I recently stumbled upon a quote from Anne Rice, who in 2010 decided to \u201cquit Christianity,\u201d\u00a0 saying,<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2026I quit being a Christian. I\u2019m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-democrat. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sadly, it\u2019s hard to disagree with her. It\u2019s easy to see her point.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a trend. Anne Rice isn\u2019t the only one who has trouble with \u201cChristianity.\u201d In fact, today the largest growing religion is \u201cno religion.\u201d But those who walk away still love and claim Jesus. Like Bono, Marcus Mumford, Anne Rice, and more\u2026<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know Anne Rice personally, but I\u2019m pretty sure she didn\u2019t quit Christianity, she quit Christianity<\/i>. Did you catch that? It was subtle. Often when people walk away from Christianity, what they are really walking away from is what Christianity has become.<\/p>\n
The more I personally think about it, the more I continue to be affirmed of and realize, I never <\/i>left the Church. I just simply realized that what we\u2019re doing wasn\u2019t church.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cHave you ever wondered if we\u2019re missing it? It\u2019s crazy, if you think about it. The God of the universe \u2013 The creator of nitrogen and pine needles, galaxies and E-minor loves us with a radical, unconditional, self-sacrificing love and what is our typical response? we go to church, sing songs, and try not to cuss. Whether you\u2019ve verbalized it yet or not, we all know something\u2019s wrong.\u201d \u2013 Francis Chan<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Something is <\/i>wrong.<\/p>\n Rather than freeing, churches seems to be oppressing.<\/p>\n Instead of offering salvation, they serve condemnation.<\/p>\n They\u2019re less about loving, and seemingly more about abusing.<\/p>\n Christianity has a bit of an image crisis, let alone a couple thousand years of baggage (i.e. the crusades, crooked popes, and today serving a \u201cbackwards evangelicalism\u201d).<\/p>\n Though I\u2019m not sure that quitting is the right response.<\/p>\n I think reclaiming is the right response.<\/p>\n Calling myself a Christian doesn\u2019t make me a follower of Jesus or part of the Body of Christ, any more than saying that I\u2019m a Professional Athlete makes me a member of the Green Bay Packers. Just because I\u2019ve attended a few games, maybe dressed the role, and spoken the lingo, it doesn\u2019t make me a member of the team.<\/p>\n I\u2019m not sure where I\u2019m personally at. I love<\/em> Jesus, but I\u2019m not too excited about those that call themselves the church. And often times It\u2019s hard not to relate to Anne Rice, but I don\u2019t think we can stop there\u2026<\/p>\n So I guess my questions for you guys are:<\/p>\n Where are you at?<\/p>\n Do you refer to yourself as a Christian?<\/p>\n Do you label yourself as a \u201cno religion\u201d, but still claim Jesus?<\/p>\n Most importantly, What can we do to make change, and reclaim the Church and the name of Christianity?<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I recently stumbled upon a quote from Anne Rice, who in 2010 decided to \u201cquit Christianity,\u201d\u00a0 saying, \u201c\u2026I quit being a Christian. I\u2019m out. In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-democrat. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":650602,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,19,16,69,14,21],"tags":[66,67,68,70],"class_list":["post-650601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christian","category-church","category-culture","category-lgbtq","category-life","category-millennials","tag-anne-rice","tag-christianity","tag-francis-chan","tag-quitting"],"yoast_head":"\n