Twists of faith
WHEN bestselling novelist Anne Rice was a good Catholic girl growing up in New Orleans, she dreamed of becoming a leader of the church. Instead, she abandoned Catholicism at 18 and stopped believing in God. She joined the Haight-Ashbury hippie milieu and evolved into the bestselling author who elevated the sexually ambiguous vampire Lestat to cult status. She wrote pornography under one pen name and erotica under another.
Now, she has come full circle -- and in a weird way, may finally be getting her childhood wish.
Rice has written a novel on the boyhood of Jesus called "Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt." It is a bestseller. It has given her a high profile in the religious press and a platform for her ardently reformist views on the future of Christianity.
Her views will not please all of the devout. Rice favors gay marriage. She believes the church position regarding birth control is a grievous error that is not supported by Scripture. She repudiates what she sees as intolerant, "sex-obsessed" church leaders, and says she does not find support in the message of Jesus for their focus on sexual orientation or abortion. She argues for a more inclusive church.
"Think of how the church bells would ring and the pews would fill if women could become priests and priests could marry. It would be the great resurgence of the Catholic Church in this country," Rice said recently, seated in front of a roaring fire, in the La Jolla mansion she moved to after she left New Orleans.
Even Rice's new home has a monastic air. Saints on pedestals raise their arms to the sunlight that streams down on them from high windows. Gilt wood mingles with furniture deeply carved with learned robed men and other baroque motifs. The Pacific Ocean shimmers below. Here, as the Christian press besieges her with interview requests and urges readers to form study groups to read her book, Rice is revealing her own message about Jesus.
"He doesn't say anything about abortion," Rice said. "He doesn't say anything about gays. I abhor abortion too. But to make Christianity rise and fall on these issues is a great distortion of Christ's message."
The reception in the religious community to her book has been positive, though not unanimously so -- a few religious bookstores have refused to stock or advertise "Christ the Lord." "Christianity Today" published a warm profile of Rice, "Interview With a Penitent," a tone that is echoed by conservative commentators who praise Rice for vividly bringing to life a 7-year-old boy named Jesus.
