Fandom of the Oprah: Critiquing the New Earth Movement, Pt. 3

There have been a few times in my life where I was privileged to attend the infamous play "The Phantom of the Opera". I always enjoyed attending these events. If you're not privy to "The Phantom", bascially, the title tells all: There is an opera house that many people believe is haunted by a ghost or phantom. People become enraptured by this phantom and some grow terribly frightened by it, especially after they think it is communicating it's desires to them. Of course, there is more to it than that but I need not go into detail here.

I wonder if, on a number of levels, this is a good analogy (and play on words) for critiquing Oprah Winfrey and her new spiritual pal, Eckhart Tolle. Have the two (Winfrey and Tolle) become a sort of destructive duo? Are they lurking around the halls of Churches and Christian homes (via book and T.V.) and slowly getting people to their personal desires, desires to see Christianity and Buddhism brought together? I think so.

The fact is, Oprah's fans are hardcore loyalists. The fandom of (the) Oprah is massive. And this is becoming more true for Tolle every day. I want to challenge Christian men and women to boycott Oprah and more specifically, her illiterate, pseudo-theology and spirituality. Don't buy into the false prophetess and her teachings. Stand firm in your beliefs and instead of adopting what she says, join me in sifting and critiquing it. More on Tolle's book A New Earth in the next post (#4) of this series.