The cult vampire book author Anne Rice announced on her Facebook page that she has decided to turn her back on Christianity but will hang on to Jesus.

The author’s publisher authenticated the comments which explained to her millions of fans why she was turning away from organized religion despite the fact that her more recent books have been heavily influenced by her Irish American Catholic upbringing.

She posted “For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian. I'm out. I remain committed to Christ as always but not to being "Christian" or to being part of Christianity. It's simply impossible for me to "belong" to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Rice grew up in New Orleans, Lousiana and was the second daughter of the Catholic Irish American family. Writing is certainly a family gift and Rice’s late sister, Alice Borchardt, also became a noted author. Her son Christopher Rice is now a success novelist also.

Her online posts also commented on the Churches attitude to homosexuality. She commented as the mother of an openly gay man “I refuse to be anti-gay. I refuse to be anti-feminist. I refuse to be anti-artificial birth control. I refuse to be anti-Democrat. I refuse to be anti-secular humanism. I refuse to be anti-science. I refuse to be anti-life. In the name of Christ, I quit Christianity and being Christian men.”

Rice clearly finds solace in religion and spirituality. In an interview with USA today some time ago she explained that she started to write her vampire novels after her young daughter had died.

In the interview she explained that the books are “...about lost souls looking for answers, so in a sense I was always on this journey back. I do get people saying, "How can you be such a fool to believe in God?' I sense many are young Goth kids who feel  abandoned. I just say, look, you're looking for the same things that I was, transcendence and redemption. I found what my  characters were looking for."