I get it. She has the whole you-go-girlfriend cackle and has struggled with her weight like your best friend. She gives away cars and has a school for young girls in Africa -- I get it -- Oprah is great. Like most of America, I am not fighting it -- I've fallen under her spell; more often than not I watch her show at night and yes, I get a subscription to her magazine, ok? But more and more the hate portion of my love-hate relationship with Oprah is cropping up to the surface.

I'm telling you something is not right. Once I started down this road, I thought perhaps it is just the fact that she is as taken with herself as we are. Does she really need to put a gianormous picture of herself on the cover of her magazine EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY MONTH? Does this not bother anyone else? I mean, so wierd, right? Sure I still read the magazine - but I swear I would enjoy it alot more if she shared the covergirl wealth.

I consider myself a smart, independent woman, so on some level -- as a woman -- I have to respect what Oprah has accomplished. And frankly, her power-of-positive-thinking shitck can be quite inspiring, so what is bothering me? But then I saw this.

Even if I could get past the ridiculously melodramatic music and cliches like, "If the shutters are closed, the sunlight cannot come in" and "Life is the dancer and you are the dance" -- which I can't -- this video strikes me as wholly disturbing. This video is a commercial for Christianity without Christ.

Suddenly I'm conflicted. Yes, my humanity is drawn to the self-help propaganda that oozes out of Oprah's every being; maybe something about watching and/or reading her makes me feel powerful, in-control, capable; according to the video, this is because the "power is within me." On some level those messages resonate with me, because I believe that with Christ, all those things are true. But Oprah is not preaching power in Christ, she is preaching a generic spirituality of self, and she has the biggest congregation of all time; the whole world tunes in every afternoon to hear her gospel.

It scares me that she has so much power. It scares me that her brand of "religion" can sneak into the mainstream. It scares me that self-sufficiency is such a resounding message in our culture that it took me this long to come to this realization.

We are called to be in the world and not of it -- and isn't this what it is all about? Asking questions and thinking critically about what we see and hear all around us. Remaining in tune with what we believe and continuing to see the world around us through that lens.

I may watch Oprah from time to time and read her magazine -- and I may even learn some tips and tricks for positive thinking or boosting myself esteem -- but ultimately I know that my hope is in Christ; and thank God, because no matter how much light comes in my shutters I couldn't do it all alone and it would be so exhausting to be chasing that solitary dream.