Today I am taking the risk of ruffling a few feathers. I want to like Oprah Winfrey. She seems to be a kind woman who does many good things through charities she supports, etc. Yet some of the things she says and promotes would cause people to rise up against her -- if she were not Oprah Winfrey. It's like she is untouchable. Millions of people bow down to her every whim. Actually, it is pretty scary.
Let me begin by saying I get real tired of receiving emails that run down celebrities and politicians -- making all kinds of slanderous accusations about them. For Christians to take part in the spreading of gossip and untruths intended to destroy a person's character is sinful. But I have found the following information on Oprah's own web site. I have read a transcript of a discussion she had on her show in which she doggedly asked a Christian man how he could say there is only one way to heaven. And she claims to be a Christian! Listen, my brothers and sisters: If any other celebrity had done that, the Christian people of America would be boycotting him or her. Imagine if Tom Cruise said that. Or John McCain. Or Hillary Clinton.
But of greater concern perhaps is her promoting of "A Course on MIracles" -- a daily feature on her XM radio program. This is new age to the core. I have gone to the web site and read up on it. It promotes all religions as paths to God. It claims that we are our own god. It says (these are quotes): A "slain Christ has no meaning." It says, "The journey to the cross should be the last useless journey." Here is a great quote; try it at your church this weekend: "Do not make the pathetic error of clinging to the old rugged cross." Or this one: "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." And finally, "The Atonement is the final lesson he (man) need learn, for it teaches him that, never having sinned, he has no need of salvation."
This attacks the Christian faith at its very core. Again, I want to like Oprah. I do not thing she intends to be a conduit for evil. But I DO believe that she is vulnerable to the tug of new age religion. And her endorsement of anything has tremendous power. Remember what Paul warned (2 Corinthians 11: 14) "Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light."
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2 comments:
Wow! I knew she was off, but I didn't realize it was to that extent. I love the line in the Casting Crowns song, "What if His people prayed", that we need to stop looking to Oprah and start looking to God.
I generally like Oprah, what little I have seen of her. She does seem to be a likeable person and have some good causes. BUt from what I have seen, she and her show is indeed the essence of post-modern psycho-babble: boundary blurring defined.
If she denies the all sufficiency of Jesus and the atoning sacrifice of the cross, ultimately, that is one boundary that she and her followers will not be able to cross. Pun intended.
I choose to believe and put my hope in the Word.
P.S. I'd be on my guard against Dr. Phil, as well.
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