Yale Professor Believes Oprah Winfrey Is a Religious Icon

By John Mitchell Posted Apr 22nd 2011 11:42AM

Many people joke about Oprah Winfrey's saintly nature, and the Queen of Talk has indeed used her show as something of a pulpit, preaching the importance of "being your best self." So it was only a matter of time before a bona fide brainiac conducted a study to prove what we already know: Oprah is a religious icon.

Yale professor Kathryn Lofton writes in her new book, 'Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon,' that Winfrey's message -- that you don't have to be perfect though you should work toward being the best you can be, which she calls "The Gospel of You" -- is tantamount to a working religion, according to the New York Post.

Lofton claims to have studied the transcripts for nearly every episode of Winfrey's show for the last 12 years -- over 1,560 of them -- as well as 105 issues of O magazine, 17 issues of O at Home, 68 books from Oprah's Book Club and 52 Spirit Newsletters.

She believes that Winfrey utilizes the same rhythmic speech patterns used by southern preachers and employs a sermon-like structure for each show, and that over the years the combination of those things and her message that "your discovery of yourself as the source for change -- in yourself and in the world" is effectively a sort of gospel.

"Gospel is a word that means 'good news,' " Lofton says. "Oprah says that the good news is 'you,'" Lofton told the Post.

Tags: oprah winfrey

Comments

(56)

Friday 22 April

By Hmmm

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Of course it would be an airhead Yale brainiac that would deduce such a ridiculous finding.

By What?!

Just wait till she stabs a hole thru her hands. And she would go ululating senselessly.

Saturday 23 April

By BTDT

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Imbecile, thy name is Yale professor Kathryn Lofton.

By georgie

You have that right. Maybe in her own head she is a reiligeou icon.

By Mike

...among other things. Isn't this cow done yet?

By Larry

Remember, these liberal dunderheads are teaching your children!

By ljan

And this professor probably thinks that Obama is the "Messiah"

By ldchian

oh yes, there's politics in there somewhere.

Sunday 24 April

By lulamaebroadway

Yes, heaven forbid teachers develop in American students critical thinking skills or analytic abilities that allow them to examine and place in context both the content and the methodology behind the single most successful media figure in the last 25 years of our culture

Thinking about stuff sure is dumb!

By PrinceTon

Icon to or for who? Reverend Wright?
Who hires these so called professors?
No wonder college is so expensive, they need to clean out the staff

By dubidoo

A religous icon. Are you kidding me??? Sure, it's easy to be all upbeat and a positive thinker when you've got billions of dollars to buy anything and everything you want!

A religious icon is someone with a loving heart. Have you seen the way she acts when she interviews anyone from the Republican party? She tries to belittle them and she acts superior to them like she is all-knowing and perfect. Makes me want to puke.

By bayleon02

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I can't see Oprah giving up all her worldly goods and moving to a third world country to help the poor but she does give a lot of money to charity. I give her credit for that because some famous people really don't do much to help anybody but themselves. I think Oprah has had a lot of money for long enough that outside of the setting of her show, she has trouble relating to what average people go through. She is the boss and has a staff of people to help her get through the day. The bottom line Oprah is a very successful business woman, the head of a large corporation.

By Pat

Oprah is an good business women. To me one of the most boring TV shows ever. But to say she is an icon, this is surely a joke.

By jim

Yale. Hmmmmmmm. Isn't this the same school that employs the idiot,and obama buddy, skippy gates ??? And I suspect the pig thinks she's an 'icon'. Just ask her.

By Letter 17

GOOD points...and can tell who you voted for!

By Kat Wuman

Oprah has been leading folks astray for a long time with her new age garbage. She is telling folks basically that they are their own god. Good luck with that in the end! I feel for those who are so desperate for anything to cling to, they will fall for this false teaching. If you want to see more about Oprah, check our "The church of oprah" on Youtube. Eye opening for sure!

By Ed

The mor "education" you have the more out of touch with reality you are.

By DK

Apparently. And the by the way, its spelled 'More'.

By Barry Hays

ok guess right now what I am thinking about her,lol......... yeah you got it... and more.lol

By carolyn

To me everybody think she is GOD because she give car's away and trip's and Home's and Gift's every Year. She is trying to make sure that everybody tune in and watch her show instead of watching anything else. Why don't she open a School here in the United States. She help alot of people that was Hit by Hurricane Katrina but she only help people that Lived in New Orleans not the people outside of New Orleans like people who didn't have Insurance on her House and her Roof was Damage and she still liuved in the House when Hurricane Rita came thru and when Hurricane Ike came thru .

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