Oprah is a superstar. She is a megacelebrity with a bank account to match. She made $260 million between June 2006 and June 2007. She is worth an estimated $1.5 billion. I have no problem with this, because is represents the American Dream. I do get the feeling that Oprah’s perspective on all this money and success is flawed. You see, God owns all this, not Oprah. She is a manager and nothing more. Consider these words:

You may say to yourself, ‘My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.’ But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)

Oprah has been getting spiritual with the aid of guru Eckart Tolle. She will take his word to heart, but is she willng to do the same with God’s Word? Will she ever admit that her success, fame, and money are GIFTS from the Lord? The one and only.

Beyond even this, and one does not have to be religious to understand this, she gives away chunks of money for her own benefit all in the name of charity. This is what bothers me the most about Oprah. She is always in self-promotion mode. For Christians, it is much worse, because we believe God owns it all. Oprah is using God’s money for her own personal and professional gain. To her credit, she is not the only human on the planet doing this, but this fact does not make it any less ignoble. Jesus, in his Sermon on the Mount discourse, says this about giving to the needy:

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. (Matthew 6:2-4)

This is my challenge to Oprah, even though it is quite certain her eyes will never view this blog post: Spend one year being charitable without the cameras. Let no one know what you are giving and to whom you are giving. Do not even publicly attach your name to anything concerning giving to the needy. Do it in secret as Jesus commanded. Can you do it?

What do you think? Is is possible for Oprah to live 12 months without announcing any type of charity? She would have to give up her most popular episode, “Oprah’s Favorite Things,” to fulfill this. She would have to stop filming Oprah’s Big Give. She would not be able to attend ANY charity dinners and galas. It does not seem possible to me. She is too vested in herself as a commodity to stop giving under the spotlight. This is sad.

Related Posts:

Oprah’s False Christianity
[O]prah [W]infrey’s [N]arcissism
The Real American Dream