Thursday, October 13, 2005

oprah as antichrist

I grew up in a very conservative evangelical type Baptist church, so don't think I don't know this particular strain of "end times" speculation. It goes something like this: in the last days, a great and seemingly compassionate and benign but very powerful world leader will arise. His/her actions will be cloaked with a familiar biblical style of spiritual language that will point us to the one (his/her) righteous and true way of living, and her/his programs and initiatives will benefit a great many people. Almost all of us will be sucked into worshipfully following this person-- except of course those few evangelicals who know better, and maybe even some of them--although they of course will come to their senses before receiving the mark of the beast. (I picture this as a giant gothic script "O" delivered with a sharpie inked rubber stamp to the forehead center in your choice of color).

Pat Robertson and other serious scholars (ahem) say that the recent rash of bad weather indicates that we are living in the end times, the times in which we are looking for the antichrist, and who fits the above description better than Oprah? (I'm proud to say that I had her pegged as A-C from early on--my best friends and mom will back me up on this.) She's spent years building up a power base of those largely disenfranchised and proscribed from being members of the ruling class (women and unemployed men), and she's convinced most of them that they can find a "higher power" deep within themselves that can be used to fix their own most troublesome problems, and their families' too. No doubt we all can learn to tap into vast inner resources of strength and perception that we usually ignore, but hers is definitely not an orthodox theology in any of the mainline faith traditions and I am always surprised when religious leaders embrace her. Beware when the repressed middle class mommies rise to do their leader's bidding, and don't say I didn't warn you.
Posted by Kate :: 8:24 AM :: 0 Comments:   

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