Anne Rice on Christ, Prop. 8

Author Anne Rice says her anger over discovering the Catholic Church she'd donated thousands of dollars to turned around and spent millions helping to pass Proposition 8 in California is one of the main reasons she publicly declared she's leaving Christianity.

In an interview with Out.com, Rice says when she "simply did not foresee that degree of hatred and persecution" when she went back to the church in 1998. Same-sex marriage wasn't the serious issue it is now, she says.

Rice says her relationship with Christianity has always been shaky, and she took a lot of heat for supporting Hillary Clinton in her presidential bid. But nothing floored her like seeing the hate speech the church has focused on gays and lesbians in recent years.

"If you read any part of the New Testament, there is no authority there for Christians to go out of their group and attack a minority in the secular culture," Rice says. "I was really against the things I saw people saying and doing. So, that added considerable pressure."

The author says she still plans to write for Christ -- "to be a believer in Christ, one does not have to be part of" Christianity, she says -- and is currently working on her new book.

Click here to read more from Rice's interview, in which she talks about her son Christopher coming out, the Twilight series, and why she's a huge fan of White Collar.