ron martoia :: Blog :: Oprah and Eckhart: What is the Deal?

All the hubbub about Oprah and Eckhart might be a needed wakeup call for the church.  I know I know...there are all sorts of vitrolic videos circulating throughout the internet on youtube that have made their way into the church.  These videos claim she is the antichrist, that Oprah and Eckhart are conducting the first 2 million person global wide trance and a host of other things to make sure we boycott their webcast, his book and her show.  But let's hit the pause button a sec.  Is this the way to engage the conversation?  Is this the way to actually know what the conversation is?  Is this the way for us to be informed as to what 2 million people find so compelling? I hear all sorts of fear, see all sorts of efforts at control, but have yet to meet any of the fearful who have actaully read Tolle's book or watched any of the webcasts....in context, as in watching the whole thing. 

 I think we have a responsibility to read the signs of the times.  To understand where the human text and narrative currently sit within our culture so we have a better understanding what yearnings inside of the public at large are being met by what can be only referred to as a book about spiritual formation.

But most of all in all this we have the responsibility to voice whatever our opinons are from a place of being informed and respectful. We have been called to do ministry in this context, at this time, in this spiritual zone of history.  Let's not squander the opportunity to seize on what some are calling an unprecedented time for spiritual dialogue....and the word there was dialogue...not diatribe.