Author Anne Rice has had a religious conversion: She's no longer a Christian.

"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," the author wrote on her Facebook page.

"In the name of... Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian. Amen."

Rice, 68, is best known for Interview With a Vampire and other gothic novels.

Raised as a Catholic, she had rejected the church early in her life but renewed her faith in recent years and in 2008 released the memoir Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.

In a phone interview, Rice said she had been having doubts for the past two to three years.

She was troubled by the child abuse scandals in the church, and the church's defensive reaction, and by the ex-communication of Sister Margaret McBride, a nun and hospital administrator who had approved an abortion for a woman whose life was in danger.

"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.

"But then I began to realise that it wasn't an easy thing to do," said Rice, speaking from her home near Palm Springs, California.

"I came to the conclusion that if I didn't make this declaration, I was going to lose my mind."

Rice said she is a Democrat who supports the historic health care legislation signed into law by President Barack Obama and believes gay marriage inevitably will be permitted throughout the country.

Although no longer part of any denomination, she remains a believer and continues to read theology and post Biblical passages on her Facebook page.

She has no immediate plans to write about her leaving the church and will continue with her metaphysical fiction series, Songs of the Seraphim.

Rice will not be taking up vampires again, but she said she is a big fan of the HBO series True Blood, enjoyed the first two Twilight movies (she has yet to read any of the Stephenie Meyer novels) and is interested in seeing her most famous character, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, return to the screen.

"We're in talks about it," she said.

"But then we've always been in talks about it. Hope springs eternal in California."

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.
When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.
Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
     But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asked him, "What is your name?"
     "Jacob," he answered.

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

Jacob said, "Please tell me your name."
     But he replied, "Why do you ask my name?" Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

lisa, yes.

this woman appears to have quite a struggle on her hands.

Quote:


genesis 32:24-30