Chuck Norris on "Oprah's New Easter"

An insightful commentary, on Oprah's latest BookThatWillChangeYourLifeForever promotion. As the mouthy publicist in Mr. Woodcock so delicately put it, "This is Oprah! She farts on a book and it magically sells a million copies." Pardon the bathroom humor, but in all seriousness, it's a true phenomenon that continues to baffle me. So far, since Oprah's official touting of Tolle's 'Miracle solutions' over 3 million copies have been sold, and over half a MILLION people around the globe have signed up for the 'Webinar' in which she and Tolle will discuss the ways you can Find Your Inner Peace. All these books seem to have the same formula: ecumenical and friendly, appealing to both "religiously-oriented" or more frequently used "Spiritual" types and humanists, who perhaps felt the sudden urge to formalize the Meaning of Life in some non-confrontational way. They also seem to feature "Steps" highlighting the simplicity and the freedom of the described method(s) so that one is not affronted by the possibilty of having to really overhaul feel-good stuff in their lives in order for the Method to work for them. Despite the overt relativistic babble, the fundamentals of what they say about Peace and Love and Honestly, etc etc (NOT all, but a lot) can be derived straight out of - you guessed it- the Bible. Yet the books are promoted loudly like the latest AsSeenOnTV gadget, promising that it's the latest and greatest thing we've all been waiting for.

To continue my rant, I am amazed that this whole thing is happening during the Lent and Easter season.

I cannot agree more with this:
"With this live webcast running through the very heart of one of Christendom's most sacred seasons of the year (including Lent, Palm Sunday, Easter and Pentecost), the queen of daytime talk is preaching from a primetime pulpit, from which she is heralding to the world community, "Get ready to be awakened!"But is it merely a coincidence that Winfrey's and Tolle's spiritual quest aligns with this special religious time of year?"

Norris puts it beautifully: "It is yet one more evidence of the paradigm shift in our culture from its moral absolute and Judeo-Christian basis to a relativistic worldview in which anything goes and everything is tolerated."

Just a curious thought: What do you think might happen if Oprah let's say, decided to endorse the writings of, say, St. Ignatius of Loyola?