Oprah's Religion Controversy

Oprah has a new passion, the new age movement which she is promoting. (My thoughts: Nietzsche said God is dead, new age = Everything is God.)

Oprah identifies herself as a Christian. She told her television audience that she believes that God is love and that God is in all things. And with that, "the search for something more than doctrine started to stir within me," she said. In the course of her search she met Marianne Williamson. In one of her book's promotional tours, "A Course in Miracles," she guested in Oprah's show and she got sold. Oprah said the principles of "A Course in Miracles" can change the world. On Jan 1 of this year, Williamson began teaching "A Course of Miracles" on Oprah's XM Satellite radio channel. Beginning January 1, 2008, Oprah (& Friends) will offer a year-long course on the New Age teachings of A Course in Miracles. One lesson a day throughout the year will have covered 365 lessons from the Course in Miracles "Workbook."

Accordingly, the participants who finish the Course will have a redefined spiritual mindset — that of a New Age worldview that includes the belief that there is no sin, no evil, no devil, and that God is "in" everyone and everything. (Hmmm...~thinks~) This Course in Miracles also teaches its students to rethink everything they believe about God and life. The Course Workbook bluntly states: "This is a course in mind training" and is dedicated to "thought reversal." The teacher will be Marianne Williamson, one of today's "new age" leaders.

"According to Marianne, A Course in Miracles is a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy contained in three books. It is not a religion, but rather a psychological mind-training base on universal spiritual themes. The practical goal of the Course is the attainment of inner peace through the practice of forgiveness."

"A Course in Miracles (often called just "the Course") is an educational program for retraining the mind that is spiritual, rather than religious, in its perspective. Although it uses Christian terminology, the Course expresses a universal experience, and its underlying ontology is reminiscent of ancient refrains, echoing the world's most hallowed traditions. …

The Workbook includes 365 lessons, one for each day of the year. It is not necessary, however, to do the lessons at that tempo, and one might want to remain with a particularly appealing lesson for more than one day. The instructions urge only that not more than one lesson a day should be attempted. The practical nature of the Workbook is underscored by the introduction to its lessons, which emphasizes experience through application rather than a prior commitment to a spiritual goal."




So now, the Fundies are up in arms against this because according to them, Oprah is the most dangerous woman on the planet, a spiritual crack and an anti-Christ and that these teachings bear no doctrinal resemblance to the bible's JC and have been labeled perverted spiritual teachings.





We will see more backlash with the religious fanatics, zealots or fundies....but wait....there are too many gullible people out there. Who knows? But wait! She might pull this one, too. People always buy those self-help spiritual guides, and now that Oprah is into it, my crystal ball says she will be regarded as the "new age queen."

New ideas that become popular gets a cult following until it grows big and eventually becomes a tradition, a belief, a system, a way of life. All religion started out as a cult. This one bears no difference. Just a different grasp of a god -

Maybe someday I'll invent a religion, too, and probably have a cult following of my own.

"Because"

Ever heard of the adage, "people are so busy making a living that they forget to live?" This is so very me. My work has taken me from "Living." I am not complaining, it's either that or I stop enjoying all the UNnecessary things in life. Yeah!

Anyway, I read in the news that Dave Clark Five's lead singer, Mike Smith, died of pneumonia at the age of 64. I am somewhat a big fan of the song, "Because." That was the first song I ever taught my daughter, Jan, to sing. In fact I still have the tape when she sang it when she was 7 years old. Memories of when she was a child flood my thoughts whenever I hear that tape.

It dawned on me that even if I believe that there's nothing after we die, there's a certain legacy that people leave behind, no matter how, to some, it might seem insignificant.