Have you heard about the “Holy War” that is currently going on in cyberspace, which was initiated at YouTube?
About a month ago I received an email with a link to the video discussed below. Like so many other people I had a reaction to it but it was nothing like the thousands that have commented on it because they were taking sides. Instead, I realized that I had an understanding of BOTH sides. The number of views of this video is currently pushing towards 8 million with over 7,000 comments and this is not counting the numerous videos created in response to it (the most recent being one week ago)!!! While in the midst of building this blog I realized it would make a great first post. I originally expected it to be a quick commentary based on some of my initial reactions. When researching it I soon realized that there is a phenomenon going on that is actually representing us as a whole (a.k.a. The Collective), reflecting who we are as a society. First a quick synopsis of the more controversial parts.
This highly stylized video promo for the book “Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid” starts with the question “Have you heard about the largest church in the world?” followed by statements of the extremely rapid growth of it’s congregation. This is then followed by a few sayings, spoken as beliefs, of this new church threatening the Christian concepts of Heaven, Sin, and Salvation. The most serious one threatens the cornerstone of Christianity, “The Man on the Cross” referring to him as an archetypal image and eventually calls it a pathetic error of clinging to “this old rugged cross” with the final insult that this cross has only one message and dying for your sins it is not.
This church and its leader is then identified to be Oprah Winfrey with this segment ending with “Years ago she denied Jesus is the only way”.
A video clip now demonstrates this starting with Oprah saying, “One of the mistakes that human beings make is believing that there is only one way to live”. (Not according to John 14:6, which is quoted throughout the numerous comments). As she responds to a rebuttal, when someone tries to make a comment, she holds up her hand with a “Let me speak” gesture and continues talking (or is it insinuating her opinion upon her audience?). She completes her “argument” with “to what you call God”. Oprah cuts off another rebuke with “There couldn’t possibly be but one way” again attacking the crucibles of Christianity. Now comes the condemning question, when asked “What about Jesus?!?” Oprah replies “What about Jesus!?!” She does not directly deny Jesus; per this crucible, this expression of doubt and lack of declaration in Jesus must be deemed as denial of Jesus.
“Christians are being deceived” are the final words you see before showing portions of her web cast with Eckart Tolle and the now famous book, “A New Earth”, as he leads the participants in silence giving the air of priestly presence taking the audience into a trance or was that meditation? Regardless, it is not part of the Christian way.
When questioned on how she reconciles these spiritual teachings with her Christian beliefs, her reply is “well thought out” as is evidenced by the way her eyes wander around occasionally looking at the camera and then wanders around again with a series of “Um’s” inserted throughout. All of these gestures are indicative of someone pulling an idea from their head, in other words “Mental Belief”. This mental excursion, that is not really all that convincing, eventually ends up with her now famous “Jealous God” story.
The final part of this section shows Oprah saying, with Tolle’s agreement,
“God is a feeling experience not a believing experience, if your religion is a believing experience, if God for you is still about a belief, then it’s not truly God.
This is, for me, one of the more incendiary comments made by her whether in or out of context, because this comment alone takes a pickax to the core of any religious belief.
This is nothing short of blasphemous for anyone regardless of their faith. Being told that denies them of the quest and actuation of their own personal truths.
Plain and Simple: These are fighting words and the masses that follow whatever religion/faith have come out fighting with Volleys of Judgment coming from both camps!
Standing back and taking a look at the Big Picture, something begins to become obvious; Every one of these reactions to this sales video, whether it’s buying into the full emotional fervor and responding with a rampage of judgment or trying to bring it all into perspective, whether that is good, bad, or ugly is expressing their personal belief in God and they’re doing it with unmitigated emotional fervor regardless of what “camp” they come from!!!
So let’s take another look at the previous comment that says God is a feeling experience, not a believing experience. I choose to contextually disagree. Yes, God is a feeling, absolutely, but that feeling is come to by the believing and for as long as you’re a human being that is the process for coming to the feeling of God.
The Feeling is come to by The Believing, but it is The Believing that is being attacked here. In response to this, The Believing is being used to support The Feeling because as a general rule, The Believing was and continues to be the source used to acquire The Feeling.
It is as simple as “Seek and ye shall find” or “Knock and it is answered”. God is only hidden from those that do not seek God for without that seeking there would not be the quest for knowing which eventually flourishes The Feeling.
It is the resulting Feeling that keeps you coming back to The Believing, from which you strive to learn more about The Believing for when you do The Feeling intensifies. The more you come to Know God, the more you come to Love God and thus begins the Love Affair of and for God. If either of these is attacked for what ever reason, they will be vehemently defended.
The Collective, or society as a whole, is all of us reacting to this emotionally driven video fervor. No matter what our reaction, we stop and do a Quality Check on The Believing. Wherever that is in jeopardy, then many parts of The Collective are choosing to attack back with the amorous verve that only a Love for God can invigorate.
From The Big Picture, the one experience that The Collective can take away from this is re-viewing their foundations of The Believing. Regardless of the argumentative aspects surrounding the sayings of Jesus, the one thing I very rarely see in any of the comments is WWJD. Lambasting Judgment and Condemnation is not WWJD. From what I have come to learn of the deeds of Jesus, love, acceptance, and forgiveness were primary. Judgment was not even a thought but “Love thy neighbor as thyself” was. Jesus even has a comment about doing works greater than he (just 6 verses after John 14:6!) yet much of these reactions are not even close to standing up to his works. Perhaps we all should just drop our Swords of Judgment and Condemnation and pick back up the Books, Documents, and Processes of The Believing and re-ignite and re-invigorate the connection to The Feeling for it is in the Core of The Feeling that The Truth Lives Eternal!
Then maybe, just maybe, if enough of The Collective can do that they can begin to see that The Feeling is The Feeling, so yes there is only one God, and therefore it is only The Believing that differentiates us. This “My God” “Your God” stuff comes from only one place, The Believing with absolute disregard for The Feeling in the opposing beliefs. This is evidenced by the Rampaging Judgment coming from BOTH CAMPS!!!
When you are in The Feeling and witness another in The Feeling you both just know that it is The Feeling and at that moment The Believing will disappear thus removing your differences and leaving only The Feeling. This will happen regardless of the differentiations in The Believing. I know this is true because I have personally experienced it.
Before there was a Pantheon of Gods or The One True God or The Only Way to God there was the evolving human being whose consciousness developed to the point of being aware of its surroundings which resulted in a quest to understand its role in existence. This was The First Seeking which turned into The First Quest which led to The First Believing which then flourished into The First Feeling of, to paraphrase Oprah, “that which we call God”.
BE THE MIRACLE!
In case you have not seen this video, here it is. The original video with over 7 million views was not playing correctly. This is one of the many re-submissions to keep it at the top of the list.
This a newer version which was created by a different person and uses many of the same clips along with some additional images and words, namely Bible quotes without using a narrator
Would you like to see the entire YouTube “Church of Oprah” frenzy? CLICK HERE
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