How you heard about The Secret? You can read about it from Oprah's website here. An excerpt:
People around the world have been talking about a movie so powerful that it can change the course of your life. This movie, The Secret, was created by Australian Rhonda Byrne, and she says that if you follow its philosophy, you can create the life you want—whether that means getting out of debt, finding a more fulfilling job or even falling in love.
You can then watch the trailer for the movie here:
My take:
This is health and wealth gospel for unbelievers along with classic pantheism (drawing no real lines between the creation - in this case "The universe" - and the Creator) and secular hedonism (the pursuit of pleasure; sensual self-indulgence). It's probably helpful for the Church to be aware philosophies like this that are permeating our culture through huge mediums of communication like Oprah. This framework of thinking is extremely destructive as it does not touch on people's real needs, i.e., spiritual ones and is simply a symptom of our culture of instant gratification and ease. Good ole' fashion idolatry here folks; exchanging the creation for the Creator.
Another huge problem with this is that it assumes that our desires are good. Here is the problem: What if someone is a pedophile and what they want to "claim" is a little girl under the age of ten to have sex with? How does that fit in with The Universe's power and desire to give me what I want? At least Christian "name it and claim it" thinking has some very loose Biblical boundaries. What boundaries does the The Universe have and who decides what they are?
Another huge problem: Can you imagine trying to apply this philosophy to someone who is suffering horrible atrocities in the Sudan? Unthinkable. Any theology or system of philosophy that does not deal with the problem of suffering is to be seen with suspicion from the outset as suffering is universal to our human condition.
Finally, you can be sure that the creators of this system are going to make a truck load of money preying upon the idolatry of our culture. Notice the clever marketing of calling it "The Secret". Who doesn't want to be in on a secret? Does this sound familiar?
2 Tim 3:1-7 -
3:1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.
2 comments:
Oh my gosh - this is just sick . . . what a complete load of B/S. It's hard for me to believe these people are serious. It's hard for me to believe people actually follow something like this. I'm mean, there are some slightly good princples here - identifying a goal, etc. But then it goes into this "ask the universe" and "align yourself with the universe" crap that's just ridiculous. If anyone ever shows something like this to my kid, I'm going to strangle them.
- John
I don't usually watch Oprah, but I saw a commercial and decided to see what "the secret" was all about. I totally agree with your post. I found it interesting that one guy on the panel talked about how he had filed for bankruptcy twice before he achieved his dream. I just thought about all the people he owed money to who never got paid. This "secret" just feeds into the desires of the self-indulgent who never have enough and have decided the "universe" owes them anything they want. It's pitiable.
Post a Comment