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Oprah has become a true force in American pop culture, and her talk show is just the beginning. Oprah has her own magazine, cable channel, and as of Sunday her own prime time network television show. Of course, none of that is nearly as valuable or important as the influence she has on a good percentage of Americans. Forget the 08 race, Oprah is our real president.
Is this really such a bad thing? How did it end up like this? How should Christians respond to such a phenomenon? In this episode of Christ and Pop Culture, Ben and Rich discuss these questions and more.
Plus, they count down their “Top 5 Ways Oprah Touched My Life.”
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The music in this episode is by SoberMinded and awesome rap band featuring our own writer, Alan Noble. Check them out!
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Great topic guys. Can’t wait to listen to this episode.
@ Rich,
You said that you would not send a non-Christian to the church to find authenticity and community, because they won’t find that there, as long as they are a not Christians.
Do you think that this is a fault of churches or just an attribute of being a sinner? Is there a way that non-Christians could be welcomed into a Biblical Church even though they are not Christians?
David, what I had in mind was that the nature of the non-Christian is to want to feel justified in their unrepentant sin, which we both know is not the church’s forte, to say the least.
I do think it’s possible for them to feel “welcomed,” but they certainly won’t feel comfortable being completely “authentic” with those who will tell them they’re sinning over and over.
And since the church, by its nature, is a community of believers, there is no reason non-believers should feel comfortable in their midst. It is hard to find community in that from which one must be excluded.
@David – You ask whether that’s the fault of the church. I’d say it’s God’s gift to the church, that they would be a special people, set apart. After all, what fellowship has darkness with light?
The Dane: yep. That’s pretty much what I was getting at.
I’ll be honest, I only listened to 15 minutes of this one (so I did get to the part to which David was referring). I probably know less about Oprah than you do Rich, so I couldn’t really connect with what you guys were talking about. I know she has a book club and that some of her choices for it in the past were sentimental middlebrow. But that’s it. And she was fat at some point. And Tom Cruise killed her. Or something. But that’s it.
I realize that she’s popular with a particular demographic that isn’t me, but you could tell me that she’s popular because of subliminal advertising and backmasking during her show and I wouldn’t be able to contradict you.
That’s all right, Dane. We forgive you for not being an expert on this issue.
Whew, I was concerned there ^_^
I don’t.
Whew, I was concerned there. See, I crave forgiveness from Ben, but abhor it from Rich. So this works out perfectly for me.
Strangely, listening to this podcast made me want to watch at least one episode of Oprah, just to see what all the hype is about. Don’t know if that’ll actually happen, but the impulse was there.
As a side note, it made me laugh a bit to see Rich’s silly side come out. This is the Rich I know from college. Good times.