Friday, March 7, 2008

The World's "Most Dangerous" Spiritual Guru: Oprah Begins 10-Week Online New Age Class

Cross-post from The World...IMHO

What's up with Oprah? First she is fundraising for Obama, and now she's pushing this new age nonsense?


This past Monday Oprah Winfrey, considered by many to be the world's most influential woman, began a ten-week long online course on the best-selling book, "A New Earth," by New Age guru, Eckhart Tolle. "A New Earth" has already sold some 3.5 million copies worldwide, thanks largely to the publicity given to it by Oprah. According to Oprah, 500,000 people from across the world signed on to the first segment of the online course, to spend an hour and a half listening to Ekhart and Oprah talking about chapter 1 of the book, and taking calls from participants.

In recent years Oprah has been inviting an increasing number of representatives of new age spirituality onto her talk shows, including figures such as Marianne Williamson, Barbara DeAngelis, LaVar Burton, Richard Carlson, Betty Eadie, and many others. Oprah has strongly endorsed many of their works, and has included some of them in her "Book Club" list.

Since the beginning of this year Oprah has offered daily classes on her XM radio station on the book "A Course in Miracles." "A Course in Miracles" (or ACIM for short) was written by another major player in the New Age movement, Helen Schucman, who claims that the book was dictated to her by an interior voice, which she identifies with Jesus Christ. In that course, the listener is taught that there is no sin (Yes there is.), is told not to make the "mistake" of "clinging to the old rugged cross,(I absolutely will cling to the Cross...We are saved by the Cross)," and that the name of "Jesus Christ as such is but a symbol." What the....? The Son of God is just a symbol?

Oprah, who is a self-labeled "Christian", was recently named the "most dangerous woman in the world" by Bill Keller, considered by some to be the world's leading Internet evangelist. He accused Oprah of peddling the equivalent of "spiritual crack." Keller has been warning the subscribers of his Daily Devotional for years about Oprah and how she uses her TV program to promote every New Age philosophy in the world, including the wildly popular book and DVD last year, "The Secret," which teaches readers or viewers that simply by desiring them strongly enough, one may obtain wealth, health and happiness. LMAO :)

story here

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I agree with the content of this opinion, it also seems like it's propaganda for Bill Keller. Whenever I see a phrase like "considered by some to be the world's leading Internet evangelist," I know there's some spin going on. Keller has also said that a vote for Mitt Romney is a vote for Satan (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55642). I may not always have agreed with Romney on everything, but that's a far cry from relating him to Satan. So while I also have a problem with Oprah's new agey focus, I also don't trust the source of some of these comments. Here's hoping the Christian world develops some good critical thinking skills when it comes to what they read in newspapers or on the Internet. But thank you anyway for highlighting this story, Christine. It's important to know.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure why so many Christians and Catholics are so threatened by Oprah and Eckhart Tolle. It seems that instead of using the tool of "A New Earth" as a marker or sign post for Catholics and Christians that may be disillusioned with the church to reach out and guide them back to their faiths, they instead clobber them over the head with it. I wonder if following the principles that Jesus taught us would somehow bring us all closer together?

Anonymous said...

I am sorry for you because your thinking fosters fear. We are all one on this earth-----heaven, earth and human (including all life on earth or in the cosmos). I was raised Catholic and always wondered why each religion thought it was right. Organized religion now does harm to people by fostering divisiveness . God is in everything, not a Jesus or a Buddha, etc. These were enlightened human beings, also containing" God".

Tolle seems to be right on the mark. And I have always said "the God of one must be the
God of all".. Not the God of Jews, Christians, Islamists or any others. No wonder you fight it---it threatens your very existence!

Signed,

Another enlightened one