http://blithespirit.wordpress.com/2008/03/17/oprah-bailed-out-of-obamas-church/The plot thickens in the matter of Oprah Winfrey’s belonging to or attending Trinity United Church of Christ on 95th St. in Chicago, as mentioned in various places, including in a Chi Trib piece in January 2007:
At least one member of Rev. Wright’s church apparently had her fill of [his] rhetoric. Oprah Winfrey, a staunch backer of Mr. Obama, began attending the church in 1984. But sometime in the mid-1990s, Christianity Today reports the superstar abruptly stopped going.
That’s John Fund in the subscription-only Political Diary of the Wall St. Journal. He’s referring to Christianity Today’s 4/1/02 piece, “The Religion of O,” which quotes a Black Collegian magazine column in which Wright shows himself irked by Winfrey’s departure and indulges in some unseemly backbiting:
Wright mentioned Oprah as an example of African Americans who forget their roots in the church after finding success. “A lot of us do not even like the word faith anymore,” he wrote [in the column]. “We prefer the more chic-sounding word, spirituality! We are caught up in an Oprah-generated mentality and a 12-step vocabulary that prevents us from using the very words and the very bridge that ‘brought us over!’ “
He makes her out to be a cheapskate in his comments to the CT writer:
“I think it is hard for most very wealthy people to be a part of the church,” he says. “Somebody who makes $100 a week has no problem tithing. But start making $35 million a year, and you’ll want to renegotiate the contract. You don’t want to be a part of ‘organized religion’ at that point. That’s a generalized statement, but that’s what I’ve found across the years. The wealthier somebody gets, the more they pull away from the church.”
In any case, she had not attended the church for eight years, Wright said in 2002, presenting her as a backslider:
“She has broken with the [traditional faith],” he says. “She now has this sort of ‘God is everywhere, God is in me, I don’t need to go to church, I don’t need to be a part of a body of believers, I can meditate, I can do positive thinking’ spirituality. It’s a strange gospel. It has nothing to do with the church Jesus Christ founded.”
Fund speculates that she wanted “to distance herself from [Wright’s] fiery speech” and notes that Obama “took a different path,” remaining in the church.
Interesting. I wonder if Oprah ever joined another congregation. Pastor Wright rails against her and talks about the tithing of poorer people as opposed to Oprah. So, I think his irritation is the loss of having a billionaire leave his church - resulting in a loss of lots of mega bucks. I doubt he is really worried about Oprah’s soul.
What a contrast between other preachers and this little people hater who claims to be a Christian. Most Christian clergymen do not give a rip about anyone’s skin color, just their souls.
I have often wondered why the blacks persist in being segregated on Sunday. Now I understand it. They have been fed a gospel of bitterness and hate, which explains a lot about all the pathologies their communities face. Nothing is ever their fault. Every one is out to get them. So, with that indoctrination they can never look internally to themselves to uplift their lives and and improve their behaviors.
Remember how Bill Cosby was berated when he tried to tell the blacks that they needed to reform their behaviors? He was exoriated.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Oprah is clearly into the New Age realm of “spirituality” today. However, after knowing about the content of the so-called “gospel” she would have been receiving at Wright’s church, I almost can’t fault her. I just wish she would have searched for a real Christian church that actually preached the real Gospel instead of a gospel of hate and black supremacy.