Oprah, the prophetess of post-Judeo-Christian America who brought us big hug spirituality -- love yourself, save yourself -- leaves the daily stage today to run her media empire.
To whom will we turn? God?
Not likely. Many Americans no longer believe in a mighty judge who sets the rules for life now and forever. Instead, many of us sing Oprah's song of self-redemption.
She told over-his-head Piers Morgan on the CNN host's opening show:
I am the messenger to deliver the message of hope and redemption.
And to a vast extent, our culture has bought the message: We're all good, we should not judge each other and morality is relative.
When the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans documented in detail the splintered spirituality of today's believers, Rice University sociologist Michael Lindsay pointed straight to Oprah to explain our salad bar-style spirituality.
Lindsay pointed out:
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the national memorial service was at Washington's National Cathedral, conducted by Episcopal clergy. After the 9/11 attack, Oprah organized the official memorial service at Yankee Stadium, and while clergy participated, she was the master of ceremonies.
Oprah, he said draws on multiple religious traditions to "create a hodgepodge personalized faith."
This is, of course, a message that horrifies traditional believers who decry it, like Josh McDowell and Dave Sterrett in their book, 'O' God: A Dialogue on Truth and Oprah's Spirituality,"
The danger is that while appearing to use Christian and inclusive language that at first seems similar to that of Christianity, Oprah teaches a message that is radically different and absolutely contrary to the true teaching of Scripture and historic Christianity.
But she has been right on the money on spirituality, bringing to the fore spiritual thinkers such as Eckhart Tolle of The Power of Now and A New Earth. She was so impressed by Tolle's let-go-and-breathe counseling on peace through silence and stillness, she co-hosted a 10-week set of Internet seminars on how to simply be.
Oprah described how she reconciled her Baptist upbringing with Tolle teachings, saying:
What I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness. That Jesus came to show us the way of the heart and that what Jesus was saying that to show us the higher consciousness that we're all talking about here..."
Tolle writes in A New Earth that everyone carries ""The Truth" inside -- all the joy, creativity, energy, love they seek.
Was Jesus the son of God?" he asks rhetorically. "Yes. But so are you. You just haven't realized it yet." ...
Edited :: See Original Report Here
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/Religion/post/2011/05/oprah-spirituality-god-eckhart-tolle/1
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