Oprah's childhood experiences with church

Oprah Winfrey attended Progressive Missionary Baptist Church with her father, a church deacon. She was attentive, took notes, and would often repeat the Sunday sermon on the playground during her "Monday morning devotion." She learned the Golden Rule, having written it over and over and carried it around in her book bag. She donated her lunch money to Progressive Baptist's fund for poor Costa Rican children. She also convinced her friends to do the same. She talked her way out of a fight and into a new nickname—Preacher Woman. The teenage Oprah Winfrey is remembered by some members for her organizing and directing a series of presentations from James Weldon Johnson's God's Trombones at local churches to raise funds for the church's new youth choir robes. She and other teens presented the seven sermons in the book. Oprah also spoke frequently at Nashville churches. The article reports that when a Los Angeles pastor heard her speak in Nashville, he invited her to his church to speak. Mr. Winfrey recalled that she was paid $500 to speak to the youth. The article reports that while she was there, her trip to the Hollywood Walk of Fame reinforced her desire to become a star.

Oprah's Ministry

From the beginning, Oprah regularly featured spiritual themes on her shows. But her emergence as a spiritual force is said to have begun during the 1994-95 season. It's been said that each year Oprah Winfrey asked God for a different gift or insight. In 1994, she says, it was clarity. "I have become more clear about my purpose in television and this show," she told a reporter that year. She decided to clean up her program. She abandoned the traditional talk-show format for more edifying content. In 1998, when she began 'Change Your Life TV', Christianity Today reported that Oprah's most significant role became that of spiritual leader. Oprah often refers to her show as "my ministry." To her audience of more than 22 million mostly female viewers, she became "a postmodern priestess—an icon of church-free spirituality." Similar sentiment was also expressed by Marcia Z. Nelson in her book The Gospel According to Oprah.

What Oprah Believes

The Christianity Today article notes that "Oprah clearly believes part of her role as a talk show host is to call her audience to some sort of higher plane. " The theological nature and her methods are what sound alarms for many of her Christian critics. Since there are no authorized biographies and she declined an interview with Christianity Today for its article, it's not real clear what Oprah actually believes. Only Oprah Winfrey can answer that question. In her monthly column "What I Know for Sure" in O: the Oprah Magazine, Oprah Winfrey frequently refers to the Bible, her church background, and lessons God has taught her. She has spoken about reading the Bible, praying, and meditating daily. She has talked of how her faith has sustained her. She refers to a "higher power." Oprah said, "I'm Christian..." on the April 9, 2008, show covering the impact of the A New Earth web class on her viewers. However, some say, as in the Christianity Today article, that Oprah's show has normalized a generic spirituality that perceives all religions as equally valid paths to God. The article notes that Oprah herself has said, "One of the biggest mistakes humans make is to believe there is only one way. Actually, there are many diverse paths leading to what you call God." Many strongly believe that what she is teaching does not represent traditional, historical Christianity, according to the Scriptures.

Where Oprah Worships

• Baltimore

Oprah Winfrey attended Bethel AME Church during her years in Baltimore. Mentoring young girls was one of her primary interests while at Bethel.

• Chicago

When Oprah attends, she goes to Trinity United Church of Christ, located on the city's South Side. It is the largest church in its denomination, with more than 8,000 members. It is an Afrocentric church whose membership is largely composed of the upper middle class. According to Trinity's senior pastor, Jeremiah Wright, to Christianity Today in 2002, Oprah had not attended a service there during the last eight years. When she first came to Trinity in the 1980s, it seemed that she would become an active participant. Wright said, "She walked the aisle to become a member, publicly claimed us as her church in Ebony magazine, and when I would run into her socially, like at a United Negro College Fund dinner, she would say, 'Here's my pastor!'" However, Wright reported that Oprah never completed the membership classes and after awhile her attendance dropped off. He noted that when The Oprah Winfrey Show went national, it altered the course of her life. "Sundays got to be a hassle for her," Wright says. "Everybody came at her with notes, with portfolios, with ideas and requests. It made her coming to church a problem." Shortly after her show was syndicated in 1986, Oprah also spoke about the challenges of being a celebrity in a public worship service. She described an incident one Sunday, when "a deacon tapped me on the knee and asked me for my autograph," she said. "I told him, 'I don't do autographs in church. Jesus is the star here.' "

Wright had other opinions of why Oprah Winfrey does not attend regularly, besides her celebrity status, noting that other celebrities seem to be able to manage it. "I think it is hard for most very wealthy people to be a part of the church," he says. "Somebody who makes $100 a week has no problem tithing. But start making $35 million a year, and you'll want to renegotiate the contract. You don't want to be a part of 'organized religion' at that point. That's a generalized statement, but that's what I've found across the years. The wealthier somebody gets, the more they pull away from the church."

In the 2002 Christianity Today article, Oprah's relationship with Trinity and Jeremiah Wright was reported as strained. In a column for an issue of Black Collegian magazine, Wright mentioned Oprah as an example of African Americans who forget their roots in the church after finding success. "A lot of us do not even like the word faith anymore," he wrote. "We prefer the more chic-sounding word, spirituality! We are caught up in an Oprah-generated mentality and a 12-step vocabulary that prevents us from using the very words and the very bridge that 'brought us over!' " Oprah Winfrey did not respond to Christianity Today's request for comment about that article, but Wright stands by his statement. He is clearly put off by the direction Oprah's faith seems to have taken. He further elaborates. "She has broken with the [traditional faith]," he says. "She now has this sort of 'God is everywhere, God is in me, I don't need to go to church, I don't need to be a part of a body of believers, I can meditate, I can do positive thinking' spirituality. It's a strange gospel. It has nothing to do with the church Jesus Christ founded."

Guests with eclectic religious ties:

Gary Zukav
Carolyn Myss
Marianne Williamson (featured on Oprah and Friends on XM)
Iyanla Vanzant
Deepak Chopra

Gospel artists who have appeared on her show:

Yolanda Adams
BeBe and CeCe Winans
Wintley Phipps
Donnie McClurkin

The Church of Oprah Exposed As posted on YouTube by Isim13	New Age Oprah - World's Most Dangerous Woman As posted on YouTube by mikejmon333
Please pray for Oprah As posted on YouTube by hartmut77

Reference: Christianity Today's article, The Church of O