Just read an article by Warren Smith. Although he seems to struggle with fundamentalist paranoia, he offered many great insights into how Oprah may be shaping the spirituality of the western world.
For better or for worse, Oprah is a key figure in shaping western culture – what she is saying on spiritual things is bound to set in. The church needs to be aware of these changes in the audience they too hope to reach.
Oprah’s has recently offered A Course in Miracles via Oprah and Friends XM Radio. Those who finish the course of 365 daily soundbites will have a heavy dose of a spiritual worldviews in which there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is “in” everyone and everything. For example, Lesson #29 asks you to go through your day affirming that “God is in everything I see.” Lesson #61 tells each person to repeat the affirmation “I am the light of the world.” Lesson #70 teaches the student to say and believe “My salvation comes from me.”
Advocates of A Course in Miracles say it is quickly becoming the New Age Bible. The teachings have a blatantly universalism bent on Christianity. The course originated with Helen Schucman, was reinvented by Marianne Williamson, and was elevated to a New York Times bestseller and beyond by Oprah.
Other teachings within their literature include:
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“There is no sin. . . “
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A “slain Christ has no meaning.”
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“The journey to the cross should be the last ‘useless journey.”
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“Do not make the pathetic error of ‘clinging to the old rugged cross.’”
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“The Name of Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol… It is a symbol that is safely used as a replacement for the many names of all the gods to which you pray.”
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“God is in everything I see.”
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“The recognition of God is the recognition of yourself.”
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“The oneness of the Creator and the creation is your wholeness, your sanity and your limitless power.”
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“The Atonement is the final lesson he [man] need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation.”
I believe evangelical conversations going forward will need to incorporate more New Age terminology. Our message does not change, but we run the risk of being unintelligible if we don’t use words that are in vogue amongst spiritual seekers. Talk about their Creator, ask when they have experienced God inside of the them, how are they seeking to restore oness with God and the world? Oprahtology is more widespread amongst those we seek to influence than our Christian subculture cares to recognize.
2 responses so far ↓
divaconviva // April 4, 2008 at 2:00 pm |
I’ve been aware for years now that the television high priestess, Oprah Winfrey, has been leading people down the garden path, and I’m not talking about the Garden of Eden; rather, the path that will surely lead to death. It’s clear from God’s Word: Lean NOT on your own understanding. Wow! I think it’s possible that Oprah Winfrey has single-handedly surpassed the major established religions in misleading millions of people with teachings of good works: Give big/The BIG GIVE. Just be a good person; do good, you ARE good! Ooops, take out one “o” from “good,” and you ARE god!
How sad that so many people want to be god in their own worlds! And how seductive and insidious all this intellectualism and ‘transformed’ thinking is! People, echoing Oprah, say things like “I’m keeping an open mind” (which always gets praised), and “I’m doing it myself, I’m self-reliant” (which is always admired as strength, certainly in American culture), and the ever-popular “Who are YOU to say there’s just one God?!!” Unfortunately, millions of people have had bad experiences in churches and are hungry for a new age ’spirituality.’ So they’re latching on to the ‘law’ of . . . well, the Law of Oprah! If all these people would just read the Bible – just the New Testament – they would see the garden of theological weeds that is religiosity, and that Oprah espouses her own version of religion. But in my opinion, the heart of the problem is that SO many people just dismiss the Bible (like I did once upon a time) as too ancient and out-of-date, or they say, who knows WHO those authors were, or, as my sister says, it’s just words and fairy tales! So we followers of Christ are commissioned with faithfully modeling Jesus’ teachings, and not deceiving ourselves, so that our life is so Christ-like, all those around us look at us and say “Hey, there’s something really compelling here, something I’d like to have in my life, too!”
Bottom line: Let’s pray for each other as we witness to our friends, family, and to all people. I mean, if Paul in a rotting, stinking prison cell could rejoice and see clearly how God has chosen to make known the mystery of the supremacy of Christ to all of us, which is Christ in us, the hope of glory, then we who are born again can surely witness to our beloved ones and to all people as well.
Glory to Jehovah-Nissi, our Banner, who delivers and saves us!!
brian hofmeister // April 7, 2008 at 7:38 am |
It is interesting how people try to shortcut morality. It is a lot easier to tell youreself that you are good than actively work towards a higher standard.