The Church of Oprah Exposed: Are all religions really the same?

Steve Cornell

Have you seen the YouTube clip about Oprah’s Church? Thousands have been viewing it (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA). No real surprises in her opinions. It’s the old idea that religions are the same and there are many paths that lead to God. She also romanticizes the notion that God can be whatever you want him/her/it to be. She celebrates the full sweep of isms. She blends everything into one big mush of warm fuzzies and group hugs for all! Why do people embrace this stuff? I’ve written about this way of thinking (or, not thinking) before. Here are some of my thoughts:

Are all religions the same?

Do all roads from Chicago lead to Atlanta? Do all religions lead to God? The answer to both questions should be obvious. Yet I am surprised by the number of people who think all religions are basically the same. Many actually think that the religions of the world are simply different paths to the same God. I’ve even heard people say that the names for deities are just different titles for the same God. Are Krishna, Mohammed, and Jesus really identical? Can we equate the Buddha, Allah, and Jehovah? Nothing could be further from the truth!

To think that all religions and their deities are the same is like believing that all roads from Chicago lead to Atlanta. Different religions often have overlapping ideas, but to suggest, for example, that Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, and Christians share the same major beliefs is completely misguided.

It is equally foolish to think that all religions are reliable guides to truth. Some religions deny Jesus’ claim to be God. Others affirm his claim. How can both be right? One claim is false and the other true. The nonsense that suggests religious truth is only a matter of personal feeling and can therefore be contradictory is almost too foolish to comment on. But many have been deceived into believing this foolishness.

A remarkable trend has developed in our nation over the past several decades. We have moved from respect for the diverse and multicultural makeup of society (which is important), to an insistence that all religions representing this diversity be treated as equally true. What drives this idea? Is it fear of the religious imperialism our Founding Fathers rejected? Certainly the alternative should not be a type of tolerance which does not allow true rational debate. This is not what the Fathers had in mind. Why isn’t it possible to maintain each other’s freedom to follow, express, and defend beliefs without considering each belief system equally true? Isn’t it possible to tolerate (as we should) two opposing religious opinions without viewing both as correct?

“In the popular mind open-mindedness is no longer connected with a willingness to consider alternative views but with a dogmatic relativizing of all views. It no longer focuses on the virtues of rational discourse among persons of disparate beliefs, as a means to pursuing the truth, but on the conclusions of the discourse. It reflects massive built-in assumptions about the inadmissibility of any religion claiming a truth status above another religion. It forecloses on open-mindedness in the same breath by which it extols the virtues of open-mindedness. Both the irony and the tragedy of this fierce intolerance stem from the fact that it is done in the name of tolerance. It is fundamentalistic dogmatism in the worst sense.” (D. A. Carson, God and Culture) We may like to believe we are showing respect for others by telling them that their religion is as true as anyone else’s, but this is quite cruel if we are wrong. It could be compared to telling a blind man standing on the edge of a cliff that any way he walks will be equally safe. Why did Jesus speak of a narrow gate that leads to life and a broad road leading to destruction? Why did he say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me” (John 14:6).

Are all religions the same? Does toleration of all religions demand that each be considered equally true? Is it arrogant for one religion to proclaim itself true and others false? The words of Bishop Leslie Newbigin summarize well the Christian concern. “If, in fact, it is true that Almighty God, creator and sustainer of all that exists in heaven and on earth, has — at a known time and place in human history — so humbled himself as to become part of our sinful humanity, and to suffer and die a shameful death to take away our sin, and to rise from the dead as the first-fruit of a new creation, if this is a fact, then to affirm it is not arrogance. To remain quiet about it is treason to our fellow human beings. If it is really true, as it is, that ‘the Son of God loved me and gave himself up for me’, how can I agree that this amazing act of matchless grace should merely become part of a syllabus for the ‘comparative study of religions’?”

Steve Cornell