---

---

edited to delete, because it[s not even worth the debate.




[edit on 12/4/2008 by Layla]

Oprah is okay for what she is.

That to me is a TV host who has decided to delve into new age healing and therapies on her show.

I don't get the spiritual leader thingy vibe from her at all.

She's still learning from the professionals she has on the show just like her audience and viewers.

Most of Oprahs lightbulb moments, as she calls them, have come from her guests. Not from some mystical place inside of herself.
She seems to me to just re-iterate what her guests say.
Nothing profound as far as I can tell.

Her guests come on to promote books, dvds, seminars etc and in this way she gets their stuff into the public eye.
But the new age movement was a multi billion dollar business before Oprah.

And at the end of the day, Oprah reads from an autocue for a lot of the show.
So I guess her writers have to get a lot of the credit for a lot of what comes out of her mouth.

But having said that, I still think she's a great TV host who brings a lot of subjects to the mainstream during daytime TV that they wouldn't normally have time or access to and donates a lot time and money to charities.
So she's okay as far as I'm concerned.

But the spiritual leader bit....please, that's WAY over the top. IMO

[edit on 5-12-2008 by Flighty]

I don't really follow or care about Oprah and have no idea what she actually stands for. But I recognize character assassination when I see it.

Where are the good points in why what she is doing being wrong? All I see is she's a celeb, she must be evil. She has money, she must be evil. She talks about religion, she must be evil. She is doing good things for people, she must be compensating for something. None of these things are good points.

The only person I seen make an actual point was Grandma. I think I'll reply to that in another post.

Originally posted by Grandma
From what I heard, Oprah's version of her bible is ALL PATHS LEAD TO GOD. It doesn't matter how you get there.........everyone will get there. She doesn't see that Jesus is the Son of God and that he alone is the way to the Father. She doesn't believe in the atonement of the blood of Christ.

Now, that is some pretty dangerous ground there. She must have a different bible then I do. Mine doesn't say what here does.

Peace,
Grandma

I also believe all paths eventually lead to God. I believe there is a place in the bible that says something along the lines of all those who are of the spirit of God will return. The question is what it takes before the person wakes up to the truth. When you look at the word "Revelations", it means an awakening. The events of Revelations are allowed to happen for the purpose of waking up the people to the truth. It is the lifting of the veil that has hide the truth from people.

But just because all paths eventually lead to God, that doesn't mean that the person will not eventually have to walk the path of Jesus. It's that a person no matter how bad they have gotten themselves into trouble can always choose to change and walk that path. But we will all have to learn these lessons in our own way, and for that reason we all walk our own path, but eventually through lesson it will lead to God. What makes our paths unique is the time we spend before walking the right path.

If you go to check your mailbox. Eventually you are going to have to walk straight to that mailbox, the most efficient way is to do that from the start. However, if you circle around front porch pole a few times before going, you will still get to the mailbox eventually.

Jesus is the Son of God, or God in the flesh but he is not and has not been the only one. You yourself are of God, the difference in you and Jesus is the amount of understanding and how much of God that is able to shine through. Jesus realized and understood this connection and things well beyond any of us, and showed us the way. There is no reason to put such limitation on God that he would only have 1 instance of himself and show up for only a very small % of the world population. Jesus says he has other flocks, and when he tends to those flocks he does so in their own culture. You know of God as Jesus because that is the image you are comfortable with. Remember, it is beyond our limited comprehension to truly see all of god.

When you look at other religions, instead of focusing on images they use, look at their understandings. Find common ground in understanding, rather than finding cultural differences in how we perceive god, and how we get his lessons.

Is the image and idol of Jesus the most important thing? Or are the teachings and understandings he suffered to bring you? If it's the idol of Jesus and such, then why don't pictures of Jesus portray him as he is described?

As I said, I do not follow Oprah or know much about her. She could have evil intentions, I do not know. Bait and switch is a common practice and something I keep an eye out for. But I find nothing entirely wrong with what she has said.