new life that Jesus offers is then followed by the troubles and trials of learning the teachings of the Bible and living with fellow Christians. Truthfully, both are difficult.
Posted by Mark Driscoll, on August 11, 2010 12:52 AM
Escaping the tyranny of me
You cannot love Jesus and hate His Church. One can be an eccentric follower of Christ, a few eccentric folk even end up as prophets, but nobody can be alone.
Posted by John Mark Reynolds, on August 6, 2010 3:37 PM
Christianity compels us to love the spiritual, not just the religious
Religion can also be seen as a vehicle for helping those who are committed to spirituality congregate for the purpose of accomplishing far more than they can on their own
Posted by Phil Davis, on August 5, 2010 7:16 PM
Christ without Christianity is D-I-Y religion
If Annie wants to follow Christ she can't do it on her own.
Posted by George Carey, on August 5, 2010 3:59 PM
"Christian" belongs to Christ
Can Anne Rice be spiritual without religion? Sure. When the church lost its purity under Rome, the ascetics went out into the desert to forge their relationships with God more or less alone. Jesus withdrew in order to pray. However, he did not stay there. And when the people of Jerusalem went astray, Jesus did not forsake the temple. He threw the moneychangers out.
Posted by Janet Edwards, on August 4, 2010 2:09 PM
The problem with spirituality
From a biblical perspective, then, "spirituality" is not something one achieves or a stance one adopts, but is the character and the capabilities of individuals and congregations that have embraced the work of the Holy Spirit upon themselves.
Posted by Gene Davenport, on August 4, 2010 12:20 PM
God's 'love language'
God without religion is trying to love God and ignore His love language. His love language is loving people, and choosing to stay connected to them in a common practices of faith, hope, love, and community.
Posted by Matt Maher, on August 3, 2010 5:20 PM
An open letter to Anne Rice
When I read your words on Facebook, I laughed. I have a sister friend who is an ordained minister. We often say that every religion would be perfect if it were not for the people who profess it. Christians corrupt Christianity. Muslims mess-up Islam. Jews junk-up Judaism. Hindus hinder Hinduism. Buddhists break Buddhism. The list could go on.
Posted by Valerie Elverton Dixon, on August 3, 2010 4:13 PM
Real belief is personal search for truth
To accept the truth blindly is the same as having no personal convictions of your own. By the same token, to say that you have adopted Christ without Christianity seems equally facile. The teachings of Jesus are staggeringly difficult to carry out in practice, as anyone knows who has tried to turn the other cheek or loved his enemies.
Posted by Deepak Chopra, on August 3, 2010 3:12 PM
No individual Christian gets to make the rules
"Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" is among the verses Paul wrote about what happens when Christ is in you. Conforming people to a set of rules is what the Pharisees (and the modern Taliban) sought to do. Thinking and living differently to please God is what Christ does when He lives in a person.
Posted by Cal Thomas, on August 3, 2010 11:04 AM
Christ calls for community, not lone ranger religion
While bestselling author Anne Rice has rejected Christianity, she holds onto Christ. She wants to decide who Christ is all by herself. She vaults individualism above community, surely an expression of self-centered religion.
Posted by Robert Parham, on August 3, 2010 9:40 AM
You Can Have Your Communion Wafer...And Eat It, Too!
Can you have spirituality without religion? religion without spirituality? It's like asking if you can have a head without a heart--or vice versa. Some of us try to get by with just one or the other, but it never works out very well.
Posted by Clark Strand, on August 3, 2010 6:37 AM
Spiritual but not religious? Okay, but you'll be hungry in an hour
Spirituality is the sweetness of religion, the effervescent taste of the divine. Religion, on the other hand, is the fiber. You've got to have some fiber, some strength of tradition, ritual and sacred texts, to get you through the day. The problem is, however, that today's institutionalized religion does not contain much just good, wholesome fiber--a lot of it is like junk cereal.
Posted by Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite, on August 2, 2010 7:34 PM
Gandhi said religion and spiritualism are distinct
According to my grandfather, M. K. Gandhi, religion and spiritualism are distinctly apart -- that is, it is possible to practice one without believing in the other. Religion, as it is commonly understood, is the practice of a set of rituals based on the interpretation made by human beings.
Posted by Arun Gandhi, on August 2, 2010 7:10 PM
Reject religion, get closer to Christ
I have not left Christianity but I am grossly disappointed in this religion which is supposed to exemplify love. One can probably get closer to God, actually, if one rejects the kind of religion we pass off as Christianity. Yes ...I am saying that one can be spiritual and not be religious.
Posted by Susan K. Smith, on August 2, 2010 6:30 PM
Religion is broken for many, but not faith
If you keep Christ as the benchmark of your actions, I am fairly certain you remain a Christian. And I know that if you maintain God and Torah as your benchmark, you remain a Jew, even if others may not approve of your understanding of such benchmarking.
Posted by Brad Hirschfield, on August 2, 2010 5:53 PM
No two Christians are alike
Christians are a lot like snowflakes--there are almost no two alike. It's not clear to followers what to take literally and what to take figuratively, and which passages may have been falsely attributed to the man or god or man/god called Jesus.
Posted by Herb Silverman, on August 2, 2010 4:26 PM
"Christianity" not necessary when you have Christ
For Quakers, "Christianity" is not necessary - we have Christ. "Religion" is not necessary, we have the Spirit.
Posted by Max Carter, on August 2, 2010 2:57 PM
Combat spiritual self-indulgence
Spirituality is at the core of religion, but alone it is not enough. Like love, religion is enacted feeling. It is emotion made flesh; it is not only having an experience, but doing a mitzvah -- a deed of lovingkindness.
Posted by David Wolpe, on August 2, 2010 2:56 PM
Christ without Christianity; religion without spirit
As an atheist, I sometimes have difficulty persuading exceptionally broad-minded people that I am both non-religious and non-spiritual too!
Posted by Tom Flynn, on August 2, 2010 2:54 PM
