Oprah’s New Kool-Aid

Taking a few days off, I watched Oprah for the first time in years. The show topic was on the book Oprah is now promoting and obsessed with, called A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose. As a pastor I am a theologian, something all pastors are regardless of how good or bad they are at it, pastors are always expressing ideas about God rooted in something. And I firmly believe as a pastor and theologian I have been given an enormous responsibility of pointing people to truth. I love truth, I believe in absolute truth, I believe the Bible is absolutely true, and I believe truth truly sets people free to connect with God thus setting the course to truly live life to its greatest potential. I’d much rather spend my energy and effort in teaching truth, God’s Word, than teaching against all of the untruth that exists in the world. My wife and I use the illustration of those trained to spot counterfeit money. They are not trained in all the counterfeit methods, they are trained to know the real thing. They know the real thing so well that they can spot a counterfeit in a moment. So too is it with orthodox Christianity, “the faith that once for all delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3).” If you pursue it, love it, and know it enough, counterfeits are easy to spot.

All of that to say that I am about to write about the latest counterfeit, A New Earth. I don’t plan on making an argument against every untruth that crosses my plate, that would take far too much time. But I received a concerned email from a church member and I think that’s reason enough to make a public statement, at least among our community at Isaac’s Keep.

Speaking out against Oprah is sometimes about as popular as speaking out against Billy Graham, which I think says far more about the current state of our society and spiritual condition. Those who criticize Oprah, especially Christians, are usually thrown into the same pile as Pat Robertson and labeled fundamentalist idiots. And I guess I take that same risk, so look out Pat here I come.

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle as presented by Oprah is, first and foremost, nothing new. It is the same ole New Age junk buffet of Oprah’s latest fascination. Her platform merely lends it a greater audience and thus the potential to deceive many. I’ve never seen Oprah as dangerous to anyone, I don’t think she has led anyone to much of anything, but she has exposed the shallowness of our culture’s Christianity. When she says, “this is not a new religion” or “these ideas or enlightenments don’t threaten Christianity” and she compares it to adding sugar to tea, she is simply off her rocker. While Oprah’s beliefs and those like hers’ do not pose a threat to God or His eternal purposes, this kind of thinking is definitely dangerous to professing Christians who are not grounded in the Word of God. Oprah is an existentialist. Existentialism is a philosophical movement that hypothesizes, according to Wikipedia, that individuals create the meaning and essence of their lives, as opposed to deities or authorities creating meaning for them. This is a fair definition. Oprah and her minions parade freedom in the self, freedom from the oppression of authority. It sounds so good on the surface, we hear freedom in words wrapped in false intellectualism like “ethos,” “self-consciousness,” “connectedness,” “universal meaning,” etc.

To be fair to Oprah I am sure these ideas have resonated with her personal experiences. Her rise to influence has no doubt made her drunk with what she believes to be her own greatness. Of course she would never say that, but under all the spiritual jargon is a very pompous attempt to promote her spiritual beliefs. And I am certain she honestly thinks this is the path to spirituality. You can only throw so much blame at the feet of Oprah. She seems to really desire to help others, no matter how misinformed and misguided, and really that’s more than some Christians I know. I honestly have some pity for her, she grew up a Baptist, and it’s clear that whatever she grew up in didn’t ground her in truth, which says a lot about the church and her upbringing. It also reminds us of the importance of teaching a faith and passing down a balanced faith that is neither legalistic or overly permissive.

And while I’m here, Joel Osteen is the slightly more Christian version, which is far more frustrating to me than Oprah. Osteen philosophy and theology is even more of an open attack on orthodoxy, rationalism, and empiricism. Today, the postmodern church has also become drunk with existential theology, a disinterest in doctrine and infatuation with experience. The most popular father of the Christian version is Paul Tillich. They find their roots back to Soren Kiekegaard, the father of all existentialism who was also a professing Christian. And while I recognize, appreciate, and even respect some of the insights all of these men have given (many of them provided new ways to think about God and probably pushed orthodoxy to awaken from its post-reformation sleep and dead orthodoxy) I am in no way convinced they were true believers, more likely just very smart men who made great contributions and debates that needed to happen, but also men who probably drank a bit too much of the modern enlightenment kool-aid. But I digress.

A New Earth is a very clever title for a book, playing on the language of the kingdom of God and Revelations 21. I have never read it, probably won’t, but what I saw on Oprah today was far more sad than maddening. It breaks my heart to see people deceived and accepting untruth. The show, full of those who profess Christ but without any dissenting views, really reminded me of Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Oprah claims to know God, but what god does she really know and serve? All indications point to the god of self, which is the height of self-idolatry. Oprah is so drunk with herself she controls the debate from start to finish, giving the consumer/listener the idea that there is no credible argument against her views, which in the end makes Oprah no different than any other cult leader who drowns their victims with their own selfish obsessions cloaked in freedom. The Word of God stands in stark contrast, that submission to authority, ultimately God’s authority is the path to freedom.

1 Peter 2:16,17, “Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as a servant of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.”

One final note, if you watched the video sent to members of IK you remember Oprah states that something “felt wrong in her spirit” when she heard her pastor say that God is jealous.

Maybe her pastor was actually teaching the Word of God, Zechariah 1:14 says, “Proclaim this word: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘I am very jealous for Jerusalem and Zion…”

Barry G. Webb from his commentary on Zechariah gives great insight into what it means for God to be jealous. Something else Oprah didn’t get.

“‘Jealousy’ has negative overtones for us today. It suggest selfishness, envy, and malicious resentment of what others have. But the jealousy of God, as the Bible describes it, is something utterly untainted by any such mean-spiritedness. It is his intense, protective concern for what is rightly his own: his name, his land, his city (Jerusalem), his house (temple) and his people. They are his, and he will defend and protect them against all assailants, and avenge every wrong committed against them. He is utterly, even fiercely, committed to their welfare… Jealousy, in this sense, is another name for love; the kind of love a deeply devoted, honorable man has for his wife. And there is great security in knowing that you are the object of such love; indeed, to be so loved – especially by God – is the true comfort we all need and long for.”