ANNE Rice, author of a host of best-selling vampire books, has had another religious conversion. About 12 years ago Rice rejected atheism and embraced Christianity. Now she is quitting Christianity "in the name of Christ".
Announcing the move on her Facebook page, she said it was no longer possible for her to belong to what she described as "this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group".
The now former Catholic said she was troubled by child abuse scandals and the church's inflexible stance on abortion and homosexuality.
"I believed for a long time that the differences - the quarrels among Christians - didn't matter a lot for the individual. That you live your life and stay out of it," she wrote.
"But then I began to realise it wasn't easy to do ... I came to the conclusion that if I didn't make this declaration, I was going to lose my mind.
"In the name of Christ, I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control.
"In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."
She said she would continue to be "an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God".
Her repudiation of Christianity for Christ might be a clarion call to those who sit comfortably and silently while some of their churches permit bigotry and intolerance to be done in the name of Jesus.
Rice's move has caused consternation in some circles, but has been applauded by others who say she is following Jesus's example to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Millions in Western nations have left organised religion in recent years. That's no surprise.
Statements by some ultra-conservative religious organisations suggest that heaven, if it exists, might have a very small and narrow-minded population.
There is a disturbing view that only those who follow the rules - and "the rules" seem to change depending on who is talking - will be admitted through the pearly gates.
It is often not so much a matter of creed that gains or bars entry to the blissful ever after, but your behaviour, particularly sexual behaviour.
You wonder what Jesus would have made of all this.
During his earthly missions, he hit out at the tendency of religious leaders to use guilt and shame as a way of controlling lives.
He did not push the terrible theory that God loves only those who deserve it. Quite the opposite.
The heroes of the Bible, for example, were not perfect. They were humans, not mythical models of perfection.
Abraham, founder of Judaism, sent his wife and child off to starve in the desert, and endangered another wife by lying about her to save himself.
Yet, Abraham is called friend of God.
Moses repeatedly lost his temper at the chosen people he was supposed to be leading out of the wilderness.
King David committed adultery with a married woman and arranged to have her husband killed in battle. But God, we are told, blessed David.
Abraham, Moses and David would probably find it difficult to gain membership at some of today's churches, given their records of morality.
Some churches today have too much in common with the Hollywood that Ethel Barrymore wrote about on arriving there in 1932: "The people are unreal. The flowers are unreal, they don't smell. The fruit is unreal, it doesn't taste of anything. The whole place is a glaring, gaudy, nightmarish set, built up in a desert."
Songwriter Larry Norman said that, after becoming a Christian, he deplored the notion of religion.
"I find it better to put my trust in what I know to be true rather than what some religious doctrine says to be true. Often, they are not the same things."
Author Steve McSwain grew up in the Baptist church and was a minister for 20 years. Like Rice, he left to follow Christ when he came to the conclusion that "the church was more lost than the world it was trying to save".
Anne Rice and many others might hope for a spiritual reformation in the churches some day. But until then they will continue to find God outside the confines.
As she said this week: "Following Christ does not mean following his followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been, or might become."
SIC: HSCAU