Dispensing
a Gospel of Health and Happiness
Oprah On a Mission
by Marcia Z.
Nelson
The entertainment business
is not usually thought of as a missionary enterprise, but talk-show
host and media queen Oprah Winfrey is a woman on a mission. It
says so right in her magazine's table of contents: "This
month's mission . . ." The mission themes of the month in
O, the Oprah magazine, are not exactly part of orthodox Christianity
("Fun," "Couples," "Freedom," "Strength"),
but Oprah does refer to God a lot (as in her April column: "I
used to ask God to help me master a new virtue every year").
At the center
of Oprah's mission, of course, is her daily TV talk show, which
entered its 17th season this fall. Amid its hodgepodge of topics-female
war correspondents, the decorating challenged, moms who are mean
to their kids, crime victims who forgive their assailants, and,
oh yes, the quest to lose weight-Oprah stresses a message: Make
yourself happy.
Oprah's work is about maximizing happiness for oneself and thereby
for others. Make yourself happier, make your family happier, make
your community happy, and better, by "using" your life.
Far from being distinct, "happier" and "better"
are pretty much synonymous in Oprah's world. From a biblical standpoint,
her teaching is idiosyncratic, like her name-a misspelling of
Orpah, Naomi's other daughter-in-law in the Book of Ruth.
Oprah has
a prominent pulpit from which to preach. Her TV show has an audience
of 22 million viewers. Her two-year-old magazine has a readership
of 2.5 million and is generally hefty with advertising. (The May
issue, for example, hit an astounding 304 pages with around half
of them occupied by advertising.)
Authors and
publishers would also testify to her golden touch. Of the 46 works
of fiction picked by Oprah for her book club (which she recently
closed down), sales averaged 1.5 million in 1999, the club's biggest
year. In this arena, Oprah's roles as saleswoman and spiritual
guru blend. She prescribed edifying books, many of them by women
or people of color. The stories were strong on plot, character
and moral awareness.
Phyllis Tickle,
who was editor of religion books for many years at Publishers
Weekly and likes to describe religion books as "portable
pastors," characterizes the Oprah books as "morally
sound material, by and large, that is credible and enriching .
. . Like most of what she does, you're the better for having read
them. Her tastes are very pastoral as well as literary."
"I have enormous respect for Oprah," Tickle continues.
"Anybody who can better the living experience of thousands
of people has to be respected. She may not be ordained but she
sure is pastoral, and pastoral at a level that has a vast impact."
With her conversational
ease and casual style, Oprah comes across the TV screen as personal
and personable, both pastor and best friend, authoritative yet
approachable. "She is like a personal institution,"
says Judith Martin, who teaches religious studies at the University
of Dayton and has written on feminist spirituality.
It was somehow
not surprising, then, that following the World Trade Center attacks,
when New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani wanted someone to lead a
multifaith service to provide hope and solace to a devastated
city and a stunned country, he turned to Oprah.
Oprah is,
of course, preaching mostly to the nation's mamas. Oprah's magazine
and TV show advertise products for women. Her TV audience is overwhelmingly
female. Most of her book club readers are women, as author Jonathan
Franzen understood when he worried that her endorsement might
shoo male readers away from his National Book Award-winning novel
The Corrections.
Oprah is preeminently
the voice of women in the middle: middle-class, middle-American
and, like Oprah, middle-aged. They are people caught in the middle
of families, interpersonal conflicts, too many good intentions,
and an overlong to-do list. These are women trying to manage busy
lives and households, address personal and social concerns, and
maybe also lose some weight.
Oprah offers
lots of things to help. She is an encourager. "Live your
best life" is the Oprah slogan, almost a verbal logo. Oprah
offers tools for living your best life: books to read, people
to emulate, material things to help (an eclectic assortment of
goods that make up a monthly "O list" of belts, shoes,
vases, towels and other accessories). The magazine contains "O
to Go" paper goodies-note cards, postcards and bookplates
for readers to tear out. The feature "Something to think
about" is another tear-out page for jotting down reflections
on questions related to the issue's mission. "How would you
create an 'inner-strength' team?" "How can you be forceful
without using violence or harsh words?"
The timing
of the TV show, at least in the Chicago area -Oprah's home turf-has
a whiff of morning service. It's an hour-long ritual each weekday
at 9 a.m., adding up to a lot more pulpit time per week than the
average pastor enjoys, and in front of a lot bigger congregation.
(Oprah herself used to attend a large Chicago church-Trinity United
Church of Christ, pastored by Jeremiah Wright. But according to
Wright's secretary, Janet Moore, Oprah hasn't attended in 12 years.)
On one recent
show, Oprah took viewers via videotape inside the homes of moms
who say they are mean to their kids. These mothers had written
to Oprah about their problem and asked for help. It's painful
to hear the children repeat, when interviewed, the insults their
mothers have heaped on them. It's painful to watch the mothers
being grilled on TV by Oprah's resident psychologist, Phillip
C. McGraw, swearing they want to change but can't. Dr. Phil and
Oprah give no quarter, repeatedly insisting on nonabusive treatment
for the children. The message is clear: change your behavior.
On Good Friday,
Oprah's topic was miracles. Her guest was Richard Thomas, the
host of PAX-TV's It's a Miracle, which every week presents in
re-created docudrama form "miracles": incredible and
inspirational real-life stories of odds beaten, quirky coincidences,
triumph mined from defeat, unaccountable survival. A videotape
unrolls the story of a baby born very prematurely, with no apparent
signs of life, who despite all clinical signs and assessment begins
to breathe on her own. Two years later, the same girl now toddles
onto Oprah's stage holding her mother's hand, offering a flourish
of dramatic proof for doubters. The obstetrician is in the audience
to say authoritatively that the girl's coming to life is wholly
inexplicable from a medical point of view. The miracles show closes
with three generations of the gospel-singing Winans family belting
out hymns, exactly like a church service. (The Winans offer their
own miraculous testimony-Ronald Winans survived a severe heart
condition and is on stage to signal his return to the touring
circuit.)
Another typical
show features Gary Neuman, therapist and author of Helping Your
Kids Cope with Divorce. A divorced couple sits on stage with their
two sons between them. Videotapes unfold the story of the parents'
divorce from different family members' viewpoints. The mother
and father watch a videotape of their sons talking to Neuman about
how they feel confused and caught in the middle between the parents.
Right on the televised spot, this situation is going to be fixed.
Mom and dad pledge out loud that they will get along better and
not place their sons in the middle again. "Now that,"
says Oprah as the segment concludes, "is worth staying on
the air for."
Oprah's show
contains amazing tales and amazing candor. Confession is the show's
signature. Talk is crucial, even salvific, says Oprah. "The
expression of your feelings is like magic," she says. But
expression isn't the ultimate aim of the show. The aim is to make
things better.
Martin offers
a feminist reading of Oprah's mission. "I really think of
Oprah as caring," she says. "If you compare her with
somebody like Geraldo [Rivera], she has wealth and influence,
but she uses it to empower others-and that's a big feminist thing."
When Oprah has a message she wants guests and the audience to
grasp, she will ask fewer questions and give more advice. She
tells divorced parents who are unable to get along to stop forcing
their children to pick sides in parental disagreements.
She often
talks about "light bulb" moments or "aha!"
moments (a recurring feature in the magazine also), moments of
life-changing revelation. She's explicit about wanting to provide
help and resources: "What I want everybody to get . . . ,"
she says, referring to what she learned about managing her own
health in a conversation with Dr. Christiane Northrup, author
of the best-selling The Wisdom of Menopause. When she questions
pop star Brandy about the young singer's "spiritual journey,"
which included an abusive relationship in her teenage years, Oprah
observes, "You're gonna save a lot of girls today."
Oprah is a
fixer. Which brings us to the role of Dr. Phil. The psychologist
appears on the show every Tuesday to cut through people's excuses.
Dr. Phil works with moms who are having problems with their kids,
people who need to make peace with their past errors, people having
difficulties with their sex lives.What's
your payoff? he will ask when guests on the show tell him they
want to change some behaviors but just can't succeed. People apparently
love this bluntness. Dr. Phil's own show premieres this fall.
Oprah has
a whole team of fixers in addition to Dr. Phil: "life coach"
Martha Beck, personal trainer Bob Greene and financial adviser
Suze Orman appear regularly on the show and in the magazine. Whether
it's encouraging dieters or redecorating a living room, Oprah
offers solutions to nagging problems that are blocking someone
from living her best life.
"As a moderator of discussions and someone who can generate
and respond to ideas, she does great work," says Scotty McLennan,
dean of religious life at Stanford University and author of Finding
Your Religion. "I think of Oprah as a very intelligent woman
who is able to draw people out and engage people in a way that
is educational and helpful."
Oprah wants
to fix communities as well as individuals and their families.
She is a consistent philanthropist, with her own as well as other
people's money. Fortune, one of the very few media outlets to
which Oprah has granted an interview, reported in April that Oprah
has donated, mostly anonymously, at least 10 percent of her annual
income to charity. Oprah's Angel Network, promoted on her show
and Web site, raised $3.5 million in 1997, its first year of operation.
The Angel Network is supported by viewers. It has funded scholarships
and Habitat for Humanity homes.
Oprah also
sponsors Use Your Life Awards-$100,000 awards to those engaged
in social change. (Use Your Life funds are also underwritten by
actor Paul Newman, already renowned for the philanthropy from
Newman's Own, his food line, and Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com.)
These awards showcase compelling stories and send out inspirational
messages. Recipients include the Red Feather Development Corporation,
founded by former clothing manufacturer Robert Young. He became
interested in housing for Native Americans, and has built affordable
housing on reservations in the northwestern U.S. Former prostitute
and drug addict Norma Hotaling's organization SAGE (Standing Against
Global Exploitation) works with prostitutes in San Francisco,
many of whom have been abused and are addicted to drugs. Twenty-two
individuals have received Use Your Life Awards for their organizations.
Oprah wants
to do fixing her way. She turned down President Bush's request
in late March to visit Afghanistan to help highlight some of the
post-Taliban changes for women and children, refusing to let herself
be used for someone else's purpose. She has done shows before
on the conditions of Afghan women, but she wants to teach on her
own terms.
Some Oprah
observers have called her shrewd; others have described her as
a control freak. She would probably call it independence. In her
April "What I Know for Sure" column in her magazine,
Oprah writes: "The irony of relationships is that you're
not usually ready for one until you can say from the deepest part
of yourself, 'I will never again give up my power to another person.'"
Personal conviction shades into professional application. The
empowered woman is likely to be confident and decisive in business
and in personal life.
What has etched
Oprah's identity most clearly in the public mind is her readiness
to draw on her own experience even while exposing others to public
scrutiny. Just as she encourages confession from others, she is
willing to engage in it herself. She has talked about being abused
as a child, and her ongoing battle with weight amounts to a running
story on the show. Her current concerns about the approach of
menopause are also grist for the show.
"She brings a down-to-earth approach," observes Wade
Clark Roof, frequent commentator on American religious trends
and author of Spiritual Marketplace and A Generation of Seekers.
"I think she talks out of experience and relates to people
talking out of experience. Spirituality talk is talk that arises
out of experience."
In other words,
it is not just talk, but talk that's been tested in life's fires-talk
as testimony. As Oprah would say, this is about getting real.
A preference for the freshness and immediacy of experience in
reaction to the meaninglessness or venality of traditional faith
is hardly new, of course. Spiritual renewal has ever been thus.
Quaker founder George Fox wrote in 1647 of the inadequacy of the
teachings of established religion: "But as I had forsaken
all the priests, so I left the separate preachers also, and those
called the most experienced; for I saw there was none among them
all that could speak to my condition. Oh then, I heard a voice
which said, 'There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to
thy condition,' and when I heard it my heart did leap. . . . And
this I knew experimentally."
The show is
founded on people testifying. For example, in developing a show
on women who waited to have children, Oprah and her staff sought
people whose experience tells the story. People obligingly write,
e-mail and call. Oprah's Web site receives 3,000 e-mails daily.
The show doesn't stop when the TV hour ends. Discussion and questions
continue after the cameras have stopped rolling, and "After
the Show" is available at the Web site, prolonging the shared
examination of the topic and providing resources to pursue the
issue.
If Oprah's
spirituality is nontraditional, pick-and-choose what works from
the world's religions, its roots are in African-American Christianity.
Jamie T. Phelps, O.P., who teaches at Loyola University of Chicago
and the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University
of Louisiana, identifies significant elements of traditional black
spirituality, as well as postmodern eclectic elements, in the
Oprah phenomenon. Authentic black spirituality, says Phelps, "understands
we are all human beings. If you're generally into black spirituality
as holistic you have to love everybody-that makes white people
very comfortable."
Phelps suggests
another reason for the comfort level of white viewers and fans
with Oprah. The figure of the nurturing television personality
echoes the historically and socially accepted figure of the nurturing
black female. "She is the good black mama who takes care
of white kids," Phelps says.
L. Gregory
Jones, dean at Duke Divinity School, agrees that Oprah's roots
in the black church experience lend the television personality
some of her authority. "It enhances her credibility on issues
of spirituality, given the prominence of the black church,"
he says. "There is a cultural presumption of credibility
that she can trade on."
Oprah's attempt
to transform community by promoting individual transformation
is also a way of placing individuals within a larger community.
There can be no separation, no isolated search to individual perfection.
The individual's betterment leads to community betterment. Individual
spiritual life, and renewed life, is expressed in community and
community renewal. The traditional black church has always addressed
community ills, expressed community cohesion and been a refuge
of liberty that is personal, social and spiritual."There
is a personal relationship to God that has to flow over to concern
for community," says Phelps. "It's not a personal 'getting
holy' but getting into right relationships with the community."
I close, Dr.
Phil-style, with a little list: ten reasons why Oprah is a compelling
and successful spiritual teacher in spiritually eclectic and ever-practical
America:
1. Oprah is easy to understand. She uses little words. You'll
never hear "postdenominationalism" or "hermeneutics"
or churchy jargon on the show. Her regular magazine column, called
"What I Know for Sure," is simply written, and filled
with her experience and reflections on that experience.
2. Oprah is very human. She admits to struggles with human temptations,
like food. This distinguishes her from lots of other religious
figures on television.
3. Oprah acknowledges the reality of suffering and also wants
to do something to relieve it. At her prompting, people regularly
tell wrenching stories of being abused or vicitimized. The woman
known as the Central Park jogger, attacked 13 years ago in New
York by a group of teenage boys, broke her public silence for
an interview with Oprah in the April issue of O. Oprah's 9-11
six-month anniversary show featured World Trade Center survivor
Lauren Manning, a victim of serious burns. Suffering happens.
Talking about it and exploring survivors' resilience seems to
help.
4. Oprah provides community of a sort. You can log on to www.oprah.com
and pick from dozens and dozens of chat and support groups and
message boards. (It's true that virtual community and actual community
are not the same things and have different benefits, but that's
another topic.) You can go to a bookstore and look for a book
with an Oprah Book Club logo. Lots of others are reading that
very same book.
5. Oprah encourages self-examination. The traditionalists might
call it examination of conscience. A daily examen is a technique
encouraged in Christian contemplation. Oprah would call it journaling
or "something to think about," her magazine's feature
that presents questions for reflection.
6. Oprah teaches gratitude. St. Paul says: "Do not worry
about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" (Phil.
4:6). Write those requests in your gratitude journal. "The
gratitude journal is a wonderful idea as a supplement to people's
already formed spiritual life," says Jones at Duke Divinity.
7. Oprah is a reminder service: a reminder of what is good, what
is important, what one person can do. In this info-glutted culture,
the busy need reminders. Remember what's important. My husband,
a pediatric nurse in a suburban Chicago hospital, gets an occasional
small dose of Oprah. In patients' rooms during morning hours,
the Oprah show will sometimes be playing, watched by moms sitting
with their sick children. He recently asked one Oprah watcher
what she liked. She watched, she told him, for the information:
safety for children, decorating, etc. This information was not
necessarily new, she explained, but she liked to be reminded.
8. Oprah teaches morality by highlighting and encouraging role
models. Oprah profiles those who make a positive difference. She
and her viewers also bankroll some of them, though her Angel Network.
9. Oprah listens. Being heard is good for well-being. Catholics
put this to work institutionally in what is popularly called confession
and formally known as the sacrament of reconciliation. This same
principle is at work in the 12-step program, which requires confession
of character defects as a foundation for responsible change. Confess,
repent and be healed. In Dr. Phil's words, own it.
10. Oprah promotes forgiveness, and tries to demonstrate that
it is possible and how it is possible. She regards it as a tool
for survival. She has regularly spoken with survivors of crime-people
who lost loved ones or were themselves victimized-and returned
years later to check on their progress.
A recent show featured Sharmeta Lovely, a victim of rape, whom
Oprah had interviewed ten years earlier. Oprah expressed amazement
at Lovely's stated willingness to sit down to dinner with her
assailant. Yet Oprah often repeats a variant of this observation:
"Forgiveness is something you do for yourself." In closing
her conversation with Lovely, Oprah urged, "Preach, girl,
preach to me."
Marcia Z.
Nelson is the author of The God of Second Chances and Come and
Sit: A Week Inside Meditation Centers. She reviews and writes
regularly for Publishers Weekly and is the Midwest correspondent
for ReligionLink, a media resource service.
Copyright
2002 Christian Century. Reproduced by permission from the Sept.
25-Oct. 8, 2002 issue of the Christian Century. Subscriptions:
$49/year from P.O. Box 378, Mt. Morris, IL 61054. 1-800-208-4097
