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Entertainment :: Books
Called Out Of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession
by Jack Gardner
EDGE Contributor
Tuesday Oct 7, 2008

Anne Rice is one of the most well known

contemporary authors. Her books, many
dealing with the supernatural, the gothic
and the mystical, have topped the
bestseller lists for the past thirty years.
After the publication of "Blood Canticle" in
2003, she walked away from the world of
vampires and witches and devoted her
talents to writing for Christ. It was at this
same time that she returned, after a thirty
eight year absence, to her own personal
faith. Called Out Of Darkness: A Spiritual
Convession is the story of her birth in
faith and her journey into atheism and
back again.

Even if you don’t consider yourself to be a

religious person - even if you are not a
Christian - read this book. Anyone can
appreciate the message contained in
"Called Out of Darkness." It appealed to
me especially because it is a thinking
person’s approach to faith. There is never
a point in her journey where Ms. Rice
accepted givens. She never ceases to
question the dictums of her church or for
that matter the dictums of her atheism.

From a literary standpoint, "Called Out Of

Darkness" is typical Anne Rice. Lush
descriptions and a sense of the visual
make the words come alive, filling every
paragraph. Rice’s prose has always been
evocative and captivating and this work is no exception. Describing events from out of
her childhood in New Orleans to her life in California, her words convey a sense of
time, place, atmosphere and emotion in an easy and readable way that few other
writers can replicate.

In "Called Out of Darkness," Rice frequently discusses her difficulty acquiring the
ability to read - both as a child and as an adult - a weakness in her mind, but in my
mind possibly a gift. The difficulty of thinking in words forced Rice to think in images
and it is this profound imagery that makes her writing so appealing. Her sense of the
auditory and the visual dominates her writing.

In her youth, the Catholic Church was a major force in her life. She was born and
raised in a predominately Catholic neighborhood in New Orleans with very little
exposure to non-Catholics until, as a teenager, she moved to Texas. She writes of her
love of going to church as a child and the emphasis of God as part of the household
that her parents instilled into her. It wasn’t until young adulthood that she realized
that because she was a woman, there were barriers put in front of her as regards her
life in the Church. It was these barriers that caused her to turn away from the Catholic
Church and ultimately from faith in general.

One of the things that impresses me about Rice is that at no point in time does she
refer to her years as an atheist as a "black" period. She accepts her life for what it
was, and if anything, her time away from the church helped her find her faith in a
stronger and more grounded way. "Called Out of Darkness" focuses mostly on her
youth and her return to faith. The years in between are covered adequately, but they
are not what the book is about. This book was never intended to be a blow by blow
memoir of her life, rather it is a portrait of a spiritual journey.

Many times, memoirs can be self-absorbed and often writers see themselves through
rose-colored glasses. Rice is very aware of her own flaws and the mistakes she has
made in her life as well as her own graces and talents and she treats them all equally.
In coming into her faith, Rice has learned to accept her life the way it is and to work
every day to learn to love her fellow humans.

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Called Out Of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession :: EDGE United States http://www.edgeunitedstates.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=books...

Rice, admittedly, has always been fascinated by history rather than current times and
she chronicles both her early learning of religion as a child and her research as an
adult in preparing to write about Christ. In the last chapter of the memoir, she chides
herself for entering in to the realm of religion blindly without knowing what was
happening in the Catholic Church and the current ecclesiastical climate. It is her
answer to this, in the last chapter, that I admire most about the book.

"Centuries ago, the stars were sacred. A man could be burnt at the stake for declaring
that the earth revolved around the sun. Churchmen feared that if astronomers gained
authority over the Heavens, Scripture would be undermined.

But no such thing took place. Scripture is too great, too powerful, too fathomless for
such a thing to take place.

Now the Christian world holds the stars to be secular . . . .Is it not possible for us to
do with gender, sexuality and reproduction what was long ago done with the stars?"

And at another point, Rice writes,

"Try as I might, I can find nothing in Holy Scripture that supports this contemporary
obsession with sex and gender on the part of our conservative churches. In fact, the
more I study Scripture, the more amazed I am to discover that Jesus Christ Himself
cared nothing about gender at all."

and

"The more I study this, the more I listen to people around me talk about their
experience with Jesus Christ and with religion, the more I realize as well that what
drives people away from Christ is the Christian who does not know how to love. A
string of cruel words from a Christian can destroy another Christian."

It is wonderful to hear these words from someone who has embraced faith. As both a
gay man and a Catholic, I especially empathize with Rice’s abandonment with her
faith. And as a Catholic, I completely understand her return to the Church; it is a
spiritual home that is very difficult to leave behind forever. But it is a spiritual home
which is very difficult to live in when you are vilified for who you love. My hope is that
Rice’s words of love and tolerance and understanding will have influence and help start
the movement of gender, sexuality and reproduction out of the sacred world and into
the secular, so that we may all find our spiritual home in whatever church and
whatever faith we choose to practice.

Alfred A. Knopf Publishers. $23.95. In stores October 7th, 2008. 256 pages. Available
wherever books are sold or online through Amazon.

ISBN-13: 978-0307268273

Jack Gardner is a founding producer of and director for Anagram Productions. He has performed in
Operas, Musicals and dramatic works as well as doing voice over and radio work. Jack lives in Miami
with his three dogs.

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