Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Book review--Where Has Oprah Taken Us?

This book is an interesting combination of biography (of Oprah) and philosophy. Stephen Mansfield takes us through Oprah's difficult childhood and into her rise to fame and the development of her worldview and religious beliefs, both of which are a hodge podge of New Age ideas and confusion. Mansfield also shows us how the average American TV viewer has followed Oprah's ideas and ideology and taken them as his or her own. Oprah's religious views mirror much of Post-Modernism and its tenets--all roads lead to heaven and as long as it feels like the right thing, it is the right thing for me. Sadly, as the author puts it, Oprah "began well but faltered and chose a thin religious jumble instead of a bold, tested connection with God". I hope, as does Mansfield, that Oprah recovers herself and finds what she lost, for perhaps America will do the same.