Consistency is the Hobgoblin, etc.
A link from a link, and I stumbled onto Anne Rice's official website today, and this fascinating bundle of contradictions.
Anne Rice, she the author of Interview with the Vampire and many other tales of witches, horrors, the grotesque and the occult, is now claiming herself as a Christian writer with a vocation from God. I do not disagree; her last book Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt was a fantastic, historical, grounded-in-research take on the childhood years of Jesus. You know, the years of which we know wisdom and stature and nothing else.
Anyways, the transition from second-most-popular-author-of-modern-horror-literature to Baptist-Book-Store-superstar is just the beginning of the confusion and shape-shifting that the uninformed might be suprised to find here on her official website. In the article that I link to above, Rice endorses Hillary Clinton for President. (That move gets a rowdy "Boo!" from me, but my personal preferences are off topic at the moment.)
She mentions for a minute or two her deep faith in the separation of church and state, how it has been beneficial for our country, and yet how the separation somehow seems to dissapear when a person of faith is actually engaged in the activity of choosing a candidate. We want our future president to reflect our values, if not actually legislating them. Point well made.
Then, Rice blankly states that she is a Democrat, and that she believes that the values of the Gospels, the values that she now holds most dear, are most closely aligned with the priorities of the Democratic Party. Social gospel things like combating poverty and homelessness, and working out peace and love. Hrm. Interesting, and I'm not saying that I disagree. Christianity has been hijacked by the Republican Party for far too long now. I started to say "Christianity and the Gospels," but come to think of it, I don't think that Republicans have pretended to care too much about the Gospels and what Jesus actually said. In my lifetime at least.
Then, she claims to be Pro-Life. Sproing. She uses the term "horror of abortion" no less than five times in the next few paragraphs. But here's the real shocker: Rice says that she believes that the Democratic Party is the group most able to find a solution to end the problem of abortion in America. Wha?!?! She doesn't want to attack the problem through any means of legal, judicial, or political recourse, and doesn't offer any concrete means to solution. But suggests that we should be looking to promote alternative outcomes for unwanted pregnancies instead of judicial activism as a means of healing the horror. That means no more conservative activist judges, y'all, forcing their impoverished take on morality on the country. Yeah.
When I first read this piece, I was struck by what a bundle of contradictions it seems to be. She says: I'm a Christian author. I'm for the separation of church and state. I'm a Democrat. I'm trying to live the values of Jesus. I'm against ending Roe vs. Wade. I'm Pro-Life.
After further reflection and a closer examination of my own mind, I find that not only do I think that her stance on most of these issues is consistent and reconcileable, I find that it is mine as well.
With one major caveat - the Clinton endorsement. She actually forgot to make a case for that particular choice, saying nothing in particular about her candidate. So I suggest this instead: Obama '08. Yes We Can.
 | Currently listening : Seven Swans By Sufjan Stevens Release date: 16 March, 2004 |
