Mark Sayers ripped it to shreds at the Youthworks’ Youth Ministry Conference this year!! He shared some profound thinking on his analysis of culture and identifying dominant idols that need to be smashed in proclaiming the gospel. He had some fascinating observations on talk-show goddess, Oprah Winfrey, as she arrived in the country.
Here is an article he has linked to on his blog. The author forms a bunch of parallels between Oprah and Australia. Here’s a snippet:
Ouch. There is nothing so unsettling as feeling you are unloved or unaccepted by your own family – but this does go some way to explaining Oprah’s fixation on drawing out the minute details of other people’s lives […] the over-sharing of her own life, and also one of the hallmarks of her enterprise: bestowing gifts on others to gain approval.
And here we are bestowing gifts on Oprah to win her approval. The parallels between Oprah and a country born of a convict past, which oppressed its native inhabitants (guilty!), still suffers the cultural cringe, desperately seeks acknowledgement on the international stage, built on Christian values (calls itself Christian) but who eschews Christ, wants to stand apart from the Mother Country (but secretly harbours a desire to gain its love and approval), and is consumed by a culture of materialism and food obsession, are uncanny.
I’m not sure who’s the more insecure: Oprah or Oz.
I can’t believe the NSW government put a big red “O” on the Harbour Bridge for her…!