NEW
SPIRITUALITY, OLD LIE
PART 3
By
Debra Rae
April 24, 2010
NewsWithViews.com
The Cult of Oprah
Rightly named one of the 100 Most Influential People of the 20th Century by Time magazine, Oprah Winfrey likewise received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (1998). Oprah purports to serve “a higher good.” She boasts having “a contract with the universe” and, in its execution, is numbered as a foremost spiritual authority among swamis, yogis and Tibetan masters.
Arguably the most influential woman in the world, Oprah Winfrey gushes over the unimaginably creative, never-before-seen visuals and profound spiritual lessons to be derived from Avatar. Everyone, she insists, must see it. Lessons to which Oprah alludes are soundly embedded in the doctrinal grids of her endorsees. Her theology incorporates a worldview that sociologist Philip Rieff calls “the therapeutic society.” It is obsessed with self, thus raising self-preoccupation to the level of religious duty.
The fact remains: Whom Oprah endorses, the world embraces.
Marianne Williamson: Course on Miracles
For
example, the press dubs Oprah’s spiritual mentor, longtime friend
and special XM Satellite Radio reporter Marianne Williamson “a
modern-day shaman” and “Hollywood’s answer to god.”
Through Williamson’s transformational teachings on self-realization,
her disciples awaken to memory of their Divine Inheritance.
Self-described “ex-cabaret-singing Jew from Texas,” Williamson
is an energetically engaged (and no doubt engaging) woman whose “feel
good” message is compelling, maybe, but strikingly devoid of Bible
truth. In the 1980s Williamson lectured on A Course in Miracles.
Williamson views the course as "a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy" that expounds upon New Thought, similar to Unity teachings. Unity's fundamental belief is that the true "church" is but a "state of consciousness,” and god is simply the sum total of our thoughts about him. In fact, god is mind; and his Law of Mind is oneness. Hence, our “holy minds” are perfect; “as we were, so are we now and will forever be” (Lesson 167). That is to say, everything—everyone—is god.
Williamson’s recent book, The Healing of America, synthesizes A Course in Miracles with Unity principles. Hers is a whole-system approach to transforming American culture. In this endeavor, she founded and works through the American Renaissance Alliance, conjoining spirituality with political activism.?
Caroline Myss, Ph. D.: Energy Medicine
New York Times best-selling author Caroline Myss, Ph. D. (pronounced /mace/), takes cues from Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung known for his theory of the collective conscience. So compelling is Myss’ message in fields of energy medicine and human consciousness, intuition and potential that, for one entire year (2003), Winfrey gave the doctor her own half-hour television program on the Oxygen Network.
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Eckhart Tolle: A New Earth
There exists today a worldwide Tolle-propelled “Cult of Oprah.” The Gospel according to Tolle indicts Christianity and its claim to ultimate truth. Biblical dogma, he claims, serves ego and results in an “illusory sense of superiority” that “corrupts to the point of insanity.”
Never mind that this self-proclaimed “spiritual leader” boasts pantheistic self-deification! In Tolle’s misguided view, Christ is every man and woman. True, he references “universal law,” but Tolle ascribes the Ten Commandments as necessary only for those cut off from their own “I AM”-ness. Note that it was not Tolle, but rather co-Masonic Hierarch and famed occultist Alice Bailey who conceptualized and coined the term for this—namely, “Christhood.”
Living in Tolle’s “now” ostensibly enables transformation of consciousness from illusive thought (“wanting,” “thwarted wanting” and “indifference”) to self-god awareness. Having triumphed over matter by self-mastery, the fully “conscious” trade their tradition-bound “phantom selves” for their purported “I AM”-ness.
Deepak Chopra: A Third Jesus
In 1999, Time magazine named Deepak Chopra one of the top 100 icons and heroes of the 20th century. Oprah-endorsed author of A Third Jesus, Chopra explores Christ-consciousness beyond any denominational dogma, national or ethnic identity.
Over time, humans have evolved from hunters to farmers to industrialists to the techno-savvy. The alleged final step in his evolutionary process is Christhood; and Chopra contends that each of us is here to discover this, “our true Self.” “We're not human beings that have occasional spiritual experiences,” he adds. “We're spiritual beings that have occasional human experiences.” For the sake of the planet, it behooves us to realize our potential as “pure divinity right here on earth.”
“Exuberant Religiosity”: Church of Oprah and Obama Worship
As rightly observed by Peter L. Berger in The Chronicle of Higher Education, our purportedly rational age is distinguished, ironically so, by “exuberant religiosity.” Case in point: the divisive tone of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's “exuberant,” while highly incendiary messages. Although Oprah Winfrey and President Barak Obama share in common previous membership at Trinity United Church, both stopped attending. Clearly, Rev. Wright was a major reason.
Of necessity, theirs is an inclusive message crafted to resonate with fan bases in mainstream America and throughout the global community. Notwithstanding the “Church of Oprah” and “Obama Worshippers” exercise their own version of “exuberant religiosity.”
Check it out on You Tube; and you will see young African-American men locking their fists in front of them as they bark, “Yes, we can!”[5] Shouting with military precision, each extols Obama for the many blessings of his Health Care Plan. It’s expressly “because of Obama” that each young soldier can claim by faith the certainty of realizing his life’s dream.
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Having donned army fatigues, Obama’s youth of the Junior Fraternity Regiment march in cadence while bellowing the mantra “Alpha-Omega,” “Alpha-Omega.”[5] But, wait. In the Bible, it’s the Lord Jesus who alone qualifies as the Beginning and the End. Sorry, folks. It’s not Obama.
It’s not even Oprah.
1.
Marianne Williamson
2. Caroline
Myss
3. Are
you ready to be awakened? by Eckhard Teachings
4. Google
search; Deepak Chopra: A Third Jesus
5. YouTube:
Obama
Youth Junior Fraternity Regiment
