Talk-show host Oprah Winfrey gestures to photographers as she arrives for the opening night of Winfrey's Broadway musical 'The Color Purple' in New York on Thursday. - Reuters
SHE HAS A SYNDICATED television programme which is seen in 112 countries and viewed by more than 10 million persons globally. But Oprah Winfrey is more than a talk-show host and head of a media conglomerate. She has evolved into an icon of church-free spirituality.
Oprah's brand of spirituality is the subject of a new book: The Gospel According to Oprah, written by Marcia Z. Nelson. But long before Ms. Nelson's volume, Oprah's influence on America and the world's spiritual outlook has been on the radar of students of religion. For example, in 2002, the popular evangelical magazine Christianity Today featured Oprah in a cover story entitled 'The Church of O' written by LaTonya Taylor.
Both Taylor and Nelson portrayed Oprah as a New Ager who promotes values such as forgiveness, confession, gratitude, empathy and self-examination. Oprah they argue, despite her upbringing in church, does not point people to the God of the Bible, but instead, encourages persons to embrace whatever they consider to be God.
A MISPELLING
Oprah's name is a misspelling of Orpah, one of the daughters-in-law of Naomi mentioned in the Biblical book of Ruth. She was born on January 29, 1954 in Mississipi. She has been a broadcaster since age 19. Her big break came in 1984 when she began a talk-show at a Chicago station. It was a hit. Then it became syndicated. The rest is history.
LaTonya Taylor's article stated that when Oprah goes to church in Chicago (where she is based), it is to the 8000-member Trinity United Church of Christ, which is made up of mainly middle-class blacks. The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the senior pastor there, told Ms. Taylor, that Oprah had not been there for the past eight years.
Rev. Wright told the Christianity Today magazine writer, "She (Oprah) walked the aisle to become a member, publicly claimed us as her church in Ebony magazine, and when I would run into her socially like at a United Negro College Fund dinner she would say, 'Here's my pastor!'
According to Ms. Taylor's piece, "When she first came to Trinity in the 1980s, it seemed that she would become an active participant. But, Oprah never completed the membership classes and after a while her attendance dropped off."
Rev. Wright is quoted in the Christianity Today article stating: "She has broken with traditional faith. She now has this sort of 'God is everywhere, God is in me, I don't need to go to church, I don't need to be a part of a body of believers, I can meditate, I can do positive thinking spirituality. It's a strange gospel. It has nothing to do with the church Jesus Christ founded."
When Oprah speaks about God, she is not speaking about a specific god. Oprah, said Nelson, "translates what religions would term 'transcendent' into something that is inspiring, but secular. She would call it a vision of possibilities. She has tried to develop her own unique language, which means talking about values in a secular and inclusive sense in a religiously pluralistic country."
SPIRITUAL ROSTER
On September 23, 2001 at an inter-faith service in New York for the families and friends of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre towers, Oprah said: "When you lose a loved one, you gain an angel whose name you know. Over 6,000 and counting angels were added to the spiritual roster these past two weeks. It is my prayer that they will keep use in their sight with a direct line to our hearts."
Oprah, Taylor wrote "clearly believes part of her role as a talk show host is to call her audience to some sort of higher plane. The theological nature of that higher plane and her methods of getting there are what sound alarms for many of her Christian critics."
Nelson argued: "Oprah's 'New Age' talk about spirit was part of her ongoing, ever-evolving attempt to find the right words for teachings she learned through religion. Her spiritually inclusive language is also intended to be unique the language she alone speaks that makes her inspiring and distinctly herself. For marketing reasons as well as for her own sense of mission, she is putting her own stamp on the language, on the words she uses, on the culture, where the 'Oprah effect' and 'Oprahfication' and 'She Oprahed it out of me' are terms that have been coined to describe her pervasive
influence and style."
Regular guests and well known New Age gurus such as Gary Zuckav, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson and Iyanla Vanzant are staples on The Oprah Show's programming menu. Her shows are at times an a' la carte blend of religious concepts ranging from the karmic destiny espoused by Zen Buddhism to the reincarnation tenets of Hinduism.
But her television shows are not always steeped in New Age thinking. Sometimes there is a distinct churchy feel especially when her guests include popular gospel artistes such as Yolanda Adams, Bebe and Cece Winans and Donnie McClurkin.
NON-JUDGMENTAL
The billionaire media mogul is legendary for being non-judgmental as her spirituality often seems to have few rules on moral behaviour. It is this non-judgmental worldview that earned her the ire of many Christians and non-Christians alike in a broadcast in August 2004.
The programme featured a boy who wanted to be treated as girl and two girls who wanted to be treated as boys. Their parents were confused yet seemingly a little accommodating of their respective child's request. Oprah gave her total blessing to the youngsters quest to explore transgender behaviour.
Towards the end of the show, Oprah celebrated what she called an "evolution" in social tolerance and cultural acceptance of the idea of a sex change, even among children. She said, "I have seen such a change in the way parents parent? Even in the years that we've been here, 18 years, seeing such a difference this generation, your generation is so much more open to accepting children as they are instead of trying to forcing whatever your own idea was."
Some critics described that broadcast as Oprah's infomercial on transsexualism. Oprah's message that day was 'if it feels right, do it.' The message, her critics say was ' do what your child feels is right rather than what is right for your child.'
In a nutshell Oprah's worldview is one which places a premium on self-analysis and positive thinking. It is a smorgasbord of religious ideas that make up her belief system. By that token, it is arguable that Oprah has really found what she is looking for.
Send feedback to
mark.dawes@gleanerjm.com
