Oprah Winfrey is, arguably, one of the most influential human beings in the world. PEOPLE magazine has noted that, “by 1986, The Oprah Winfrey Show had become the highest-rated talk show in TV history.” The magazine has further reported that she is “now worth more than a billion dollars.” She has, they acknowledge, succeeded “on many fronts – as an Oscar-nominated actress (The Color Purple), activist, magazine editor, producer, book club sponsor and radio host.” I have always believed that she holds this prestigious, powerful place in the modern “Global Village,” with integrity. Few can. But she has. PEOPLE’S observations concerning her benevolence support that. “She has,” they tell us, “raised and personally donated millions of dollars to victims of poverty and disease and openly speaks about her own experience with sexual abuse as a child, the baby she had at 14 who did not survive, and of her drug use as a young adult.” PEOPLE has also represented her as being, herself, most “proud,” of “the two schools she opened for South Africa’s neediest girls.”
Oprah’s show continues to be top-rated. It is so, in large part, because of the regular focus on self-improvement. Her genuine interest in the well-being of the world’s citizens is unquestionable. She is transparent and seems “at home in her own skin.” There are times when you wonder if the show has crossed the line between compassionate interest in the hurting of the world and ratings driven indulgence of a voyeuristic public’s fetish. I rarely watch the show for that reason. Still I have believed, for as long as I’ve known about her, that Oprah does everything with the best interests of her adoring fans, and the world beyond, at heart.
Anyone who knows anything about Oprah knows that “spirituality” is something she’s genuinely concerned about. Her spiritual roots are not unlike the mainstream of religious America. They are, initially, Christian. But the things she says about spiritual realities have morphed into an eclectic discourse that troubles me.
She acknowledged that metamorphosis recently while promoting Eckhart Tolle’s A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose, a book that she has not only made a book club selection but the text for her “New Earth WebClass.” She describes being at a Church Meeting. The crowd was so large that it was difficult to find parking. The Minister was “charismatic.” He was describing the grandeur of God. But, in his describing this “omnipotent, omniscient” being, he said that God was, also “jealous.” Oprah says that, “caught up in the rapture of the moment” she didn’t quite get the “incongruity” of “jealousy” as one of the traits of such a being. Still, “It didn’t feel right in my spirit,” she says. “God is love. How could he be jealous of me?” This “feeling” that such a “mental image” of God was not reconcilable with his love became pivotal for her. And today, she insists, God is not about “doctrine,” and “mental images.” On one broadcast occasion she asked Tolle, “What is the end? What happens to us when we die?” He replied, “I don’t give it any thought?” To that, this brilliant, highly successful woman added, “God is … he is a feeling experience, not a believing experience.”
“I don’t give it any thought.”
How would Oprah respond to one of her producers if she’d asked what the goals were for the next Season only to be told, “I don’t give it any thought.”
But that is, precisely, what is at the heart of the worldview Tolle, and now Oprah, are repackaging. All human consciousness is invalid and counter productive. One must relinquish all “mental imagery,” abandoning it for a meditative journey into a cosmic consciousness that permeates all reality. With all personal awareness subordinated to this Universal Consciousness we reach perfect unity with that which is in all of us, and all things. The end? Harmony; Unknowable yet the source of “enlightenment,” – the highest good; Bodhisattva – “one whose essence is enlightenment.”
While I recognize the futility of trying to reason with someone who’s so thoroughly renounced the worth of it I want to reason with you. The foundation for my reasoning is a belief that the God of the Bible is the one and only true God. I believe that, as the Bible asserts, He is personal. I am convinced that He is, again, and again, the initiator in the spiritual quest. And I am certain that we will only discover the full meaning of life as we’re meant to experience it in intimate personal relationship with Him.
Oprah used to believe this. At the pivotal point where she dismissed any possibility that “jealousy” and “love” could coexist and serve the good purposes of a loving God that changed. Her choice was the fundamental decision humankind has made in dealing with God from the very beginning. When the talking serpent, commandeered by the devil for his devious purposes, set out to seduce the first woman his poisonous first words were, “Did God really say …?” With that verbal dart he questioned not only God’s words, but His intentions. What He said next confirms his devious plan. “God knows …,” he said. The suggestion implicit in Satan’s temptation then, and always, is that God is not really telling us the whole truth. And we, need to reserve the last word for ourselves. Oprah has done that. She has concluded that her understanding of jealousy renders it undesirable even if the God of the Jews and Christians claims it as one of His attributes. In so doing she has opted for a different god, than the God of the Bible. Of course, by this action she reveals the folly of her and others’ insistence that all religions are the same. Judaism and Christianity believe their God can be, and is “jealous” and yet loving. Her religion does not.
Think about Oprah’s decision. Do “jealousy” and “love” have any business with each other? Yes! Unfortunately our culture does not believe that. “Jealousy,” for many moderns, is a hostile, self serving, often punitive concept. Actually the root meaning comes from a Latin word meaning, “zealous.” This too can have negative features. But there are as many, if not more, ways in which it is a positive force. My Wife and I have been married for 40 years. She pledged herself to be my Wife and mine alone. And she has kept that promise! If another man ever makes a move on her I will not tolerate it. I won’t even give her time to disarm him with that “look.” I will let him know there will be no other man in her life – other than our Lord, three great Sons, 6 Grandson, a Brother … You get the picture. This is fact. My love "for" her has a jealous – protective – factor. So it is with God. He, and He alone, is God. He’s not insecure. He is not jealous “of” Oprah and the rest of us. He’s jealous “for” us. Because this is so, He will not leave us unaware of the dangers that lurk just beyond the edges of our knowledge. He will take the initiative. He will reveal Himself to us. He will let us know the higher purposes for which we’ve been created. He will tell us the “truth,” about what is best for us. He will insist that we take what He says seriously; that we not allow any place in our lives for another god, and warn us of the consequences, if we do so. And He has done precisely that; all out of genuine concern for our well being. He is extremely jealous “for” “truth.” He does not want, for a nano second, to see any of us exploited by the myriad frauds that masquerade as our hope. So He goes to great lengths to find us in our misguided search for “enlightenment.” He “enlightens” us. He tells us that by trusting Him we will “know the truth and the truth will set us free.” He tells us that the wrong choices we make profoundly impact others. Dads who misbehave mess up the lives of their Kids. People who give their allegiance to false deities or invest their hopes in things that will never satisfy them hurt not only themselves but untold numbers of others. Because He is jealous “for” us God tells us that’s how it works in His world. It is, after all, His world. And, because He loves us, He’s gone out of His way to tell us how that world works.
Interestingly He has used words and reasoned with us to accomplish that. Imagine that. Words – “mental images,” and reason – “thought.” The Supreme Being; the one “in whom we live and move and have our being;” engaging us with words and reason. That is precisely how the Judaeo-Christian God communicates with His people. When what the Jewish people call the “Law,” – God’s explanation of who He is and what He is like as well as who we are and what we’re made for – had been completely revealed to them God said, “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and be faithful to him. For the Lord is your life …”
He’s been “straight up” with us. He’s explained both the “end” and the “means.” Not only do you know what He expects. You know what you can expect.
This is true guidance!
Oprah, your God is jealous for you and for your adoring public. For their sake, as well as your own, return to the one who loves you jealously and guides you flawlessly!
