I watched in continued amazement last week as Oprah Winfrey hosted a one-hour segment on her network from my hometown, Fairfield, Iowa, which she dubbed “America’s most unusual town.”
In gushing tones, Winfrey spoke as if she had uncovered a hidden gem, a town populated by a couple of thousand transcendental meditators bringing bliss among the rural farmland of the Hawkeye State. The episode contained factual errors, such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi started his university in Fairfield when it actually originated in Santa Barbara, Calif. Maharishi International University purchased the bankrupt Parsons College, where my dad served as campus pastor. Also, Winfrey inexplicably stated that the size of the town increased tenfold after TMers arrived. The population, around 9,000, actually has decreased in the 37 years since the first influx.
But the worst part of the propaganda involved Winfrey repeatedly telling viewers that TM had nothing to do with religion. This seemed especially odd when near the end of the show several hundred Hindu “gurus” were shown collectively chanting. Yet, the spiritually undiscerning Winfrey claimed practicing TM actually enhances a person’s Christian faith. These claims have been disproved in courts. There is ample evidence that TM is at odds with the tenets of Christianity. See an article I wrote more than a decade ago for Christianity Today in which I interviewed various pastors in Fairfield: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2001/january8/11.74.html
In any regard, Winfrey’s show turned out to be a 60-minute commercial promoting TM, including several celebrity endorsements. One of the final scenes revealed Winfrey’s real agenda: she is seen meditating with others in the school’s golden dome for women. Winfrey bragged that she is such a TM advocate she has paid the $2,000 fee for her 270 employees to be indoctrinated.
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