Joe Francis, the proprietor of the soft-core porno Girls Gone Wild series, is a little Ted Turner in the making. In the April, 2008 edition of GQ magazine, Francis declared himself to be a god:

Nothing will ever happen to me in jail. I’m a god. I’m the cool Girls Gone Wild guy. I’m revered. I’m a rock star… The one thing I fear is one of these #$%&ing people showing up at my house. I’m a different class. They’re dumb. They’re the people you see on Cops. Those are the people you see in jail.

Obviously, Francis does not realize that intelligence is not required to pull a trigger on a 12-banger. His insolence toward his fellow jail mates shows just how jaded he his. His perverse dynasty has become irrelevant.

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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.

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The buzz in the blogosphere is that Oprah Winfrey’s approval rating is tanking thanks to her support for Barack Obama. This is great news. If she is going to display her lack of intelligence by backing an elitist socialist, she is going to get what she deserves. If she is going to hold a web class, bastardizing Christianity, she is going to get what she deserves. If she is going to insult Americans by flaunting her millions with zero humility, she will get what she deserves. Oprah may finally learn that she is not the center of the universe.

One of my favorite authors, Peter Kreeft, once said that modernity’s only sin is the belief in sin. Sin is modernity’s four letter word. We do not want to confront it, and anyone who does, is called a hypocrite suffering from plankeye syndrome. Even worse, Christians cannibalize each other for confronting the sin that exists in our culture.

If we deny sin, which is to deny God, we are free to make our own rules. If we can make our own rules, we are free to change them. Absolutes no longer exist. Sin has no meaning. Some say, “I don’t need God because I am a good and moral person.” You may be “good” and you may be “moral” by the standards of this world, but you are still a sinner and the only way out of your sin is through Jesus Christ.

Satan has funneled many lies into the world, but none are more destructive than the belief that sin is relative and that we don’t need Jesus nor God to escape it. The modern man thinks that one man’s good is just another man’s evil. If this is true, which it is not, there is no evil and thus no real sin.

The modern man does not need to be “saved” because there is nothing to be saved from. He just has to be “good” person, helping out his fellow man by giving some money to charities and AIDS relief in Africa. Maybe he builds some pink 2 x 4 houses in New Orleans without realizing the real reason Hurricane Katrina happened—rampant immorality with a big F-bomb to God (Isaiah 60:12).

Sin is the cause of every problem facing the world. Unless humans address each problem from this perspective, everything we do is merely a band-aid and a temporary fix. We are just cutting the leaves off the weeds instead of pulling them out by the roots. If we do not confront sin the way Jesus did (John 4:1-26, Matthew 27:45-50), and/or worse, we just deny sin is a problem, we end up with 11-year-old boys soliciting girls for sex, 14-year old girls prostituting themselves for Big Macs, and perverts dying while having sex at beastiality bordellos.

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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.

Quote of the Week | 02.10.08

I want the public to be very scared by what they see. I want them to see a very bleak future. I want them to feel disillusioned halfway through and feel hopeless.

Leonardo DiCaprio on his propaganda film The 11th Hour, Interview with Scott Roxborough of Hollywood Reporter (May 20, 2007)

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By now some might be sick and tired of hearing about Heath Ledger’s death. By 21st century standards, this is old news. But his death applies to all of us as an example of what the world offers. It is always a sad thing to see a young person die before his/her time. No parent should have to bury a child. River Phoenix, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe, Jim Morrison, and James Dean are some of the other young artists passing on before reaching the limits of their talents.

The Christian response to Ledger’s death has seen two extremes. There are the “He is burning in Hell” Christians vs. the “All you need is love” Christians. There has to be a middle ground. Derogatory tones do nothing to caste Christianity in a positive light while John Lennon Christianity dilutes the gospel, removing sin from the equation.

I am a sinner and you are a sinner. The difference is when somone does not believe he/she is a sinner, living life while flipping God the bird. All of these young stars were wraped up in what this world has to offer and not what God has to offer. They sought pleasure and comfort in the material and lived accordingly. The Bible says quite clearly, “Friendship with the world is hatred toward God.” (James 4:4) There are consequences for our actions.

I wish River Phoenix was still around making movies, he was the greatest actor of my generation aside from Johnny Depp. Ledger’s death should be a wake up call for the young and famous. No one is better than another. We are all wretched in our sin. It does not matter how much money you have or how righteous you think you are. All of us will eventually face death.

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