In spite of the fact that Oprah Winfrey has played hostess to just about every New Age guru in existence and infuriated even her most stalwart supporters by suggesting that Jesus is not the only way, she still considers herself to be a Christian.
However, she makes a distinction (as most New Agers do) between religion and "spirituality."
“I am not talking about religion," she said during this April 2012 broadcast. "I am a Christian. That is my faith. I'm not asking you to be a Christian. If you want to be one I can show you how. But it is not required. I have respect for all faiths. All faiths. But what I'm talking about is not faith or religion. I'm talking about spirituality.”
If you listen to this video, she'll go on to explain her definition of spirituality as living life with an open heart, through love, and allowing yourself to align with the values of tolerance, acceptance, of harmony, of cooperation and reverence for life. While these are all wonderful qualities, this shouldn't mean that a Christian renegs on their responsibility to further the teachings of Jesus Christ rather than the tenets of other religions.
Oprah then goes on to say that she believes there is a divine thread that connects spiritually to something greater than ourselves.
“My favorite Bible verse—because I am Christian—is Acts 17:28," she continued. "It says, ‘In God I live and move and have my being’,” Winfrey said. “And you want to know why I'm so successful? Because I knew that at 4 years-old … I wouldn't be who I am today without a spiritual consciousness, without spiritual values and ultimately without spiritual love.”
Does this mean her Christian faith had nothing to do with who she is today? In an attempt to get around this esoteric non-speak and give her the benefit of the doubt, I can only hope that it did but she just didn't take the time to annunciate it at the time of this broadcast.
At any rate, in addition to the New Age "prophets" she raises to international prominence, which may or may not lead people away from Christ, she once described how she reconciles her Baptist upbringing with popular New Age concepts of "spirituality".
"What I believe is that Jesus came to show us Christ consciousness. That Jesus came to show us the way of the heart and that what Jesus was saying that to show us the higher consciousness that we're all talking about here..."
Is that in the Bible?
This could explain why she touts gurus such as Eckhart Tolle, the prophet of "now" who once said that everyone carries "'The Truth' inside -- all the joy, creativity, energy, love they seek," Tolle writes in The New Earth. "Was Jesus the son of God? Yes. But so are you. You just haven't realized it yet."
Another frequent guest on Oprah's shows is Deepak Chopra, the high priest of the New Age "if-you-can-think-it-you-can-be-it" movement. Chopra wrote a book entitled The Third Jesus which is "about the consciousness of Jesus which was in touch with the source of all creation. If you can aspire to be at one with that consciousness, then you too can be in touch with the source of all creation." Chopra has openly denied traditional Christian teaching, even going so far as denying the existence of Satan.
But having said all that, none of us can judge what is going on between Oprah and God in the depths of her soul.
What we can judge, however, is the obvious. Let's face it, there's a reason why even the liberal Washington Post dubbed her the "high priestess of the New Age" in their May 25, 2011 edition.
Using such a powerful media platform to further belief systems that are antithetical to the teachings of Christ rather than to spreading the redeeming message of Our Lord is not exactly what He had in mind when He charged us to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matt: 28:19) - something we have all been charged to do by virtue of our baptism.
