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The context was this...
My two points were 1. It being a fictional story and 2. Anne Rice having "left the church" as you understate it. In fact I cited the Wiki on Rice. The excerpts (following the link below) actually include some quotes and read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Rice#Renunciation_of_Christianity
"Today I quit being a Christian.... or to being part of Christianity. It’s simply impossible for me to 'belong' to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group." And later she says that she won't be "following His followers."
In between, and consistent perhaps with her having written the fictional book(s) about Him, she says (paraphrasing) that she still attaches personal importance to her version of Jesus, a version that has nothing to do with His Religion or His followers, those aforementioned "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous" folk.
She's 100% "an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God". A loving God that one presumes couldn't possibly condone all those "quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous" folk, but loves Anne Rice to pieces I guess? Anyway, that's her private Christ, but please keep the quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous folk away.
Or wait a few weeks or months, who knows. Maybe Pope Francis will bring her back. 
Best. Pope. Ever. IMO! Personally, I'm Roman Catholic and will die Roman Catholic. My first name is after a saint and my second name is after a saint and my surname is the fourth most common in Ireland and quite common beyond it here in Canada and in the U.S. and elsewhere. I'm a great believer in forgiveness and redemption and I wish Anne Rice well. But c'mon, if you don't realize that crap like the above, and fiction about Jesus from someone who spouted crap like the above, will have some effect you're delusional.
All I said was it "will limit upside". Duh. MASSIVE FRICKIN' DUH. Unless you think it can be kept a complete secret that (1) Rice had a Christian-bashing hissy fit when she "left the church" as you, uh, secretively put it because it was worse than that, and (2) that it's literally her own fictional take on Jesus Out of Egypt and all the rest, then it has to have an effect. Christian churches and groups and media and so on don't have to bother making any "big deal" out of anything. A lot of this is stuff they're already aware of from the original brouhaha and it will limit the upside.
Many of Rice's traditional readers were also ticked off at her for the original conversion, so getting them to see a Jesus movie from her book will not necessarily be an easy sell either. Likewise any anti-religion and in particular anti-Christian folk. They might partly think "You go girl!" on Rice's Christian-bashing, but having to pay to see her Jesus movie when she was still in cahoots with them?
That's probably a tough sell. So the more Focus Features tries to widen the net the more resistance there might be from all sides. Embracing and/or trying to fuel the controversy might lose one for every one it gains.
No doubt some will go see it. I'm reminded a bit of Dracula 2000 I think it was, where Dracula turned out to be Judas in a reveal at the end. Adjusted domestic its opening weekend was $13M and $33M total domestic.
If it makes that they'll probably be ecstatic.
CHRIST news... May 16, 13:02
DL: A September 15 start date has been set [CHRST]. May 16, 13:05
Thanks for the proper formatting AB ;) {nm} May 16, 13:06
Focus Features {nm} May 16, 13:06
The context was this... May 16, 23:59
I think you should look from outside your personal context. May 17, 07:14
Darren Aronofsky is an atheist and Noah got standing ovations from Christian audiences. {nm} May 16, 14:26
LOL WHAT {nm} May 16, 14:32
im moreso questioning the standing ovation part. {nm} May 16, 16:31
Aronofsky is Jewish, not Atheist. Modern Christian definitions of "faith* are wholly unrelated to any Jewish tradition. {nm} May 18, 13:48