Posts tagged ‘Eat Pray Love’

Oprah Winfrey and the Christian

By Monica Brand, 28 January, 2009, 15 Comments

Should Christians watch Oprah?

Friends, I’m having a hard time with a definite answer with this, and you know me, I’m always ready with a Yes or No. I thought I had my answer, wrote up my post to publish yesterday, then I started thinking of the people, the Christians, who may take what they read here and run with it, rather than google God*.

Whoa. That’s a sobering thought, A weighty responsibility for a mommyblogger.

So what to do? How to answer the question? Here’s what I’m thinking regarding Oprah and the Christian. We can discuss in the comments. Please understand: I’m not a theologian. I’m just a Christ follower with high speed Internet, so take this free advice for what it is – my best attempt to answer the question and to help the seeker.

Opinion 1: Christians have no business watching The Oprah Winfrey Show because she doesn’t promote the Bible as Truth.

Based on what I know about her program, I think it’s fair to say she’s not a follower of Christ. So why would a believer want to learn anything from her or expose herself to false teachings? Even watching the episodes about harmless topics like beauty and fashion is not okay because it raises the show’s ratings.

Christian, don’t watch The Oprah Winfrey Show; it will only lead you away from God.

Opinion 2: Christians can watch The Oprah Winfrey Show as long as they don’t depend on it for their spiritual guidance.

This is what I did years ago, before I had young ears in the house, and I needed a distraction while folding laundry. Today, I’d want to watch Oprah to see what she’s talking about, who the guests are, or what she’s into just for the purpose of knowing what she’s preaching. For example, I’d like to see the show with Elizabeth Gilbert as a guest, because I frequently write about her book, Eat, Pray, Love.

My regular readers know the way I think. I like to talk when I’m in a chatty mood (read: everyday!), I’ll talk to anyone, anywhere. I’m not shy. So when I say watching Oprah is okay, these are the situations I’m imaging taking place. Oprah as a cultural point of reference between two strangers.

Read this next part twice, it’s important

I admit – Opinion 2 is tricky territory, especially for the newbie Christian. Oprah is slick. She’s a good talker and even has a measure of truth mixed in with all the nonsense, so to watch Oprah means you better know your Bible well. I can understand why some Christians can be deceived.

Of course, if the Lord tells you otherwise, then you better heed His will. A check in your spirit that screams “NO!” when you tune in to her show might be a big clue that the Lord disapproves.

To the Christian Oprah fan

Friend and fellow believer, I pray what I have written here was of help to you. I know it’s helped me to formulate my answer as to what I believe regarding one of America’s most popular television personalities. There is a lot about Oprah I disagree with, but even so, we are called to love her. I do not hate Oprah. I wish her well. How wonderful it would be if she were to give her life to Christ! What a tremendous testimony she would have!

I’ve given a lot of thought to your question, “Should Christians watch Oprah?” I answered it because you asked via a Google search engine, leading you to this blog. Believer, in all honestly, I, nor the Internet, has the answer that will satisfy. Only submitting yourself to the Lord and His Word will give you peace. Please, go to Him in prayer. Read his Word.

Digging deeper into the question regarding Oprah and the Christian, it’s logical to ask, “Is watching Oprah a sin?” I think that’s the true spirit behind your question.

“Is watching the Oprah Winfrey Show a sin?”

He Who Loves Us replies -

… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthly – think about such things.

In love and humility,

Monica

____

* Google God. I like that – search the Scriptures and pray for an answer. Clever me.

The importance of learning truth

By Monica Brand, 4 December, 2008, 6 Comments

My mom as a young woman, before I was born, worked at a large bank in Manhattan. As a bank employee, she was trained to recognize counterfeit bills. Down in the basement of the bank, my mother counted bill after bill, touching, feeling the money. She learned color, texture, weight of the paper.

My mom, and her fellow bank tellers, learned what was false by knowing first what was real.

Readers, do you see how this applies to us?

Never can we learn the ins and outs of all the false teaching in the world today. There is simply too much of it. Just go to your local bookstore, plug into the Internet, turn on your TV. It’s there.

Christian, be like my mom in the Manhattan bank. Recognize the lie, not by knowing what’s wrong with the counterfeit, but by knowing the truth.

Read your Bible. Get to know the words. Learn to combat the false by knowing first what is true.

When two world collide: Elizabeth Gilbert and why I home school

More thoughts on church: I’ll not give up

Photo: Eric Hauser

Does the book Eat, Pray, Love preach Christ?

By Monica Brand, 28 October, 2008, 19 Comments

Comments are still coming in on this post about Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert, so that means it’s time to Educate the Masses. $Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman\'s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert$

Are you ready masses?

Class is in session. Here we go -

This is a comment from Adam. First of all, I love, love, LOVE it when normal folks leave a comment here. By normal, I mean the nonbloggers in the world. Bloggers, do you know there are people in the world that have no idea what a blog is?? I’m serious! Isn’t it shocking? I thought everyone and her mother has a blog.

No, my mom does not have a blog. The woman doesn’t even have a computer, we must remember to pray for her.

Monica… the point!

Oops, sorry. Had too much fun poking fun at myself.

Adam, nonblogger, wrote:

Seriously anyone who thinks Gilbert is trying to lead people away from Christianity has not discovered God themselves. I think deep prayer and mediation is how one connects to God and builds a relationship with him and it’s how God can change peoples lives. Just because someone doesn’t say that you have to accept Christ doesn’t make it bad.

Hold on there, mister. How does a person connect to God? You say it’s through prayer and mediation. What do you say class? Hold that thought because Adam is going to correct himself in a minute…

Adam then says:

She is teaching people how to connect to God that may not have normally discovered him and I in no way see how that is not Christlike, it is very Christ like and her book has done a world of good in showing me how I can connect to God on a deeper level.

Really? You’re a Bible-believing, born-again Christian and you think Eat, Pray, Love helps people connect to God? It’s comments like these that amaze me. (Sorry for picking on you, Adam, but if you disagree, you can start your own blog to refute me.) Gilbert is into Eastern Mediation and Yoga, dude, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember off the top of my head. But I’m willing to bet it’s got nothing to do with Jesus Christ.

Christ allows me to return to God and prayer and mediation allow me to connect to God and build a relationship with him. It makes me mad when people attack stuff that can help improve people’s lives just because it doesn’t fit there narrow point of view of how things are.

Look, class! The answer to my first question. Way to go, Adam, you win a star for answering correctly. It’s Jesus Christ who allows us to return to God.

You can pray and meditate, and do all sorts of goofy tricks to try and win the Lord’s favor, but it’s only through repentance and faith in His son, Jesus, that we are connected to God.

By the way, I happen to know that because I read it in my Bible. Don’t bother looking for that bit of info in Eat, Pray, Love, because it’s not there.

And as for that narrow point of view stuff – it’s not my opinion, it’s what Jesus says himself in Matthew 7:13:

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

It’s a narrow way. Sorry to disappoint, but there you have it. Either a book points to Christ or it doesn’t. Eat, Pray, Love does not. It’s a well-written, interesting, personal memoir of a non-Christ-following woman. Does Gilbert point to Christ as the way to God? No. Read it to learn about what she believes; use it as a road map to God at your own peril.

Sigh. It’s uninformed comments like Adam’s that concern me. Christians, we don’t have time to misinformed. We must know what we believe and why, and then when we encounter false teaching, we can answer correctly.

People are still looking for information about Gilbert and her book, so I think I’m going to re-read it, and post my thoughts here; that way if anyone is interested, we can learn together and have the answers we need to have.

Okay. I think I’m done now. Questions? Comments? Smacks to the side of my head for too much sarcasm?

***

Hmmmm. I just read the next part of the chapter in Matthew. Do you know who Jesus warns us about in verse 15?

Answering questions: more on author Elizabeth Gilbert

By Monica Brand, 11 August, 2008, 1 Comment

Christian believers are still seeking answers about the author of Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia, so here is a video from Authors@Google. It’s embedded, and I can’t figure out how to get the video here; just follow the link. The video is 30 minutes long – 10 minutes of Gilbert reading from her memoir, and then a Q and A period.

I think it’s interesting to note that her upbringing is sporadic church attendance at a church where there is “not a lot of talk about God.” Sad, especially when she explains how as a ten-year-old she is seeking answers about death and eternity – and it appears not one adult in her life can help her. If I were in the audience, I would have asked if she went to her mother, a Sunday School teacher or minister with her fears.

Watch and let me know your reactions:

YouTube – Authors@Google: Elizabeth Gilbert

When two worlds collide: Elizabeth Gilbert and why I home school

By Monica Brand, 28 July, 2008, 15 Comments

Did you feel that tremor last week? The lighting, the rolls of thunder, the shifting of the earth under your feet? Two of my favorite subjects – Elizabeth Gilbert and home schooling – collided Friday when my husband brought home the local newspaper.

I was writing a blog post about why I home school. Husband handed me the paper with Gilbert on the cover. I read the story, I looked at the picture. I laughed. I read it again. I almost made a puddle on the kitchen floor.

Eat, Pray, Love author Gilbert gave a demon statue to a local school!?! O, the blog fodder! What a gift! Can you just see me rubbing my hands together in glee? Bwaahaahaa. Blogging is fun, but this was almost too much.

Are you ready for this? Here we go, let’s start with the facts-

Elizabeth Gilbert donates demon statue to local elementary school

According to the Delaware Valley News, Gilbert and her business partner presented Frenchtown Elementary School with an 8-foot high Balinese demon when they visited the school to talk about life in Indonesia. A contest to name the huge foam monster will be held in the fall, according to the paper. (Gilbert owns and operates a store in Frenchtown of south east Asian imports; it’s across the street from the school).

I’m sorry I don’t have a picture. I tried scanning it, but it came out poorly. Trust me when I say this demon statue is truly ugly: a screaming red-yellow striped face, wide mouth open with dagger teeth, arms getting ready to snatch, with one big foot raised to squish a student.

So, those are the facts as presented by reporter. Now to the topic at hand: why I home school. I’ll get back to Gilbert’s demon in a minute.

Why I home school

These are my three main reasons:

To be the strongest influence on my kids. Me, their mom. Not their peers, not some unknown stranger year after year I don’t know personally. This is a biggy for me. My husband and I want our children to know us, to come to us for advice, to feel part of a team. Home education is the best way to accomplish this goal.
To teach my children the Christian faith. We believe the most effective way to do that is though spending as much time with them as we can, talking about it, living it daily before them. Teaching my children goes hand-in-hand with being the greater influence in their lives.
Because I can. For me, it’s a no-brainer, a logical choice. I have the freedom to home school, so I’m going to seize the opportunity. I guess I’m a bit of a rebel that way.

I’m not a home schooler to produce super spellers or math whiz kids. I’m not home schooling because I think the public school education is lousy. It’s not out of fear my children will be bullied or a gunman will attack the school. Public school (and Christian school too) is simply not the best choice.

Elizabeth Gilbert is why I home school

Okay, that’s an exaggeration. But I think you can see where I’m going with this.

As a Christian parent, I believe it’s my responsibility to protect my young ones. This demon statue is a good example of what kind of nonsense kids are exposed to under the guise of education. (I’m not going to get into whether demons exist; check out the New Testament gospels for stories about evil spirits and how Jesus dealt with them).

In this world, we battle against TV, movies, video games, the Internet, peer groups, magazines and other things to win our children, be the greater influence, to teach them the way to go. Why would I make it more difficult for myself by giving my children over to someone else?

I can think of no better task. Teaching my flesh and blood Truth and Beauty and how to live.

Final thoughts

To be clear – I don’t walk in fear. My kids go places without me, they have fun, they’re not locked away. We do watch SpongeBob and iCarly. Schools are not the devil.

We have public school friends, Christian school friends, friends that don’t believe like we do and friends that are even more radical than we are. We talk to our kids about other world views, we just don’t glorify them, treat them like silly creatures that can’t harm. And we sure as heck don’t make an 8 foot statue of it and give it a name. Good grief.

So, that’s why I home school. Comments and questions always welcome. A Stumble or a Kirtsy much appreciated.

Why I read controversial books

By Monica Brand, 12 June, 2008, 8 Comments

For conversation, to engage a stranger while waiting in line.

True story. Recently I needed my mental escape, so off I went to a real brick and mortar bookstore without the kids. While waiting to make my purchase, the woman in front of me suddenly plucked up a copy of Eat, Pray, Love displayed near the register and held it up to me.

“Have you read this, it’s really good.”

Yes, and my copy is autographed too. I almost told her I blogged about it, but stopped myself. I keep forgetting the majority of the population is not blog savvy.

God bless her, this woman still wanted to educate me.

“She lives around here you know, she even has a shop with imported goods.”

I knew that too. Then she moved up to the other end of the counter and that was the end of our conversation.

Interesting, isn’t it? A stranger in a bookshop, a place where people like to go to be alone, have mental space, would initiate a conversation about a spiritual book. God, faith, pursit of belief – it’s all in there.

I think if the line had been longer, we would’ve had a lovely discussion about the Lord, the Bible and living with the intent to be closer to God.

And that is why I read controversial books.

Paper Bridges