It’s sort of old news that Oprah Winfrey doesn’t think God ought to be jealous of anybody, but I think a lot of people agree with her. You can find the clip of her telling the world about her great moment of understanding on YouTube, but I found a transcript of that video at Oprah.com:
I will say I was one of those people who used to go to church every—I grew up, as I was sharing with the last caller, you know, in the South and so going to church every Sunday, Sunday School, Baptist Training Union, Wednesday night prayer service, the whole thing, choir, all of it. And when I moved to Baltimore, I was in my 20s, and I remember sitting in a church, you know, one of those big churches where you have to get there at, you know, 6:30 in the morning to line up for 8 o’clock service, …
… and the minister was preaching about—it was a really good preacher—and he was preaching about how God—”the Lord thy God was a jealous God and the Lord thy God would condemn us for whatever,” and I remember I—I had a spiritual aha! There. And I was in my late 20s, and I suddenly thought, “How can this God who is all loving and all powerful, why would God be jealous of me?”…”How could that be? It just doesn’t”—it didn’t work for me. Something happened in that moment. And prior to that, I was just sort of by rote doing what I’d been trained to do in the church. And that’s when my spiritual path began. Yeah.[source]
Because I realize it’s sort of a cottage Christian industry to demonize Ms. Winfrey, I want you to know that’s not my intent here. My intent is to point out to you, my reader, that we are just like Oprah. The truth is that most people are dissatisfied with church because it doesn’t make sense to us — it just doesn’t work for us. Some people have been hurt in the local church. For some people it’s just a rote activity, as Oprah admits, which she learned as a child. Some of us are much smarter than our local church can bear, and some cannot stand how smart the church thinks it is. Worse still for others: it will simply be completely useless. You know: the first chapter of Matthew which lists the “begats” of Jesus doesn’t seem to apply to me — because my name isn’t listed there — so preaching on the “begats” is a waste of time. We’re never going to have to build a temple to the living God, so preaching on Exodus 35-39 doesn’t have the same appeal as This Old House or HDTV. Deuteronomy 6 is a little dry because I have public utilities, and I pay for them every month, thanks a lot; preaching Moses’ summary of the Law puts me to sleep.
So when Oprah turns her back on her baptist upbringing for objecting to the jealousy of God, let’s not be too harsh toward her. The rest of us are not that different because we use the same kind of reasoning to sort of block out the parts of the story of our faith and the activity of the local church which we, frankly, don’t think much of. We’re just like her. Making her the bad guy for being a little more honest about her doubts than the rest of us doesn’t make our doubts any less serious, or any less damaging.
January 25th, 2010 | 10:25 am | #1
Yes we shouldn’t be too harsh on Oprah, but she has such influence on so many people, and that is a problem. Nonetheless, I find myself often picking and choosing the parts of my faith that I like. I like to read Scripture (because I am a reader by nature), and I like to pray the psalms because I think they are beautiful. But there are many times that I want to sleep in on Sunday mornings and skip church and having to deal with the people there (I go to a small church). However, I discipline myself to do what I am not as inclined to do because over time, these habits become things that I enjoy.
And I have all too often heard people say they don’t like going to church because everyone there is a hypocrite. I think to myself, “Well we all are hypocrites, and it is only with the grace of God that we can find salvation and become better than hypocrites.”
January 25th, 2010 | 11:29 am | #2
Maybe I don’t have enough to go on here, but I wonder if Oprah has confused jealousy with envy.
January 25th, 2010 | 11:55 am | #3
Sorry – missing last paragraph:
And modern Christians make the same mistake – we often see God’s call of us to himself as selfishness rather than a call to come home to him.
January 25th, 2010 | 12:20 pm | #4
God’s act in creating and calling us is an act of His goodness and generosity — His grace! He wants to share Himself with us, to let us in on a good thing. Though I am no longer Calvinist, I still appreciate the Westminster catechism: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. Even more, I like the way John Piper puts it: The chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.
January 25th, 2010 | 1:42 pm | #5
This is actually the first post in a series, so don’t get too over-analytical yet. This post is not the point: it is the set-up for the point.
January 25th, 2010 | 2:17 pm | #6
Oprah only has the cows on, like, 700 hills or so.
January 25th, 2010 | 2:48 pm | #7
I’m wondering if this setup is intended for folks like me who believe that God does not damn people on the basis of an election that took place prior to their existence and has nothing to do with what they believe, do, or say. I believe God damns people because they will not be saved by their own choice. So, in essence, they damn themselves and God ratifies their decision with his will. I believe God literally CANNOT save someone against his/her will.
January 25th, 2010 | 2:59 pm | #8
It is the nature of the internet blogs and forums that, if someone wants to make a point, they better make it quickly and not drag it out over a series of posts, otherwise, he will find others have already jumped in with a thousand other points. Somehow, I expect that the point in this series will be that Calvinism is the answer.
January 25th, 2010 | 3:28 pm | #9
Jeff, lol. :) Re the expectation in your last sentence, “You think?” (I share it, btw.)
January 25th, 2010 | 4:40 pm | #10
We’re just like John Calvin: either of the elect or not and cannot know for sure which one we are.
January 25th, 2010 | 8:44 pm | #11
Oops, I see I used an indefinite “it” above. For anyone who might misunderstand, just for the record, I meant I share Jeff’s expectation about the point of this series. I’m not a Calvinist.
OK, now back to our regular programming.
January 26th, 2010 | 6:54 am | #12
I just wanted to point out that I do not spend my time off-line pondering the depth of the flaws of the reading of the Bible by OrthoDJ. So no: this series is not about election or the damnation of the non-elect.
January 26th, 2010 | 9:01 am | #13
OrthodoxDJ: “We’re just like John Calvin: either of the elect or not and cannot know for sure which one we are.”
The following might be helpful:
Calvinism, Assurance, and Inerrancy.
January 26th, 2010 | 11:08 am | #14
“I do not spend my time off-line pondering the depth of the flaws of the reading of the Bible by OrthoDJ”
Then how do you know I blogged about it? Odd.
TUAD,
Thank you for the link. I’ll read it when God makes me.
January 26th, 2010 | 1:09 pm | #15
Perhaps Oprah’s misunderstanding of the message is her problem, and why she is creating a new age, all paths lead to (you fill in the answer) religion. God is jealous of our attention given to idols or false gods. He wants to be our One True God.
January 26th, 2010 | 1:28 pm | #16
OrthoDJ: I didn;t even know you had a blog. I was refering to your comment here and the comments from the mysteriously-absent previous post by Rev. McCain on why some are saved and some are not.
HARRY:
Aha!
Stay tuned.
January 26th, 2010 | 2:03 pm | #17
Frank,
That’s what I was referring to also. BTW, what about my Bible reading comments did you not like?
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