The feel-good [ego-centric] spirituality of Oprah

OSV via TCRnews.org ^ | 1-13-2002 | Amy Wellborn

[Notwithstanding]

[Notwithstanding]

Zukav: Do you like yourself?

Oprah: I don’t just like me. I adore me.

Zukav: What do you adore the most?

Oprah: I adore my groundedness. I adore my ability to listen to other people. I adore particularly my ability to listen to what I call my intuition, my Voice.

[bleudevil]

Wow. This author really nailed it. I'm not the most religious person myself, but I sensed something hazy in all her "spirituality" talk.

[GWfan]

Of course she adores herself. No celebrity is missing self-love. BTW-you forgot the barf alert.

[oprahstheantichrist]

Messiah complex. Bookmarked! Thanks for posting.

[coydog]

BWAAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sorry, couldn't help it...

[mc5cents]

An excellent piece. I started out liking it, then was thinking well, what is wrong with that(Oprah's thinking) and then ended up thinking that the writer is right on target.

Where is God in Oprah's "spirituality"? Hmmm? Nowhere. It's all about self. New age BS. But popular. And that is what it really is all about. Ain't it Oprah?

[meowmeow]

Oprah and her Cult of Self give me the spiritual creeps. Amy finally put it all into words for me – she’s right on. I agree that some churches need to reach out to the broken souls in a positive way, but it needs to be balanced with the reminder that we are NOT basically good and we cannot redeem ourselves. As my husband put it when we were looking for a new church, “I want to be reminded of what a rotten sinner I am and how much I need God.”

Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips (Prov 27:2)

[Faithfull]

Nothing in this article surprises me. I talk with neighbors who are so enthralled with Oprah that I have to fight to keep a straight face. They all love Oprah but not a one of them can speak intelligently on any political issue. The Oprah fans are typically the soccer moms who watch sitcoms nightly and vote on emotion and sound bites. Scary....

[RAT Patrol]

Well, I believe Oprah has a right to her own religious beliefs even if they vary from mine. I do not think she prostelytizes a new age religion, but she does prostelytize a self reflecting outlook. In this "zero personal responsibility" era that isn't all that bad.

[Hildy]

Have I ever told you guys that I was on the Oprah show?

[Hildy]

Did I ever tell you guys that I was on the Oprah show?

[kezekiel]

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

-2 Timothy 4:3-4

[Lizavetta]

I can't see Oprah's face without remembering her "look how much weight I lost" show wherein she pulled out a little red kiddie's wagon loaded up with fat.

That said, I place her "spirituality" in the same basket as the Unitarian types, where it's feel-good stuff and little effort required. You know, where you get the benefits of God without having to pay a price.

[Larightgirl]

Ok I have to admit, although I completley agree with this article, ...I'm totally hooked on Dr. Phil! If it wasn't for him I probably wouldn't watch at all.

[L.N. Smithee]

I am SOOOOOOO happy someone finally wrote this. Oprah makes my skin crawl every time I see that durn magazine with her on the cover telling America's women how they can be more like her.

That more people don't see through her fog of borrowed touchy-feely therapy and soul-free mysticism amazes me. How could anyone buy a December holiday magazine dedicated to the importance of family ties when the cover featured a single and childless woman posing with her dogs???

[Brett66]

Oprah goes on this journey of self discovery and discovers New Age philosophy. She thinks her journey is unique, she's just another dunderheaded participant of the Church of Hollywood. How trite....

[oprahstheantichrist]

Brainless, soccermom, minivanned, domineering feminists make me nuts, but one time in 1999, just as election 2000 talk was heating up, we were at a family gathering and something about Oprah came up. I'd known my older sister was an Oprah fan, but suddenly she got very quiet, lowered her eyes, looked up meekly, and in the most lowly, reverant, worshipful tone of voice said:

"I think she should run for president...."

It wasn't so much what she said, as how she said it, and the expression on her face. Genuine prostration, like for that moment she was on holy ground or something. Scary. I was stunned. All I could think of then, was that I doubted she would be that reverant toward God Himself. Not to mention this feminist pied piper really could rise to world power.

So then a few weeks later I was flipping the channels about 9:30ish, and came across the show, and it surprised me how different it was, as I hadn't watched her since the eighties. Ever sit down and watch just an average Oprah show lately? Her "spin" is very subtle, all cocooned in sugary caring-about-people-do-good-for-others feelings, but it's very strong and very leftist. You don't have to fear and love God, as long as you're "spiritual."

"SPIRITUAL?" What does that mean? Really big on angels, but not on God Himself.

What truly frightens me is the people in the audience, and again, the expressions on their faces. Complete adulation. Worshipers. It occurred to me that most of these chicks would hardly give the Lord himself the time of day.

"Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions."

Coll. 2: 18

[oprahstheantichrist]

You're not the first person I've heard this from, and never having seen this Dr. Phil guy, I must therefore ask:

How does he compare to Dr. Laura? Having heard conservatives say they like him, they must be similar, in terms of the "take responsibility for your life...." perspective on personal issues.