A non-Christian who believes in Christ?

I'm doing OK, and will tell more of what's been happening to me later today or tomorrow.  Right now, I just want to post a link to this:  http://marquee.blogs.cnn.com/2010/07/30/anne-rice-leaves-christianity/?hpt=Sbin  In the name of Christ, Anne Rice has left Christianity. This is interesting on several levels. She appeals to conscience, which the Catholic Church regards as supreme (although with the stipulations that one is obliged to seek the truth sincerely, and to seek to form one's conscience correctly, with the mind of the Church). Rice, perhaps unknowingly, says something similar to one of the points made by the Vatican Council II document Gaudium et spes (Joy and  Hope) which says in section 19:  


"For, taken as a whole, atheism is not a spontaneous development but stems from a variety of causes, including a critical reaction against religious beliefs, and in some places against the Christian religion in particular. Hence believers can have more than a little to do with the birth of atheism. To the extent that they neglect their own training in the faith, or teach erroneous doctrine, or are deficient in their religious, moral or social life, they must be said to conceal rather than reveal the authentic face of God and religion."


Rice is, of course, no atheist. She is a believer, and a serious one at that. She simply is rejecting the institutions. This is a non-western sensibility, not a western one, which tends to regard beliefs as part of the institutional apparatus and the institutions as essential to preservation of beliefs, at least correct beliefs.


It will be interesting to see how her thought develops. There is a communitarian dimension to Christianity in all its forms. The lone believer, isolated from a community of faith, often slips toward unbelief. But must the community of faith be an organization? In the digital world, cyber communities abound.  These are fluid, often temporary, and without clear borders or criteria for membership. Do these, in our age, comprise a community of faith?