Somedays, I Get Anne Rice Quitting Christianity
A lot of you have already seen this, but since I just read about it late last night, I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that there are people reading this who aren't aware of the recent statements made by Elizabeth Moon regarding citizenship, and specifically singling out Muslims as people she (and others) "lean over backwards" to accomodate.
I stayed up late last night reading through the whole mess. I slept, came to work, and am still disgusted and disappinted. People at her blog have already taken her to task, some more eloquently than I ever could. So the obvious question I guess is why bother posting this?
A big part of it is out of solidarity to the community who is responding to it. Thank you.
The other reason I've spent time writing this is because of a personal frustration with my Christian tribe.
I see myself primarily in two tribes (although others might place me in more): Christian/spiritual and Geek. I've been a Christian most of my life. I've been a geek ever since I was conscious.
When I was in college, and when I was living overseas for a year after that, I really, really tried to sort out why I still believed in Christianity. And it came down to a couple of things: I dug what Jesus said and did - specifically, the greatest commandments. Love God with everything you've got is kind of an obvious one for a religious leader, right? But putting love your neigbor right up there with loving God? I gotta say: that's a fucking awesome and beautiful way for a god to tell you how to live. And I think if you boiled down my faith, my character, you'd be left with that - with loving people, and grace, and redemption.
But sometimes I'm ashamed. Sometimes I'm ashamed of other Christians, sometimes I'm ashamed that I haven't pulled the plank out of my own eye.
I remember reading on my F-list when Anne Rice quit Christianity - someone essentially said, well that's kind of harsh, isn't it? What about the Quakers? What about the other "Christian progressives"?
Yes, but sometimes I'm frustrated by them, too. Hell, I flatter myself by thinking I'm one of them, and I'm sure I've frustrated people reading this. But when smart, intelligent ones like Moon who in the past said things I can really get behind like: "There have been changes in the Episcopal church, making it to my mind more fundamentalist. Which is not the tradition I grew up in, or one that I can handle. If everybody's not welcome, then I'm not welcome either. If I can't bring my friends to church and know that they will be welcomed no matter who they are, then I have some serious problems with that."
Whether it was intended or not (and right now, it's hard to believe on some level it wasn't), people in one of my tribes is not being made welcome by people in my other tribe. And that really grates me. Especially since the one tribe is commanded (by who that tribe believes is the son of God, no less) to love. In this commandment, there are no exceptions made by Jesus. You love your neighbor. You make them feel welcome.
I sincerely hope we hear again from Elizabeth Moon on this matter, and when we do, that she apologizes, and she welcomes the people she's hurt.