Last month, Oprah Winfrey announced her new network OWN. It will be a 50/50 partnership with Discovery communications, but she will control all content and the creative vision of the network. This essentially makes it hers.

I have always considered Oprah’s incessant use of her name and image as odd. She is not the only wealthy businessperson to do this and I understand that “Oprah” is now a brand. But does anyone else get the feeling that Oprah has crossed into narcissistic territory with this venture? A blogger on her own website message board believes she has already been there.

She has her own show. This does not make her narcissistic, but it certainly cultivates narcissistic tendencies (Oprah’s “Favorite Things”). She started a magazine that she named after herself in which she features herself on the cover of every issue. This might catagorize her as narcissistic to some. Now she has a network named after herself.

Oprah helps a lot of people, but does she have to put her name on everything she touches. There is something to be said about humility through anonymity. Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:1-4:

Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.