Last week my friend Bryan White wrote a wonderfully thought provoking article (on our 40th Street blog) about Oprah Winfrey and her religious beliefs and teachings which, with the help of her “panel of spiritual authorities” (who seem to be on Larry King Live every other night!), have taken America by a storm. Move over Joel Osteen.
So what’s the message and why is it so popular? Here’s a quote from the article:
“Essentially, this worldview affirms the inherent goodness of human beings. However, one somehow becomes distanced from this purer version of the self as he/she exists in the everyday world. Thus, human beings need liberation. This is achieved through practicing spiritual disciplines of meditation and reflection in order to realize our true connection with the Universe. As one guest on her show put it, we all have an inner light – like one inside a lantern. However, that glass tends to accumulate dirt, preventing the light from emanating in full. Our goal is to repeatedly wipe away the dirt in order that it may continue to shine.“
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5 responses to “The Gospel According to Oprah”
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“Augustine says: ‘The entire Scripture is vain. If you say that God is a Word, then it is thereby spoken; but if you say that God is unspoken, then God is also unspeakable.’ But God is clearly something, so who can speak this Word? No one can except for one who is this Word. God is a Word which speaks itself. Wherever God is, there he speaks this Word; wherever he is not, there he does not speak. God is spoken and unspoken. The Father is a speaking action and the Son is an active speech. What is in me goes out from me; if I am only thinking it, then my word reveals it and yet remains inside me. It is in this way that the Father speaks the unspoken Son and yet the Son remains in the Father. I have often said that God’s exit is his entrance. As much as I am near God, to that extent God speaks himself in me. To the extent that all creatures who are gifted with reason go out from themselves in all that they do, to that same extent they go into themselves. With merely material creatures this is not the case; the more they do, the more they go out from themselves. All creatures want to express God in all their works; let them all speak, coming as close as they can, they still cannot speak him. Whether they want to or not, whether it is pleasing or painful to them, they all want to speak God and he still remains unspoken.”
– Meister Eckhart
Trevor, That’s pretty deep. Just so I make sure I understand what you mean, are you making the case that we should not criticize or critique other people’s teachings and viewpoints on God because, in light of God’s transcendent nature, it is impossible for us to say anything more meaningful or true about Him? Or perhaps I misunderstood. How would you sum up your point?
The fact that I comment on theology blogs should tell you that I am open to criticizing or critiquing other people’s teachings and viewpoints.
I think that your post is rather open ended, and would be especially to a Mockingbird outsider who did not understand how the Gospel according to Oprah differed from the Gospel that is the message of Mockingbird.
I guess my question for you is, why do you think the Oprah message is so popular? I think by quoting that “this worldview affirms the inherent goodness of human beings,” you were addressing that question, which you yourself asked in the post, but can you flesh that out a bit for us? I happened to read the Meister Eckhart passage right before reading this post, and thought it spoke to that question, and that it speaks to all seekers, Christians and New Age spiritualists alike.
Yes, well said. I feel exactly the same way – it needs fleshing out. I guess I asked the question because I’m not really sure why it is so popular. To me, it doesn’t sound like good news at all. I live in an upper-class suburb surrounded by a great deal of kind, responsible religious people who find great encouragement in people like Joel Osteen and Oprah. They speak often of “God’s potential” for their lives, and often relate the gospel with self-made material success.
Many of them attend my Episcopal church and at times I have found myself sitting in the pews thinking, “The words in this Prayer Book about sin, sickness, powerlessness, death, propitiation, justification, and resurrection don’t make ANY SENSE at all. No one needs this crap, because people are doing just fine! They’re not perfect, but they’re doing just fine.”
But then a few days later I spend time with their kids and realize that they have parents who are dying, who are unflinchingly racist, who are openly cheating one another, and who are addicted to alcohol and/or cocaine. And that’s just the obvious stuff. But everyone comes to church with smiling faces. It’s weird you know?
But it’s as if no one expects or wants religion to address those particular issues, because the only religion they’ve ever heard in that category comes in the form of judgment and condemnation. And I’m not sure Oprah or Osteen are any different unfortunately. Perhaps one of the most common teachings I’ve heard from either of them regarding success in life is, “You’ve got to stop spending time with those people who are holding you back, the kind of people who are always stuck in a rut. They’re going to drag you down with them.”
But why do we buy into that? I mean I guess I get why, because I buy into it too, but we’re doing what we do not want to do. People long for love, not success. When was the last time you saw a feel-good movie that ended with, “And then she ditched all her friends so she could finally get that position at Bank of America.” Movies resolve with love because people long for love, even if they get dragged down with the beloved in the end (which they almost certainly will).
But like John Zahl commented on his post earlier today, before we believe in the Gospel, we think the bad is good and the good bad. So maybe that’s part of the reason i think people buy into this American religious movement. We seek to solve our problems with narcissism and the delusion of control, but the problem is that narcissism and the delusion of control is what has caused all of our problems. So Oprah’s message may be trying to put out a fire with gasoline. And if that’s true, to me, it’s certainly worth saying, “Hey, if you do that, this isn’t going to end well.”
Some food for thought to chew on:
Will people ever embrace the Good News that God became Man and died for their sins on the cross if they never realize and accept the fact that they are indeed sinners? Jesus said that those who are sick need a physician. He didn’t come to call the righteous (or those who think they are righteous in and of themselves), but sinners. Why did He tell the religious leaders that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before them (Matt.21:32)? He gave the answer in His parable of the two brothers (prodigal and proud in Luke 15), but we need to read it in light of the context (see Luke 15:1-3).
Paul said that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” not those who think they are doing just fine, and even evolving into perfection.
As long as we are defending our own righteousness (of which we have none; see Rom.3:9-20), God is accusing us. But the moment we confess our sinful condition and cry out for God to be merciful to us because of Jesus’ work on the cross, He defends us against all who would condemn us. And that is Good News indeed!