I like Oprah. It’s one of the few things I can claim with a whole lot of other folk. Ok, I am an African-American woman…from Chicago; an original subscriber to O Magazine. I do remember when she changed the face of daytime talk shows. Plus, my grandmother didn’t like watching Phil Donahue. (I think you have to watch Donahue to decide you don’t like watching him) Regardless, I like Oprah.
Not an habitual viewer, I never attempted to get tickets to the show. I have watched enough shows to be proven guilty of having television access during the last quarter of a century. Still, I missed most of the grand moments – like Tom Cruise’s jump scene or the opening when Black Eyed Peas got a feeling Chicago could dance. (caught the former through other shows’ recaps, and the latter on YouTube) Like most of the world, I watched her wheel in the wagon of fat and read books on her book club list. Wait, did I say world?
Imagine that. A living African-American female born poor, in the state of Mississippi before the impact of the civil rights movement, is today an international icon. Already a billionaire, Oprah ended her show to take on the networks. Literally, Oprah now has her “own” network. (love that play on words/letters). Oprah is doing to television what Facebook has done to individual expression. (look out Ted Turner) It may still take an African-American woman a few more years to reach the Forbes richest 25 status, but Zuckerberg, Jobs, and the Tea Party have got to envy her influence.
And here’s the rub: with her network, Oprah’s influence has gone (more?) viral. People who have never met Oprah and people whom she will never remember meeting (like me) are able to be influenced by Oprah in almost every arena imaginable. And, somehow this seems more personal than Turner’s TNT. Times, they are a’changing. Turner took over a billboard agency. He made his money advertising other’s work. Oprah rose to the top precisely because of her personality – so fitting in a MySpace era. That’s the beauty of having your own talk show. You steer the conversation by the guests you invite and the questions you ask. So OWN is Oprah’s favorites. Like Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and her best friend Gail, Oprah is sharing with the world her favorites and soon they become our favs too.
She’s demonstrated pretty good taste, too. I don’t share all her beliefs, but as far as choosing entertainment for the early third millennial audience…girlfriend is spot-on! More versatile than BET, Fox, or HGTV, Oprah and Discovery Communications bring parts of her magazine to life, expand her talk show to 24/7, and entertain, educate, and enlarge our lives beyond the computer screen informational format. And with its accompanying website and blog, we can wave the remote and click the keyboard until our hearts content.
I know. Why pick on Oprah? I’m not. Really. Like I said, I like Oprah.. You see, the influences in our lives today are…well…noteworthy. And you can’t get more noteworthy than Oprah. It’s like talking about the free-market with Wal-Mart as your foil; or fiction through the lens of Harry Potter; or politics via the Democratic Party. They provoke thinking, feeling, responding. And all these random thoughts bring me not to criticize Oprah’s influence, but to take note: she has accomplished something the church needs to consider in this open-source media age.
It’s like Oprah is a thermostat determining the temperature rather than a thermometer registering the temperature. When we disagree with her position, we are delighted with her personality. She’s confessed her wrongs and seems to generally live above reproach. Her actions match the convictions she claims. She encourages those that have to give to others so they can have the things that are her favorite. And she while she talks about our intellectual, emotional, material, social, and physical values, she also speaks about spiritual issues.
It’s interesting that when you encounter Oprah, you get Oprah. From her favorite things to her magazine – it’s all O! I’m not so sure the Christian community has been as consistent on what one encounters when we espouse our faith. I mean, think about the last sermon you heard: what do you remember from it that described what God is doing to set the world right that was demonstrated in Jesus to which the church can bear witness to in the power of the Holy Spirit?
I’m curious as to how the church regains a position as an influence to change culture rather than merely an institution following the culture. I wonder if knowing what we value and fostering habits that encourage those values might be a better means of reaching vitality. I wonder whether our gatherings would be populated if our practices demonstrated the presence of God such that others sought to join in corporate worship of the one revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I question if we understand discipleship, evangelism, and righteous living are not options for a Christian influence. Together they are the evident consequences of being Christian.
I’m just saying
(Originally posted on The View from Here www.nextstepevangelism.org 11 April 2011)